Monaco Reclaims Land Equivalent to 3% of Territory
Construction Entrusted Only to Design of Ultra-Luxury Buildings and Villas
Minimum 140 Million KRW per Square Meter (㎡)
Monaco, known as a representative European tax haven and a "billionaire's paradise," has completed a large-scale land reclamation project covering 3% of its territory to build a "city of the rich." The new residential district will be used as real estate for shopping centers catering to the wealthy.
On the 4th (local time), US CNN highlighted Monaco's ambitious so-called "eco-district" project. The plan is to reclaim land equivalent to 3% of Monaco's entire territory to create a large-scale residential area for the wealthy.
Monaco is the second smallest country in the world. Its territory is only 208 hectares (ha, 629,200 pyeong), much smaller than Yeouido (about 2.5 million pyeong). The total population is about 36,000, and 7 out of 10 Monaco citizens are millionaires. The land reclamation project aimed to expand the territory by 3% to secure more residential areas.
Half of the newly expanded artificial land was allocated to parks, bicycle paths, docks, shopping facilities, and 1,000 trees. The remaining land was used to build 100 high-rise apartments and 10 ultra-luxury villas.
The reclamation project was announced in 2013. Since then, the Monaco authorities built a fence around the sea, drained the water, and filled the area with 750,000 tons of sand to create land.
Famous architects from around the world were invited to design ultra-luxury apartments and villas on the reclaimed land. Although the prices of the completed homes have not yet been disclosed, CNN cited data from the UK asset advisory firm Knight Frank, predicting that real estate in the area will be traded at around 100,000 euros (about 148 million KRW) per square meter (㎡). This means it costs at least about 450 million KRW per pyeong.
Monaco has always been a country with a shortage of land. For this reason, the reclamation project was a civil engineering project that the Monaco government pursued with its life at stake. The land expanded by reclamation now accounts for more than 25% of Monaco's entire territory, with the most important reclamation projects taking place in the 1960s and 1970s.
However, Monaco's large-scale reclamation project has raised concerns among some environmental activists. Currently, 60 species of coral ecosystems have formed on the seabed near Monaco, and the reclamation project inevitably destroys these ecosystems. Albert II, Prince of Monaco, is also reported to be cautious about indiscriminate reclamation due to concerns about marine ecosystem destruction.
The reason this reclamation project is special is that it introduced very stringent environmental protection measures. Maretterra, the company responsible for the construction of the reclamation project, told CNN that "various measures to minimize the impact on the natural ecosystem" were implemented in the project. In particular, they consulted with numerous marine experts and created a new habitat for marine life by laying the world's first "artificial seagrass bed."
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