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The most expensive plot in Europe - 13 February 2007

As if buying property in Monaco wasn’t already expensive enough, new plans to increase the land area of the world’s second-smallest independent country - after the Vatican - are likely to make it substantially richer. The audacious plan to extend the territory of the tax haven will see it extend in the only direction left to it (barring a partial invasion of France) – the Mediterranean.

The plan, backed by ruler Prince Albert II, is to create an ‘offshore’ district over a period of ten years, to include shops, yacht moorings and a staggering £2.5billion of luxury homes, reported the Sunday Telegraph. No doubt the prices of these new homes will be pure fantasy to the majority of us mere mortals, but to the most densely-populated country in the world, and the one with the most millionaires, these new properties are as much within financial reach of the residents as they are necessary to the future of the principality.

The likely prices of the properties in this new district are not the only extraordinary thing about the project. Unlike other projects to extend the land area of a country, notably in Dubai, the new quartier will not be made up of land reclaimed from the sea. In order to protect the marine environment below the azure surface of the Mediterranean, the extension to Monaco will float on the water’s surface.

Prince Albert, a devout environmentalist, has insisted that marine life should not be disturbed by the project. Thus, the 25-acre extension to the land surface will be built using techniques adapted from the decidedly unglamorous offshore oil drilling industry. At present, five international consortia are bidding to win the contract for the project.

Space has always been at a premium in Monaco, a problem which was exacerbated by the fact that it gave away half of its land area to France in 1861, in a deal to gain cash and independence. Therefore, any new land is almost invaluable to the urban planners who have for years only had the option of vertical extension to the cityscape.

This is unlikely to dent Monaco’s newly-acquired status of the most expensive place to live in Europe. According to the Global Property Guide, the principality is ahead of London as the most expensive place to buy in Europe, with apartments costing on average €24,900 per square metre. As the project for the new floating district is likely to cost several billions of pounds, don’t expect to see any bijoux pieds-a-terre for £100,000 coming onto the market…

 

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