Monaco Remains The Kingdom Of Luxury Real Estate

Mare Terra, inaugurated on December 4, was created by a team of exceptional international architects, including Italy's Renzo Piano - who has designed several new landmark buildings in Monaco - Norman Foster, Stefano Boeri and Japan's Tadao Ando, who won the Pritzker Prize in 1995. The district is an extension of the Monegasque territory on the sea and has enabled the micro-state to enlarge its territory of barely two square kilometres by 6 hectares. The cost of the project is estimated at two billion euros.

The new district includes ten luxury villas and 110 flats, all benefiting from a heating and air-conditioning system using seawater. There are also almost 4,000 square metres dedicated to commercial activities and a marina for the yachts of the residents of the new complex.

The project was financed by a consortium of ten Monegasque families and supported by Prince Albert. The Monegasque government expects to recover around €550 million in VAT on the sale of the real estate units.
Monaco continues to attract new ultra-rich people every year and can boast a GDP of 8 billion euros, which is exceptional for such a small state. Several factors facilitate the arrival of the wealthiest, in particular the granting of long-term visas, highly advantageous legal and tax frameworks, and the presence of highly reputed family offices.

The Principality has an institutional ‘Attractiveness Unit’ headed by Frederic Genta, whose aim is to attract new investors. This unit includes Monaco Private Label, a highly exclusive club with 2,250 members from the world's business elite. In the Principality, finance and insurance activities contribute 17.6% of GDP, accounting for almost 4,500 of the microstate's 60,000-plus jobs.

However, the horizon is unclear: suspicions of illicit financial activities have been hanging over the Rock for years. This year, the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), the intergovernmental anti-money laundering body, placed Monaco on a grey list, citing a “lack of efforts to combat money laundering and tax fraud committed abroad.”

The Rock affirmed its willingness to collaborate with this institution and Moneyval (a permanent monitoring body of the Council of Europe responsible for assessing compliance with the main international standards in the fight against money laundering) to combat these abuses more effectively.

The first significant progress under this agreement should be made by 2026.