How the world’s richest nation is solving its housing crisis
The near-completed Mareterra district will be the equivalent of tacking another Devon-sized county on to the British coast - Mareterra
Tristan Rutherford
6 min read
Solving a housing crisis in the world’s richest nation per capita doesn’t come cheap.
Apartments in Monaco routinely sell for €5,000 (￡4,230) per sq ft; a studio apartment will easily go for €2m.
Prices have risen by 40pc in a decade to set new records across the principality in what was already the world’s priciest nation, with more incomers eyeing up opportunities.
And residents of the world’s most densely populated country, including Sir Lewis Hamilton and Dame Shirley Bassey, demand the best.
The solution is to spend €2bn reclaiming land from the Mediterranean Sea. This new seafront suburb will enlarge the world’s second-smallest country – similar in size to London’s Hyde Park – by 3pc.
That is the equivalent of tacking another Devon-sized county on to the British coast.
The near-completed Mareterra district will have a yacht marina, a seawater swimming pool, parks and 130 apartments in towers designed by the likes of “starchitect” Renzo Piano.
All this is being delivered six months early, later this year.
The Mareterra district will have a yacht marina, a seawater swimming pool, parks and 130 apartments - Mareterra
Construction began in 2018 when 18 concrete caissons, or pillars, were shipped in from Marseille.
The following year a giant metal skirt was stretched between the caissons to hem in 15 acres of seabed. Saltwater was pumped out. Then the space was backfilled with a specific limestone aggregate that was quarried near the pretty Provence town of Chateauneuf-les-Martigues.
Finally, Italian sand was sprayed on top to magically create the world’s most expensive real estate from the Mediterranean.
Pleasing the ‘Green Prince’
The biggest challenge?
“This is a project of His Serene Highness Prince Albert II,” who is a committed environmentalist, says project manager Guy Thomas Levy-Soussan.“For him to take a decision to expand his territory on the sea was not light.”
Marine impact was mitigated at every turn. Experts like world champion freediver Pierre Frolla helped replant an entire meadow of Poseidon grass and relocated rare giant clams.
Reclaiming land in the principality is nothing new. Prince Albert’s father, Rainier III, nicknamed “the Builder Prince”, added 20pc to Monaco’s landmass during his reign, including the Fontvieille port and Larvotto beach neighbourhoods, changing the layout of the Formula One street circuit.
Those zones remain glitzy. Larvotto Beach, also designed by Renzo Piano, hosts beach bars like Miami Plage, where a plate of sole meunière costs €78.
In Fontvieille, you can shop for a Boeing-made jet or a ￡250m superyacht.
From Fontvieille helipad, a scheduled chopper runs a service to Nice every 30 minutes. The journey (€195) takes seven minutes with no red lights.
Beneath the frothing glamour lies a friendly English-speaking village.
As a journalist in the noughties, I used to eat breakfast in the same humble café as Sir Roger Moore; 007’s habitual order was “an omelette, two eggs”.
'The Builder Prince' added 20pc to Monaco's landmass during his reign, including the Fontvieille port - Pola Damonte via Getty Images/Moment RF
“The Green Prince” Albert presides over a nation where quality of life tops the wishlist of his 35,000 subjects. Many Monégasques, two-thirds of whom are millionaires, navigate the principality by the public electric boat, communal eBikes and shared Renault Twizys while others walk.
A leisurely stroll across the entire nation takes under an hour and the world’s oldest nation by median age boasts a network of discreet elevators and escalators to help minted seniors along.
An environmental ethos is reflected in Mareterra’s cycle lanes, rooftop solar panels and rainwater recycling units.
“It was never conceived as a gated community,” says Desvigne. “It is a public space accessible anytime by anybody.”
That includes a new piazza with a restored Alexander Calder mega-sculpture.
Desvigne has made Monaco’s two-kilometre-long seafront a pedestrian dream. Imagine Mareterra as a Mediterranean park (with some seriously fancy villas cached within) that occupies almost half the principality’s waterfront.
The new suburb seamlessly connects the public beach of Plage Larvotto (which will receive a facelift) with Casino Square, the latter working like an al fresco showroom for Lamborghinis and Bugattis.
Amblers can choose between the Mareterra’s sun-kissed coastal promenade where superyachts cruise past, or La Vallée for shaded strolls under Aleppo pines.
Desvigne has made Monaco's two-kilometre-long seafront a pedestrian dream - Mareterra
‘It’s like living in a sunny London’
Who will buy into Europe’s newest and most eco-chic neighbourhood?
British Monaco-based estate agent Caroline Olds says British buyers make up half of her agency’s clients. “It’s like living in a sunny London,” she says, adding that politics is a key driver for those making the move.
“London has long been attractive for families with large fortunes, but with the non-dom changes many will leave.”
She predicts that “lower interest rates and sexy new buildings” will tempt more buyers to Monaco in 2025. “Not just British but international folk currently based in London from all over the world,” she said.
Those “sexy new buildings” include Bay House, a twisting helix of two 25-storey skyscrapers near Mareterra.
The complex comprises 54 apartments and five villas, each featuring state-of-the-art automated systems that manage lighting, shading and temperature. A three-bedroom apartment will go for €22 to 25m.
An equally classy rental option is One Monte Carlo.
The 37 apartments include triplex penthouses with private pools and roof terraces that rent for up to €250,000 per month.
It’s located in Monaco’s Carré d’Or, the golden square that contains branches of Dior and the Casino de Monte-Carlo (Casino entrance is forbidden to Monagasque passport holders; the principality doesn’t want its own cash cow to milk locals, too).
Most apartments in the new Mareterra buildings have already been sold. Sources claim that prices per square foot topped €12,000, over 10 times the London average.
Two out of three Monaco residents are millionaires - Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Glamour is not top of every buyers’ shopping list.
“Buyers in Monaco are at a stage where they have enough money and need to safeguard it,” says Olds. “Monaco is not a huge income-generating city like London, where people spend huge salaries and bonuses with wild abandon.”
Showing off is considered arriviste.
“Visitors do show off and we love them spending money,” adds Olds, “but residents are far beyond that stage”.
Safety is the other business driver. Monaco employs more police per capita than anywhere else. Drop your Patek Philippe and it will be spotted by one of the more than 1,000 CCTV cameras – and swiftly returned.
Bankers are sworn to secrecy. Chuggers are an unknown concept.
One question remains: can Monaco expand again? It’s technically possible to build further out into the sea, but it all depends on environmental planning, says Levy-Soussan.
“But this new district will prove that we can construct on water in a sustainable way.”
Surely the principality can pay for further expansion by selling villas costing tens of million on top?
Levy-Soussan is cautious: “This project carries no public loans or debt,” he explains. “Mareterra’s value is to announce Monaco’s attractiveness to the world.”