Monaco has unveiled the world’s most expensive real estate development with $200million homes and apartments priced at $100,000 per square metre.
The opening of the Mareterra development at Anse du Portier in Monaco was celebrated with concerts, fireworks and a drone display on Wednesday.
Mareterra is built on six hectares of land reclaimed from the sea. It includes four villas valued at $200million each as well as 100 flats reportedly valued at more than $100,000 per square metre.
In comparison, the priciest areas in Paris cost about $15,000 per square metre.
In Monaco, where the highest proportion of billionaires in the world live, the high prices are still considered extraordinary.
But most of the penthouses, townhouses and villas have reportedly been bought already.
‘It has been a big commercial success,’ Guy Thomas Levy-Soussan, administrator of the consortium that built Mareterra at an estimated cost of $2.1billion, told the Times.
Prince Albert of Monaco attended the inauguration of the new development and highlighted the environmental credentials of Mareterra.
Mareterra built on six hectares of land reclaimed from the sea. It includes four villas valued at $200million each as well as 100 flats reportedly valued at more than $100,000 per square metre
There are several luxurious apartments built on Mareterra, like the ones pictured above
Prince Albert II of Monaco (centre) cuts the ribbon next to Princess Charlene of Monaco (left) and Prince Jacques (centre) during the inauguration of the new ‘Mareterra’ district in Monaco, on December 4, 2024
Monaco only has about 39,000 residents living on just 208 hectares, after France grabbed 95 per cent of Monaco’s land in return for backing its sovereignty in 1861.
Estate agents said that his was hardly enough to cover the wealthy people wanting to move to Monaco, who are drawn to the small country due to no income tax and low crime rates.
To make space for future residents, officials say they can only either build upwards in the form of skyscrapers or out by expanding into the sea.
The country has already expanded about 60 hectares into the Mediterranean over the past century, but officials said Mareterra was an initiative like no other.
‘Mareterra is a largely pedestrianised district that encompasses a lushly planted park, an elegant waterfront promenade, a small port, underground parking and both residential and retail offerings,’ the advertising brochure states.
Promoters have described Mareterra as an ‘eco-district’ which prioritises ‘a number of measures pertaining to the ecosystem, sustainability and responsible development of the site’.
One of these measures is the relocation of a marine plant called posidonia, 500 square metres of which were moved to another part of the sea to avoid its destruction, and a coral reef was protected.
But a marine biologist at a university in Nice, Alexandre Meinesz, told Liberation newspaper that the marine biodiversity had been ‘massacred’.
This picture taken on November 07, 2019 shows what the area looked like before Mareterra was constructed
This photograph taken on November 14, 2024 shows Mareterra at Anse du Portier in Monaco in its finishing stages
Prince Albert II of Monaco (right) attends with Princess Charlene of Monaco (left), Princess Gabriella (centre-right) and Prince Jacques the inauguration of the ‘Place Princesse Gabriella’ in the new ‘Mareterra’ district in Monaco, on December 4, 2024
General views of the future extension known as the ‘Anse du Portier’ or ‘Mareterra’
Prince Albert of Monaco attended the inauguration of the new development and highlighted the environmental credentials of Mareterra
Prince Albert, whose reign has been tarnished by rumours of marital discord and corruption, did not let the criticism deter him from celebrating the new development.
Also in attendance were his two children and his Zimbabwean-born wife Princess Charlene, who spent almost a year away from Albert in South Africa during 2021, allegedly for health reasons, which sparked rumours that their marriage was on the rocks.
Albert was also accused of real-estate corruption by Les Dossiers du Rocher, a website set up anonymously.
The accusations were linked to the palace due to hacked emails between Albert’s advisers.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
