What can €3 million get you in the prime global property market?

While the high-end property market may attract a certain type of buyer wherever you are in the world, the property you can secure differs greatly from one market to the next.
High-net-worth mortgage broker Enness Global has taken a look at what €3 million can get you in the global property market across 24 cities, based on the current value of property per square metre.
If space is your primary concern, Cape Town is the place to buy. The city is home to an average property price of €2,489 per square metre (sqm) and for €3 million, you can secure 1,330 sqm of luxury real estate. It is the best value nation in terms of the size of home to money spent.
Dubai has become a popular choice for the super-rich in recent years and at €5,437 per sqm, you can purchase a property spanning 609 sqm.
Madrid is the most affordable in Europe, with €3 million buying you a 474 sqm home, while Bangkok (408 sqm) and Lisbon (386 sqm) also rank in the top five.
Miami, Amsterdam, Berlin, Mumbai and Moscow, also offer considerable value for money, with the cost per sqm meaning you can secure a property of 300 sqm or more for a €3m investment.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Monaco remains one of the most exclusive markets where the price paid and space secure is concerned. At €49,588 per sqm, a €3 million investment will secure you an apartment-sized property of just 67 sqm.
Hong Kong isn’t far behind with €3 million securing just 77 sqm of bricks and mortar at a cost of €43,085 per sqm.
New York (137 sqm), Tokyo (153 sqm) and Geneva (171 sqm) are also amongst some of the most prestigious global property markets, with the property cost per square metre ranging between €24,184 and €19,409.
At €17,783 per sqm, London ranks just outside the top five, with a budget of €3 million securing you an apartment-sized property of just 186 square metres in size.
In Shanghai, Paris, Sydney, San Francisco, Seoul and Singapore, a budget of €3 million would also only buy you a property of 230 sqm or less.
“An air of exclusivity and reduced availability of space has seen property prices in the global playgrounds of the super-rich explode in recent years,” said Managing Director of Enness Global Mortgages, Hugh Wade-Jones. As a result, those looking for a certain size of home are required to pay a considerable sum for the pleasure.”
He added: “We’ve seen this here in Monaco more so than anywhere else in the world with property prices carrying a huge premium for what can be a pretty average-sized home. Despite this, demand from high-end buyers is yet to waver and Monaco, along with the likes of Hong Kong, New York and London, remain very desirable markets for homebuyers with the financial CV to apply.”
 
Photo: Madrid, source Pixabay
 
 

The story behind exceptional new coin exhibit

The Museum of Stamps and Coins of Monaco will be hosting an exhibition of rare and beautiful old coins from the Levant, replete with archival documents and works from the period.

From 22nd to 25th October, the Museum of Stamps and Coins of Monaco will display coins used for trade during the time of Monegasque Princes Honoré II, who reigned from 1604 to 1662, and his grandson Louis I, who reigned from 1662 to 1701. The two leaders opened up trade and commercial development with the Ottoman Empire, then called the Levant and now reduced to modern day Turkey, and these coins are some of the remnants of that successful time.

The story behind the coins is fascinating and hinges upon the beautiful Princess of Dombes, a first cousin of both Honoré II and the French King Louis XIV. The French Minister of Finance at the time was one Nicholas Fouquet. He suggested they use an image of the Princess on coins used for monetary transactions with other nations, notably those in the Levant.

When the Turks saw these coins, they were so infatuated that they overvalued them and paid up to two times their issue value, thus making them a commodity. As a result, when Honoré II’s grandson Louis I took over, he devised a scheme with the Genoese and Tuscan lords of the Ligurian Coast to mint millions of small silver coins, lesser in cost but similarly with the Princess’s image and called luigini. These “knockoffs” were then highly circulated, making the creators a tremendous amount of money. The Ottomans finally cottoned on and banned the circulation of these poor quality coins in 1669-70.

To see these pieces of history in real life, visit the Museum of Stamps and Coins of Monaco located at the Terraces of Fontvieille The doors are open from 9.30am to 5pm.

 
Photo: ‘The Phoenix’ of Honoré II, two known copies, struck for the Levant, thought to be made for the marriage of the future Louis I. Museum of Stamps and Coins and Cabinet of Medals in Marseille.
 
 

Photographer captures life in a Covid world

A new exhibit by French photographer Charles Fréger features the people of Monaco going about their everyday lives in the age of social distancing.
The new exhibition, organised and produced by the Cultural Affairs Department, presents photographer Charles Fréger’s look at post-confinement Monaco.
The artist examined the different communities and groups that make up the country’s identity. He filmed workers, athletes, people at school and artists going about their days in this new era of social distancing, choosing moving images as way to highlight the times and creating greater proximity between the subjects and the audience.
“The monumental portraits projected on a linear wall of 26 metres, relate, for the first time in the work of Charles Fréger, more to the installation than the exhibition of photographs,” says the event’s curator, Björn Dahlström.
Fréger is known for his take on folk rituals and traditions across cultures and has been featured in many publications such as National Geographic. He also has several books including Wilder Mann, Parade: The Painted Elephants of Jaipur, Spirits of Japan and Potraits in Lace: Breton Women.
The exhibition is free and runs every Tuesday to Sunday until 3rd January 2021 from 1pm to 7pm at the Salle d’Exposition, Quai Antoine-Ier.
 
Photo © Communication Department / Manuel Vitali
 
 
 

Pandemic fatigue and mental health

It’s official. Many of us are suffering from “pandemic fatigue”. So how do we stay mentally healthy during a crisis for which there seems no end in sight?
According to the World Health Organisation, up to 60% of Europeans are apathetic, exhausted and stressed. Apparently, we are becoming increasingly frustrated with government restrictions and growing resistant to changing Covid-19 protocols. It seems we want our lives back.
Now we have a label for our angst – ‘pandemic fatigue’. Does anyone feel better yet? Me neither. As if the new diagnosis wasn’t enough, it seems we cannot turn around without more dire warnings.
A second mental health crisis is waiting around the corner, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) this month. It says we can expect increased deaths from suicide and drug overdoses.
How can we possibly navigate our way through this crisis for which there seems no end in sight? As a psychotherapist, I am particularly interested in how we can stay mentally healthy.
Acknowledge the crisis
A client who recently lost their job and their relationship as a result of the pandemic said to me “It’s not that bad. I guess it could be worse. There are starving children somewhere.”
I replied: “Actually, it sounds pretty awful to me. And what have starving children got to do with the fact that your life is a mess?”
Admittedly I am a straight-talking therapist. I believe that clients pay for and deserve honesty. If it feels like crap, it probably is crap.  For our mental health to survive this pandemic, I believe we need to acknowledge reality. I am a huge advocate for practising gratitude but not denying our pain. Why do we minimise our pain? Why do we often dismiss our problems as “first world problems?”
Validating our reality means being present with our thoughts and feelings about our circumstances. To my fellow British expats, there might be a time and place for the stiff upper lip (I can’t think of any), but this is not it.
Permission to grieve
What struck me about the JAMA publication was its reference to “prolonged grief”.  This is characterised by “at least six months of intense longing, preoccupation, or both with the deceased, emotional pain, loneliness, difficulty reengaging in life, avoidance, feeling life is meaningless, and increased suicide risk”.
How many of us have not felt, or are not feeling, some or all of the above? As we grapple with whether we will have jobs down the line, whether our children will be sent home from school, the health of our elderly parents, the loneliness of our lives, the stress of our relationships (add to the list, as appropriate), how can we not be grieving?
Grief is the emotional experience of reacting to a loss of something that’s important to us.  Amongst other things, we have lost our way of being in the world as a result of this pandemic. It could be as simple as losing our daily routine or as significant as losing our identity as a result of a job loss.
 
Let’s give ourselves permission to grieve what we have lost.
Loss
The traditional stages of loss are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The stages are not necessarily linear and we can spend weeks, months or years in any one stage.   In other words, it’s healthy to have a range of emotions in relation to our changing worlds.
How are you expressing your feelings about losses related to the pandemic and to whom?  Are you able to acknowledge even the small losses such as going to the gym, walking freely on the beach, feeling safe in a public space, etc?
Make a list of your losses, small and large, and discuss them with someone close to you.  Validate each other.
Existential anxiety
To compound our grief, we also don’t know what to expect or what we are going to lose in this next wave. This is known as anticipatory anxiety and/or anticipatory grief.
According to The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), anxiety levels in the US are, on average, three times higher than last year. That resonates with what I am experiencing in the therapy room.
A client of mine had experienced very little anxiety prior to the pandemic. They said to me that they were so anxious lately, it felt more like a panic attack. What arguably makes pandemic anxiety feel more intense is the threat to our existence. This is existential anxiety.  The threats seem to be coming at us from all angles. Some of us might lose our jobs. That can also mean losing our identity. Also, our health is being threatened. That seems pretty existential to me. The more we feel that we don’t have the resources to cope with these threats, the greater the anxiety felt.
How can we manage anxiety?  The tricky balance is to acknowledge our reality but not to get caught up in catastrophising events. We can have a tendency to let negative thoughts escalate when we feel anxious. We fear the worst. In most cases, the worst is not what happens. If you meditate, practice this as often as possible. If you think that’s all a bit lightweight, google mindful breathing.
Hope
As a therapist, I feel like I have ridden an emotional rollercoaster with my clients over these past nine months.  I’ve watched clients attend virtual funerals, seen some couples split while others grew stronger, and have witnessed the collective grief and anticipatory anxiety referred to above.
Many of us are feeling disenfranchised and some European governments seem to believe that we are part of the problem. As a therapist who believes that my clients always know best, I happen to believe that we are part of the solution. Most of us have within ourselves the resources to stay mentally healthy. (I acknowledge, as did the JAMA report, that the second wave will disproportionately affect certain socioeconomic groups, races and ethnicities.)
We need to do our utmost to inoculate ourselves against the physical and mental health implications of Covid-19. If we do not acknowledge our mental health, and perhaps that really does include acknowledging pandemic fatigue, the long-awaited vaccine will only treat part of the problem. The residual impact will last for generations.
 
 
Gavin Sharpe is a UK qualified psychotherapist and a Monaco resident. He can be reached at www.rivierawellbeing.com.
 

A draw for AS Monaco

The Red and Whites played a tough match at home against Montpellier Hérault Sport Club which ended in a 1-1 draw and saw Montpellier playing much of the match one man down.
It may have been a quiet Stade Louis II without the support of fans in the stands, but the energy for the match between AS Monaco and Montpellier on Sunday was crackling.
As soon as three minutes in, Gelson Martins made a shot on goal that was deflected by the opponent’s all-round defender Daniel Congré.
A high foot on Florentino Luis by Teji Savanier left Montpellier at a disadvantage at only 19 minutes in when the midfielder was red carded for the act. With a lot of time still on the clock, Montpellier was forced to go on the defence and had only one more shot on goal the rest of the period.
After half time was when things really cranked up. In a surprise move, Montpellier’s Stephy Mavididi snuck one in and suddenly Monaco was one point down. The visitors regrouped to protect their lead and held onto it for nearly 20 minutes. At the 70 minute mark, Wissam Ben Yedder put one between the posts, evening up the score and breathing new life into the Red and Whites. Three more attempts to score were thwarted, and the game ended in a 1-1 draw, a frustrating end for the team and Coach Niko Kovac.
“In the last few years Montpellier has done a good job and achieved some great finishes, so we definitely expected to have a good team fighting against us,” Coach Kovac said after the game. “I do think that they can be candidates for a European place. In any case, when you have an opportunity to win this kind of match against a team like Montpellier, you have to do it.”
AS Monaco plays next Sunday at 9pm where they face off against Lyon in an away game.
 
 
 

Historic modernist villa's restoration struggle

The reopening of Villa E-1027, the incredible home designed by modernist Irish designer Eileen Gray, has been delayed until Spring 2021, as fundraising operations are launched to cover a blow-out in restoration costs.
E-1027 – a veritable icon of modernist architecture and the first architectural creation of Eileen Gray – has undergone an extensive period of restoration since 2007, and the final phase was due to be completed in Autumn 2020.
Like the villa, the gardens and land surrounding it in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin are listed a historic monument.
Works that still need to be completed include the restoration of the roof, replacing all the doors, windows and shutters, installing a new awning, restoring the lower ground floor and the guest bedroom, and the installation of furniture – exact replicas of the original furniture also designed by Eileen Gray in 1929.

 
Safe to say, it is an enormous undertaking and incredibly difficult given the fact that materials can only be brought in by helicopter, while pedestrian access is only available via the beach.
Now, due to a blowout in costs, Cap Moderne – the team behind the project – will organise fundraising operations to get the project completed.
To participate, visit the Cap Moderne website: www.capmoderne.com.
Watch a video of the restoration: here
 
Photos courtesy Cap Moderne