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Day: 21 January 2021

Monaco-ville 'villa' sells for €75 million

by: Stephanie Horsman
21/01/2021

Villa Unda Maris, an enormous property under construction on the Rock, has gone under the gavel and achieved an eye-watering sale price of €75,300,000.

The auction of an exceptional property in Monaco is not an everyday occurrence and is even more rare when the estate boasts a total area of 2.246m2.

This was the case with Villa Unda Maris, formerly known as Villa Saint-Martin, which went to auction on Friday 15th January at the Courthouse in Monaco.

According to a report by Monaco Matin, interest was high, with over 20 potential buyers in the courtroom trying their luck at gaining this exceptional piece of real estate.

As revealed in the auction’s legal announcement, there was a €15 million deposit required just to participate in the auction, originally scheduled for November 2020.

Located at 11 Avenue Saint Martin and neighbouring National Council headquarters, the main building was built over seven floors, including two subterranean levels. There is also a four-story outbuilding with a large garden. Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Caroline, Princess of Hanover are both residents of Avenue Saint Martin.

The starting price was €60 million. Two and a half hours after the start of the auction, a purchaser reportedly walked away with the property for €77,300,000, a bargain compared to the estimate made by a valuation expert who claimed its worth to be €165 million, or €75,000 per square metre, after construction works are complete.

The buyer was a Monaco-based company, but the person behind the company is said to be a Greek billionaire who lives in the Principality.

The property is not without issues, though. The current owner saddles the new one with a mortgage for an unpaid credit on the purchase and reconstruction works of Unda Maris, and there is always a chance another buyer may appear and offer to pay more before the ink has dried on the sale.

The liquidation of the villa was requested by Société Générale Luxembourg under the representation of Thomas Giaccardi. The debtor was assisted by Hervé Campana.

 
Written by Stephanie Horsman and Cassandra Tanti. Photo: Reconstruction drawing of Villa Unda Maris
 

Monaco on Switzerland’s red list

by: Cassandra Tanti
21/01/2021

People travelling to Switzerland from Monaco and the French Riviera will have to self-quarantine for 10 days, under new restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Swiss authorities updated the list of high-risk areas on 20th January, with the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur and Monaco among 15 new additions. The quarantine comes into effect from 1st February.
It means that people who have spent time in these areas and then enter Switzerland must go into quarantine for 10 days. A negative Covid-test result is not enough to escape the mandatory quarantine or shorten the isolation period in the Alpine country.
Certain categories of people are exempt, including business travellers who are visiting for an important reason that cannot be postponed, individuals travelling for an important medical reason that cannot be postponed, and transit passengers who have spent less than 24 hours in a country or area with an increased risk of infection.
Other new regions to make Switzerland’s red list are Cyprus, Spain and Malta, where incidence rates are rising.
Upon arrival in Switzerland, travellers must self-isolated in their place of accommodation and contact authorities within two days. Failure to do either of these is punishable by a fine of up to CHF 10,000.
Switzerland is the only country in Europe to allow skiing amid the pandemic, and many resorts were overrun on the weekend due to favourable snow conditions.
Numbers were so large in Flumserberg, for instance, the fire brigade and police were called in to control the crowds.
According to local media, rules regulating queuing have been broken in several ski resorts.
Meanwhile, Swiss authorities have started mass testing residents and visitors in the luxury ski resort of St Moritz after a new variant of the coronavirus was detected and two high-end hotels were put under quarantine on Monday.
 
Photo source: Pixabay
 
 

New developments in vaccination programme

by: Cassandra Tanti
21/01/2021

The Grimaldi Forum will become vaccination headquarters from Monday, while a new online booking service is helping to speed up the rollout in Monaco.
People over the age of 65 and those with underlying health conditions are the first to have access to the new online booking service for Covid-19 vaccinations.
The government announced on Wednesday that it had launched the new digital service to speed up the vaccination rollout in the Principality.
People just need to visit the website www.covid19.mc to signal their intention to be vaccinated against Covid-19. They will then be contacted by phone to arrange an appointment.
It is still possible for people to make their appointments by phone by calling the Covid-19 Call Centre at 92 05 55 00, seven days a week from 8am to 8pm.
Meanwhile, the vaccination programme will shift from the Espace Léo Ferré to the Grimaldi Forum from Monday 25th January for operational purposes.
A spokesperson for the Grimaldi Forum has confirmed to Monaco Life that the Principality’s largest culture and congress centre will be repurposed for the important health initiative.
From that date, the Espace Léo Ferré will once again be entirely dedicated to PCR screening for the Covid virus.
 
Photo of the Grimaldi Forum by Monaco Life, all rights reserved
 

Euro Cup win for Roca Team

by: Stephanie Horsman
21/01/2021

The AS Monaco Basketball team dominated their Spanish opponent from Unicaja Malaga on Wednesday night with a crushing 90 to 71 victory. 
The Roca Team soundly beat Unicaja Malaga by a whopping 19 points at Salle Gaston Medecin, making back-to-back wins for the team in the Euro Cup Top 16. This win puts them squarely at the top of their division.
Despite a rather shaky start that saw Monaco down by ten points in the first four minutes and were even farther behind at the end of the first quarter hour of play where they trailled 19 to 37.
The team finally rallied and by the 24th minute they had evened the score, thanks in large part to their concentrated efforts and teamwork.
Captain Dee Bost was the first to shake thigs up and when the fire was lit under him, with Rob Gray, Mathias Lessort, and JJ O’Brien soon to follow.
Monaco made 32 shots out of 75 on the night, with 10 out of 27 three pointers converted. The team collectively made 31 rebounds, of which nine were Lessort.
“The team was on fire, not just me,” Mathias Lessort said after the game. “The locker room was a happy place, it was a big game for us, a very important victory in a very contested group. In the second half, we were very aggressive, we raised the bar, everyone gave it their all. Of course, the goal is to continue like this, we battle for first place. The last time I took eight offensive rebounds? I don’t remember, it had to be in the youth categories.”
Rob Gray was high-scorer on the night for both teams with a massive 24 points under his belt. Lessort also had a fantastic night, scoring 20 points. Bost and O’Brien were no slouches either, adding 15 and 13 points respectively to the total.
Coach Zvezdan Mitrovic was proud of his men, saying, “The way we played in the second half is very important. Great aggressiveness, great energy. After that, we broke free in attack. The boys gave everything on the floor, a very good state of mind.”
The Roca team return next Tuesday at 8:45pm where they will be playing against Joventut Badalone in Barcelona.
 
Photo courtesy AS Monaco Basketball
 
 

Well-being on demand

by: Stephanie Horsman
21/01/2021

In Your Element On Demand, a global well-being platform for businesses, is giving free access to their experts, coaches and video library for one weekend.

In Your Element On Demand, an online wellness platform created for the workplace, is offering the free weekend from Friday 29th January to Sunday 31st January. Participants will be given unlimited access to up to 15 videos from the platform’s ‘Winter Self-Care Support Library’ which will allow individuals to create a tailor-made wellness weekend at home.

The offer includes a number of self-care workshops that cover topics as diverse as nutrition, mobility and movement, massage, pilates, reflexology, numerology, yoga, qigong and mindfulness.

The site was created by Krista Madden, who launched In Your Element in 2019. With the health crisis, she pivoted her company from a festival-based model to an online one. Her focus is on employees, as so many people now work from home due to the crisis and are suffering with declines to both their physical and mental health.

“With so many teams working remotely there is a loss of connection and sense of

community,” said Krista Madden. “In Your Element is a wellness video platform for businesses which gives staff access to coaches and experts who will inspire them to create healthy habits and rituals, which will help support them with mental and physical health issues. It’s about restoring that sense of community and support, which is so important for a good company culture. It helps to give employees back something to chat to their teams about.”

The videos are separated into four “elements”- air, fire, water and earth- which allow for a specialised programme custom made for each person.

Once the free introductory weekend is over, there is an option to purchase a monthly subscription to the site or to build a one-off personalised package. To sign up, email the organisers at info@inyourelementfestival.com and a private password will be sent to access the event.