Beyond the glamour, Monaco is quickly establishing itself as an excellent place to raise a family. It’s safe, the schools are top-quality, healthcare is among the best in the world and there’s a big focus on family-friendly services and events. But given the limited floor space, is there really room in Monaco to welcome families of three, four or more? 

If the latest real estate report by IMSEE, Monaco’s dedicated statistical agency, is anything to go by, buyers’ needs are changing in the Principality.  

Sales of studios and one-bedroom apartments, which once accounted for a large part of the market, are falling. In their place, demand for much larger properties, from three-bedroom apartments to outsized villas like those promised in the Mareterra district, is booming.  

€100 million homes 

Unusually for Monaco, not a single real estate development was completed in 2023. The lack of fresh listings limited new build sales last year, but off-plan purchases stepped in to bolster the sector and eventually accounted for two-thirds of the 28 confirmed new sales.  

See more: The mighty Mareterra to become a reality sooner than expected

Within this portion of the market, almost half of all sales were for homes with four or more bedrooms, a group including three vast villas that are confirmed to have been sold during the first nine months of 2023. If three-bedroom new build property sales are included, that share rises to 60%. 

The inflated proportion of larger family-sized homes that sold last year has had a real effect on the average property price for new builds, which rose spectacularly from €13.5 million in 2022 to €37.1 million in 2023, a near-unbelievable increase of 174.5%.  

See more: Property prices at record levels in almost all Monaco neighbourhoods

“In 2023, one in two new builds was sold for more than €28 million,” confirms the IMSEE report. “Six of out of every 10 [properties] sold for more than €20 million.” 

At the highest end of the price spectrum, the four new properties that sold during the course of 2023 achieved sales prices in excess of €100 million.  

A growing demand – and appreciation – for larger homes 

In the resale market – to be understood as pre-existing properties – 388 homes sold in 2023 compared to 433 in 2022, a drop of 10%.

The sales of studio apartments and one-bedroom flats noticed the most severe declines, dropping by 15% and 23% respectively, while the value of one-bedroom homes fell too, by a not-insignificant 31.5%. 

In yet another demonstration of the changing tastes of prospective homeowners in Monaco, record prices were recorded in the three-bedroom and four-bedroom-plus categories in 2023. Year-on-year from 2022, these categories swelled in price by 11.1% and 19.4% respectively.  

Price per square metre soaring for family-sized property 

The price per square metre data also reveals a similar competitive streak.  

The average price per square metre of a three-bedroom property rose by 5.1% in 2023 to reach €56,106 – a record high.  

Meanwhile, four-bedroom and up properties demanded an average price per square metre of €61,932, a climb of 18.7% year-on-year.  

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