Monaco's $2BN Expansion into the Sea

Monaco's $2BN Expansion into the Sea Monaco, the richest country in the  world, has a problem. It’s full. The entire country covers an area smaller  than Central Park and with Monaco’s reputation   for glamor and elegance, luxury developments  have literally filled up the entire country. So, in this video, we’re diving into Monaco’s  incredible solution. A $2 billion expansion   that the country is building into the  sea. This is a brand new neighborhood,   built by world renowned architects,  using sustainable construction techniques   and offering the highest possible  quality of luxury to its residents. I’m Regis and this is Mareterra. The Story of Monaco Before we dive into Mareterra itself,   it’s important to understand why Monaco  needs to expand in the first place. To do that, we need to step back  in time for a minute. To the 1800s. At that time, the Principality of Monaco  was a lot bigger than it is today. But with France to the north, Italy  to the East, and Spain not far away,   the Principality had fallen under the rule of  its more powerful neighbours for centuries. That all changed, however, in 1861, when this man,   Prince Charles III, signed the  first Franco-Monégasque Treaty. In it, he basically sold 90% of Monaco’s land   to France. The return - 4 million  gold francs… and full independence. This is a massive simplification but the point  is that Monaco now had the freedom to really   determine its own future. With the slight problem  that they’d just lost most of their territory. And that’s when the Monaco we know today was born. Monaco then used the 4 million gold francs from  France to reinvent itself as a luxury tourist   destination. Focusing on glamorous coastal  resorts and gambling, which was illegal in   France at the time, Monaco began attracting  Europe’s richest elite to its tiny shores. As the years went by, Monaco doubled down on  the strategy. They built casinos and luxury   hotels and opened marinas to cater for the  international yachting community. In 1950,   they featured in the first ever  Formula One World Championship,   which still returns every year  for the Monaco Grand Prix. And with other exclusive events  like the Monaco Yacht Show and   the Monte-Carlo Masters on the calendar, not  to mention the finest restaurants and shops,   the country became a prime destination  for the world’s wealthiest people. To encourage them to stay, Monaco put in  place an extremely lenient tax system. Residents in Monaco pay no tax on personal  income, capital gains or wealth. Corporation   tax is low and property tax is only applied  for rentals. There are, of course, a few   exceptions to the rules, like if you’re a French  national, in which case you do pay income tax. Sounds good, right? Well, for them it is. And their plan worked. Monaco is now the richest country per capita in  the world. It has the highest concentration of   millionaires and an international reputation  as a playground for the rich and famous. Developers have built everywhere they can in  an attempt to meet the demand for high-end   real estate, but the natural geography of the  microstate limits construction massively. Much   of Monaco’s 2km2 is mountainous and  difficult or impossible to build on. Despite the challenges, over 36,000 people  now live in Monaco, making it the most densely   populated country in the world, and that’s only  expected to rise going into the 2030s and 40s. Since, if you want to profit from Monaco’s lenient  tax laws one needs to establish residence in the   country. And an essential requirement for  that is to own or at least rent a property.   Hence it is no surprise that property prices  are currently among the highest in the world. Recent valuations put the average  price of 1m2 at a crazy €50,000. To   put that in perspective, that is  four times higher than in Paris. Anyway, we’re telling you all this to explain one  critical point. Monaco needs to build more luxury   real estate so it can keep attracting high  net worth individuals. That’s what they do. Previous Land Reclamation So the question is, how are they doing it? Well,   the only way they can. By  building out into the ocean. This is something that Monaco’s  been doing for over a century. In the years following the Franco-Monégasque  Treaty that we talked about earlier,   Monaco was already filling in parts of its  coastline to build railways. Since then,   Monaco has grown and grown and grown. Actually,   the country has already increased its territory  by a fifth thanks to land reclamation projects. The biggest of which is the Fontvieille project  of the 1970s. Here, Monaco reclaimed 22 hectares   of land from the sea using a construction method  similar in principle to the one used in Mareterra. Developers first built a 1km dike in the sea  stretching all the way around the perimeter of   the new district. Then they filled the enclosure  with 7 million tonnes of boulders and gravel and   after 10 years they eventually had the foundations  on which they could start laying down buildings. Fontvielle was a massive project  and a success at the same time,   as it is now home to around 10% of the population. But Monaco’s new undertaking, though smaller  in physical size, is much more ambitious. Constructon of Mareterra Which finally brings us to Mareterra itself.   The answer to Monaco’s lack of space  and thirst for high-end real estate. Mareterra is a 6 hectare expansion that fuses  extreme luxury with pioneering sustainable   construction, and it's this combination  that makes Mareterra so ambitious. You see, every centimeter of Mareterra has been   carefully master-planned. And  it starts with the foundations. Based on the principles of marine  eco-design, Mareterra’s underwater   foundations have been designed to encourage  and preserve biodiversity. This kind of   construction is brand new for Monaco and  before a single rock was even put down,   520m2 of sea grass was carefully transplanted to a  new home nearby, preserving its role in the local   ecosystem. 12 separate cleaning operations  took place to care for protected species and   2 artificial reefs were built off shore to  provide new homes for any displaced sealife. With the ground clear, 50m underwater, Mareterra  began to take shape. It started as a wall of 1   and a half million tonnes of gravel. Each rock,  measuring between 2 and 18 cm, was placed on the   seabed with pinpoint accuracy by this ship,  the Simon Stevin, kind of like a 3D printer. It formed a perfectly level foundation that  follows the natural flow of the underwater   currents, putting less pressure  on the foundations and causing   as little disturbance as possible  to marine life in the long-term. With the wall built, 18 of these  especially designed concrete caissons,   each weighing 10,000 tonnes, were  floated in and layed perfectly   on top of the rocks. Installed  from both sides simultaneously,   the engineering was so accurate that the final  piece slotted in with centimetre accuracy. The caissons are weighed down with sand to hold  them in place, but each block also contains hollow   parts to provide new homes for marine life. The multi-textured finish of the caisson   walls encourages algae growth and provides  shelter for fish and molluscs. The idea   being for the natural world to adapt to  the new coastline as easily as possible. As project director Guy  Thomas Levy-Soussan explained: “We brought in leading experts to design  homes for people… But at the same time   we brought in experts to develop reefs and  homes for the surrounding marine life, too.” This is one of the reasons Mareterra stands out  from the other previous land reclamation projects.   Monaco’s newest neighborhood is pitching  itself as an eco-village for the wealthy,   a neighborhood that’s in touch with the  nature surrounding it. In fact, the name   Mareterra itself is actually a combination of the  Italian words for sea - mare - and land - terra. For complicated projects like this one,  people with a huge variety of skills have   to come together. To get these skills, effective  learning techniques can make all the difference.  That's where today's sponsor, Blinkist, comes  in! If you want to broaden your horizons,   Blinkist gives you a summary of the most  important information of over 7,500 non-fiction   books and podcasts in just 15 minutes. Recently, I listened to “Get Better at   Anything” from Scott Young and he breaks it  down into a very simple but powerful concept.  To get better at basically anything,  you have to SEE, DO and SEEK FEEDBACK.  Step 1 involves gaining knowledge. With Blinkist,  you can learn about a wide range of topics,   from biographies of fascinating people  to content about personal development.  With Blinkist, you learn passively by absorbing   information with little effort. Studies  have shown that this helps you progress   much faster when you then get to Step  2 - Put your knowledge into practice.  And finally Step 3 - Seek Feedback. This  is essential for growth. So we are glad to   read your comments.This helps us a lot as  we get new input that we didn't think of.  If you also want to learn new things, join the 31  million Blinkist users. By clicking on our link   in the description or by scanning the QR Code,  you can now get 40% off Blinkist Annual Premium. And the best part is, you can try it  for free for 7 days. So you got enough   to experience how it will impact  your daily life. Give it a try,   and thanks to Blinkist for sponsoring  this video. And now back to Mareterra. With the caisson belt in place, water was drained  out of the enclosure to be replaced by quarry   materials as a base. Buildings started to go down  and at the time of this video, just 9 years since   the underwater construction started, Mareterra is  months away from completion. In fact, the whole   project is 8 months ahead of schedule, something  we have never said on this channel before We’ve got to admit, it’s pretty impressive. Even though construction has been really  quick, the attention to detail has stayed   consistent. And above ground, the focus  on nature as well as luxury has continued. You see, Mareterra is going to be  the greenest district in Monaco. Nearly half of the entire neighborhood will  be green space, with 800 trees and a huge   variety of native Mediterranean plants.  Residential areas will flow into parks,   promenades and plazas, and most of the  parking will be hidden underground,   making Mareterra largely pedestrian. Parts of the  new neighborhood have even been topographically   designed, creating a so-called “valley” where the  public can escape from the city and be in nature. When it’s finished, these public green spaces will  be the defining feature of Mareterra for visitors But hidden amongst them, are the  buildings that ultimately make the   entire project viable. These are some of  the most luxurious residences Monaco has   ever seen, designed by the finest  architects from around the world. Once finished, there’ll be over 100 apartments  and 4 townhouses, as well as 10 villas,   each of which has been uniquely designed  by the buyers and their bespoke architects. Architectural Flagship: Le Renzo But above all, the flagship  architectural piece is this, Le Renzo. Named after its designer, the  Italian architect Renzo Piano,   the residential building is meant  to blend Monaco’s past and present. “Lasting architecture always tells an engaging  story”, Piano told Architectural Digest in 2022.   “A home, for example, is not just a roof or  a shelter. Rather, it’s a dialogue between   those who live there now and the moments  that shaped the land before they arrived” He’s talking about Monaco's  history as a sleepy fishing   village. Le Renzo is supposed to  look like a giant sailing boat,   propped up on stilts to seem like it's floating  and so as not to block the view of the ocean. Inside, the apartments all  stretch through the building,   meaning residents have views of the  ocean on one side and the city on the   other. The smallest apartments are a crazy  370m2, meaning there are only 2 per floor,   but that hasn’t stopped some people buying  adjacent units to combine into even bigger homes. The photos look insane but they  don’t tell the whole story. Le Renzo is also sticking to Mareterra’s  ecological goals. In keeping with the   eco-design, the entire building  is heated and cooled by seawater. It uses a state-of-the-art energy conversion  system known as a “thalasso-thermal loop”   to control its temperature and heat its pool. The   system “transforms the thermal energy of  the sea into heat or air conditioning”. It’s pretty complicated but basically seawater  is pumped into the building, passed through   heat pumps which convert its thermal energy  into heating and air conditioning. Then it   is returned to the ocean with no adverse  effects on marine life or water quality. The crazy thing is that this system isn’t just   limited to Le Renzo. It’s actually part of a  bigger installation that will heat and cool   all the properties in Mareterra and even  extend into the neighboring Larvotto   district. The designers go as far as to  claim that this system alone will reduce   Monaco’s greenhouse gas emissions by 7%! Sounds  good, but right now that's just a prediction. This isn’t the first time a system  like this has been used in Monaco,   but Mareterra has been custom designed  with the thalasso-thermal loop in mind,   making it much more efficient than  retrofitting it to older buildings. So what will Mareterra cost? What will Mareterra cost? As you might have guessed, all the properties  in Mareterra have been sold out for months.   The exact cost has been kept quiet but resale  prices are already coming in at 100,000€/m2. At that price, Mareterra takes the title  of most expensive real estate in the   world. Putting the cost of the smallest  apartments in Le Renzo at $37 million and   the 3000m2 villas as high as €300 million! The prices are crazy, but that’s what Mareterra  is going for. Insane levels of luxury. And   considering every property was sold before they  were even finished, it seems like it's working. The reality is that the value of residential  real estate in Monaco has risen by 60% over the   last decade. Investors see an opportunity, as  well as a status symbol. As do the developers. Who is backing it? Which brings us to our last  point - Who’s backing it? But before that, we want to thank you for  your continued support here on MegaBuilds.   If you enjoy these videos, make sure to  subscribe. This helps us a lot! Thank you. Mareterra is a response to Monaco’s need for  land but also the business interests of those   behind the project. The entire $2 billion budget  comes from 9 exceptionally wealthy families,   3 from Monaco and 6 from other European  countries. Every new resident in Mareterra   has been personally approved by the project  directors, showing just how exclusive the   new neighborhood is but also how much  power the developers have in its final   image. Mareterra is a necessity but that's  because it’s mainly a business opportunity. And whilst Mareterra is being very vocal  about its environmental credentials,   it might also be fair to say that the most  ecologically responsible decision would simply   have been to never build the district in the first  place. We’re not judging one way or the other,   and we haven’t seen any extensive  assessments of the whole project,   but it’s just important to point out  that there are two sides to the coin. One thing’s for sure though. Mareterra  cements Monaco’s position as the pinnacle   of luxury. It provides much needed  land and accommodation as well as   investment opportunities for the  country’s ultra-rich clientele. But what do you think? Are the apartments worth   the crazy price tag? Let us  know down in the comments. We’ll be back next week with  another video. So until then,   thanks for watching and see you in the next one.