Hyper-wealthy Monaco is trying to fix its mansion shortage with a £1.2 billion reclaimed land project

LONDON — Builders have begun to construct a £1.2 billion scheme in Monaco which will see new mansions, apartments, and casinos built on six hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, according to a report in the Guardian.

Spending such a big sum on a small site would make no financial sense in most places, but house prices in the sovereign city-state are hyper-inflated, and there is high demand for new homes in a region only slightly bigger than London’s Regent’s Park.

Here’s where the land will be built:

“Le Portier” is aKnight Frank

The country has in fact been building into the sea for years. The entire district of Fontvieille (pictured above) was also constructed reclaimed land in the 1970s, and reigning monarch Prince Albert II approved the new Portier Cove ecological neighbourhood in a bid to keep attracting the world’s richest people.

Estate agents Knight Frank say house prices in Monaco are the highest in the world, at an average £47,000 (€53,000) per square metre, although that figure rises beyond £89,000 (€100,000) in super-prime areas such as Monte Carlo’s Carre d’Or. Luxury apartments in the new Portier development are also expected to sell for over €100,000 per square metre.

Knight Frank also say the principality will be home to 16,100 millionaires and 1,450 ultra high net worth individuals — those with assets worth over $30 million — by 2026. Its current population is just 37,550, 35% of whom are millionaires.

Knight Frank

Watch how construction firm Bouygues plans to build the scheme below: