In 1978, a 28-year-old Richard Branson bought Necker Island — which had no fresh water source at the time — for roughly $180,000, after an earlier attempt to buy a different island fell through and the seller offered him this one instead.
At the time, most people in his position would have called it a bad deal.
Branson has since poured tens of millions into transforming it into a legendary retreat that now rents for over $80,000 a night.
Arguably the single greatest return-on-investment real estate flex among every entry on this list — the cheapest buy-in, the biggest empire.
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