Zuckerberg buys up a large slice of island paradise

Facebook president and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured with his wife, Priscilla Chan, has bought land in Hawaii. Photo / AP

Mark Zuckerberg has paid more than US$100 million ($127.7 million) for a swathe of land in Hawaii where he will create a private getaway befitting one of the world's richest men.

The Facebook chief executive bought part of Kauai, the fourth largest of the Hawaiian islands, Forbes magazine reported.

His 280ha on the north shore will include a pristine white sand beach, a former sugarcane plantation and an organic farm. However, the beach will have to remain open to the public as Hawaii has no private stretches of sand by law.

With unspoilt landscapes, Kauai, known as the "Garden Isle", has featured in more than 100 films, including Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Thorn Birds.

In the 2011 film The Descendants, George Clooney played a Hawaii-based lawyer who wrestles with whether to sell a large tract of his land on Kauai to developers.

The island has been a favoured getaway for Zuckerberg, 30, who was spotted there last year with his wife, Priscilla Chan. They ate at a favourite local restaurant called Bubba Burgers and were spotted surfing.

Zuckerberg is believed to have already bought several multimillion-dollar flats in Hawaii. His latest purchase includes a 144ha plantation, including around 790m of land that stretches along the sea front. According to Pacific Business News, it was put up for sale in August with a price tag of US$70 million along with planning approval for the construction of up to 80 houses.

The second purchase is a 140ha section of land next to Pila'a Beach, which was sold for US$49.8 million according to an analysis of property records by Forbes magazine.

The new owner has permission to build five homes on the land, but Zuckerberg is not believed to want to develop it. He reportedly plans to build a home for himself and his family, and use the rest of the space to secure his privacy.

He will have one neighbour, a Denver-based businessman who still owns a 10 per cent section of one of the parcels of land Zuckerberg bought.

Mr Zuckerberg, who is worth around US$33 billion, is the second Silicon Valley billionaire to buy up part of Hawaii recently.

Last year, Larry Ellison, the chairman of Oracle, the computer technology corporation, purchased the whole of Lanai, Hawaii's sixth largest island, for up to US$600 million.

The Hawaii purchase is Mr Zuckerberg's latest leap up the property ladder.

In 2010 he was renting a modest property near Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

The following year he upgraded to a US$7 million, 465sq m residence in Palo Alto, California,

The businessman then spent US$30 million buying four homes adjoining his own property in Palo Alto to fend off a developer who was going to purchase them and market them to potential buyers as being "next door to Mark Zuckerberg".