2023 was an interesting year for Monaco’s real estate market. The number of properties sold was down 20%, but the type of dwellings that did find buyers helped to significantly cushion the blow in terms of value.  

Not one single real estate development was completed in the Principality in 2023, making it the first year since IMSEE started tracking Monaco’s property market via the annual Real Estate Observatory report to record such a deficit. 

In comparison, four projects were completed during 2022: Villa Trianon, L’Exotique EVOS, Villa Portofino and Villa Farniente II. The delivery of these homes helped boost the new-build sector of the market that year, whereas 2023’s figures have clearly suffered because of an “absence of transactions involving new properties”.

As confirmed by IMSEE’s Q4 2023 Real Estate report, over the course of the year, the new-build portion of the market in the Principality retracted by a colossal 68.2%. Just 28 new properties were sold last year compared to 88 in 2022.  

Nevertheless, the type of new-build properties that did match with buyers in 2023, namely larger family-sized homes, helped to reduce the weight of the falling volume by demanding high prices. Overall, value in the new-build sector fell by a much less striking 12.7% to just over €1 billion. 

See more: Real Estate: Family homes dominate Monaco’s property market growth

The resale market also slowed, but less dramatically. Over the course of 2023, 388 resales were noted by Monaco’s Department of Tax Services, which is a 10.2% fall on 2022’s 432 transactions. 

Again, the decrease in the overall value of these resales was more moderate than the dip in volume. 2023’s €2.19 billion resale market value puts it ahead of 2021 and 2020, but behind 2022.  

When combined, the sales in the new-build and resales sectors generated €3.23 billion in 2023, which is a record after a stellar 2022.

See more: Real estate: essential insights for navigating the property market in Monaco

The reasons behind the fall experienced by Monaco’s resale market last year are less obvious than in the new-build sector, but it would appear that even the well-off seeking to buy a place in the Principality may have struggled with the historically high mortgage rates felt across Europe and much of the wider world in 2023.  

To read the Q4 Economic Bulletin for yourself, click here.

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