Monaco - still in pole position

After several years of limited supply, Monaco’s new-build offer is expanding and with it, the gulf between resale and new home prices.

Monaco Insight

For a principality no larger than two square kilometres – smaller than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens combined – Monaco, home to 12,200 millionaires, punches well above its weight.

Offering privacy and security – in a climate of increased geopolitical tension – as well as a benign tax regime, it comes as no surprise that its population of wealthy individuals (those with net assets of US$30m+) has increased by 62% in the decade to 2015.

Pricing

Due to high demand and limited supply, prices have, aside from a marginal dip in 2012, largely moved in one direction since 2010. Average prices have increased by 27.8% in the last five years according to the Monaco Statistics office, but what stands out is the widening gulf between the price of new and resale properties.

Data from 2015 shows the average price of a resale property stood at €3.5m, whilst the average price of the 38 new-build apartments sold in 2015 was closer to €11.9m.

This appetite for new product and modern specifications means buyers – both owner occupiers and investors – are more likely to refurbish an older property compared to properties just across the border in France and Italy.

Rental market

Rental demand is also strong. Residency is conferred on those who rent as well as buy in Monaco, provided the tenant occupies an appropriate size property, for example a minimum of a two bedroom property for a family of four. Families will often rent close to the International School of Monaco in La Condamine before deciding where to buy.

New supply

Monaco’s constrained supply pipeline improved in 2015 when 195 new apartments housed within three new prime developments (Tour Odéon, Le Meridien and Le Petitie Afrique) came to the market.

The next single largest contribution to housing stock will be the delivery of Testimonio II, which will provide some 150 apartments. It will be built by the Marzocco’s, the developers responsible for Tour Odéon which provided a new high level of finish and amenities unseen in a large scale development in recent years.

Buyer profile

Monaco’s buyer profile is shifting. Not only is the age of buyers lower than it was a decade ago, but the nationality of buyers can increasingly be defined according to their purchasing power. Below €10m British, Italians, Swiss and northern European buyers have been active in the last year. Above €10m, Russian buyers, previously absent, are house-hunting once more, joined by Middle Eastern and Chinese buyers.

Sales activity in 2015 was focused at the lower end of the market. Of the 509 resales properties that changed hands in 2015, 423, or 83%, were priced below €5m.