A much smaller bunker currently on sale in Norfolk received 200 enquiries in three days. The owner of one-such bunker – based in rural Essex and reportedly one of the largest in the country – recently told the Daily Telegraph that, despite operating the bunker as a tourist attraction, he was increasingly receiving emails from individuals looking for something longer term. With the British countryside home to hundreds of semi-abandoned nuclear bunkers – many intended to house members of the Royal Observer Corps in the event of war – there’s been a similar clamour for disaster insurance on this side of the Atlantic too. Now it’s paying off – at least in a business sense.Īnyone tempted to dismiss the bunker rush as American eccentricity should think twice. Indeed Hall claims to have invested $20m of his own money in Survival Condo: including purchasing military-grade air filtration units (designed to supply the structure with de-radiated oxygen after the initial blast), destruction-proof geothermal wells, and numerous backup systems to provide power. While the project has evidently been lucrative, it has required plenty of investment. When all the apartments are sold, the condo will be home to 57 different owners paying an annual ground-rent: essentially a timeshare arrangement for the apocalypse. Half-floor apartments typically fetch $1.5m, while the jewel in Hall’s crown – a two-level, 3600 sq ft penthouse – went for $4.5m. The structure was built to withstand a blast 100 times stronger than Nagasaki.Īncient worms and the problem with climate politicsĪs you might expect, a suite at the Survival Condo isn’t cheap. Self-confessed prepper Larry Hall has spent much of the past two decades turning a decommissioned missile silo in central Kansas into the Survival Condo: a cross between a nuclear shelter and a luxury hotel. If you don’t have space for your own bunker – or would rather shelter down amongst like-mined survivalists – there are other options. Of the five units sold last month, the largest fetched $240,000. Made from long-lasting plate steel, their bunkers are designed to be buried under the average American yard.
Over in Texas – already home to a vibrant culture of ‘preppers’ who spend their time planning for every shade of apocalypse – one creator of custom shelters, Rising S Bunkers, says it’s had a 700pc increase in interest in the last month.
As the spectre of nuclear war returns so does another very modern phenomenon: a spike in interest amongst the paranoid rich seeking to procure their own nuclear bunker.
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