Monaco holds fewer than two square kilometres of land. Within that constraint, the rarest residential assets, true penthouses, unobstructed seafront positions, and the handful of standalone villas still in private hands, occupy a category entirely separate from the broader market. They are not simply expensive. They are structurally scarce, and scarcity of this kind dictates how they are bought, how they are valued, and why they almost never appear on a public listing.
The term “trophy” is overused in luxury markets. In Monaco it carries a more precise meaning. A trophy asset combines at minimum two of the following: an irreplaceable position (seafront, top floor with unobstructed views, or a standalone villa plot), architectural or historical provenance, and a floor area that cannot be replicated under current planning frameworks. Rarity here is not aspirational. It is structural.
According to IMSEE’s Observatoire de l’Immobilier 2025, Monaco recorded 493 residential transactions in 2025, with a combined value of 5.9 billion euros, stable relative to the record set the previous year. New-build sales averaged 40.8 million euros per transaction, the first time the figure has crossed the 40 million threshold. The median new-build sale stood at 21.2 million euros, meaning half of all new units sold changed hands at that figure or above. Of the 64 new-build transactions recorded, 35 exceeded 20 million euros and five crossed the 100 million euro mark.
Properties built since 2020 carry an estimated average of 65,602 euros per square metre, the highest of any construction period on record. This figure anchors the financial gravity of everything discussed below.
The price differential between a penthouse and a mid-floor apartment in the same building is significant and consistent. The top-floor position with unobstructed sky and sea exposure and the first floor with no view sit at opposite poles of the same address. Within a single residence, this gap can be extreme, and it reflects precisely how Monaco buyers price access to altitude and panorama.
Terrace surface is valued separately from interior area in top-floor transactions. A 200 m² apartment with 150 m² of private rooftop terrace represents a fundamentally different asset from an identically sized flat on a lower floor. The terrace enables outdoor living, privacy, and the vertical separation from street-level Monaco that discerning buyers specifically seek.
The Tour Odéon in La Condamine, Monaco’s tallest residential tower at 170 metres, illustrates this dynamic at scale. Standard floor plates in the tower have transacted in ranges that reflect the building’s landmark status; the sky penthouse, stretching across 3,500 m², operates in a category where conventional price-per-square-metre comparisons become inadequate. Trophy penthouses of this type are not priced against comparable sales. They are priced against what the buyer values as genuinely irreplaceable.
For buyers evaluating penthouses across Monaco’s newer stock, the resale segment now offers increasing opportunity. IMSEE data shows the average resale price for five-room-plus properties reached 29 million euros in 2025, up 54.1% in a single year, driven by recently delivered high-standing developments entering the secondary market.
The Larvotto is currently Monaco’s most expensive neighbourhood by measured price per square metre, having crossed the symbolic 70,000 euro threshold for the first time in 2025. IMSEE’s 2025 data places the Larvotto at 71,167 euros per square metre overall. For new construction in the 2020 to 2029 period, the figure reaches 71,241 euros per square metre, confirming that the district’s price premium is entirely concentrated in its most recent stock.
This is not simply because of coastal proximity. Monaco has seafront buildings in multiple quartiers. The Larvotto premium reflects a specific combination: direct Mediterranean frontage with southern and southwestern exposure, minimal obstruction from adjacent towers, proximity to public beach and the Casino grounds, and the transformative impact of the Mareterra land reclamation project immediately to the east. Mareterra, a 2 billion euro reclamation development, adds approximately ten new private villas and around 130 apartments to one of the only pieces of genuinely new land in Monaco’s history. Villas in the project have been priced well above 100 million euros each, a figure that places them in direct conversation with the five 100-million-euro-plus new-build transactions recorded by IMSEE in 2025.
Mareterra — Photo by Baldo Realty Group
The distinction between south-facing and north-facing units within a single seafront address can represent a difference of 20% or more in achieved price. Wind exposure, sun trajectory across a terrace, and the angle of sea view from the principal reception rooms are each evaluated individually in bespoke trophy valuations.
The Larvotto’s resale market captured this momentum emphatically in 2025. With only 13 resale transactions, the district generated 851.9 million euros in resale volume, nearly five times the figure from the previous year. This is the direct result of Jardins d’Eau, Le Renzo, and the Mareterra villas entering the secondary market for the first time.
Standalone villas represent the most constrained sub-category in Monaco’s residential market. IMSEE captures them within the five-room-plus classification to preserve transactional anonymity, reflecting precisely how few change hands in any given year. In 2025, only five villa resales were recorded, generating a combined 452.5 million euros, an increase of 222.5% over the previous year. The per-transaction implied value underscores why villa acquisition timelines in Monaco routinely extend to 12 to 24 months from initial identification to signed contract.
The 2025 delivery of Bay House (Testimonio II) in La Rousse added five new private villas to Monaco’s stock alongside 56 apartments. These are not detached houses in the conventional sense. They are ground-level villa configurations within a high-end development, offering private entrances, garden access, and the level of spatial separation that apartment living, however luxurious, cannot replicate. Buyers for assets of this type do not browse listings. The process begins with a confidential approach to a broker with an established network inside the Principality, followed by a structured introduction under non-disclosure.
The Avenue Princesse Grace corridor and the hillside positions in La Rousse and the Jardin Exotique remain the traditional locations for standalone villa inventory. When a genuine villa on a freehold plot becomes available, the first contact is almost always made directly, and the transaction is completed before any public record is established.
Within the broader Monaco market, a defined hierarchy of prestige buildings commands consistent premiums. In Monte-Carlo, this hierarchy is most clearly expressed in the Carré d’Or, the golden square bounded by the Casino, the Hôtel de Paris, and the principal luxury retail corridors. Resale values in Monte-Carlo as a whole crossed 1.1 billion euros in 2025 for the first time, a 41.5% increase on the prior year, confirming the district’s enduring dominance of the high-end secondary market.
Among the recognised prestige addresses in this district, Le Mirabeau occupies a position of particular standing. Its location, building quality, and resident profile place it consistently at the top of Monte-Carlo resale benchmarks. Park Palace, with its proximity to the Casino gardens and its established international resident base, represents a parallel tier of long-term value. La Petite Afrique, delivered in 2016, brought a contemporary standard of finish and specification to Monte-Carlo that redefined expectations for the area.
26 Carré d’Or, delivered in 2019 with nine exclusive residences, is one of the rare addresses that sits entirely within the golden square by name as well as geography. Its limited unit count and premium specification make it one of the most closely held addresses in Monte-Carlo. Resale opportunities arise with very little frequency, and when they do, the approach is invariably discreet.
Outside the Carré d’Or, Palazzo Leonardo in Fontvieille and the established prestige buildings along the Larvotto waterfront represent different expressions of the same principle: a building’s reputation, its management standards, its resident community, and its position relative to Monaco’s key amenities each contribute to a valuation premium that persists across market cycles.
The concentration of trophy assets in the off-market segment is not accidental. It reflects the preferences and practical circumstances of the people who own them.
Sellers at this level are frequently Monaco residents themselves, or maintain the Principality as a primary base. A public listing announces an intention to sell, introduces uncertainty about timing, and invites enquiries from buyers without the means or the seriousness to complete. None of this is acceptable to an owner who values discretion as much as price. The preferred route is a mandated introduction: the seller authorises one or at most two trusted agents to identify qualified buyers through their existing networks, under strict confidentiality terms.
For buyers, the off-market process is equally advantageous. Competition for the most desirable assets is never broadcast. A buyer who is known to a well-connected Monaco specialist and who can demonstrate financial capacity and a credible acquisition rationale will be informed of opportunities that never reach the general market. This informational advantage is the primary reason serious buyers cultivate long-term relationships with agents embedded in Monaco rather than approaching the market transactionally.
The resale data supports this interpretation. IMSEE recorded 22 resale transactions above 20 million euros in 2025, a record figure. The number has more than doubled over the past decade. Very few of these transactions were preceded by a visible listing campaign.
The off-market process at the trophy level follows a structured sequence. It begins with a confidential mandate, typically exclusive, in which the seller authorises the agent to identify and approach a defined category of prospective buyer. The agent prepares a confidential property brief, detailed enough to allow a serious buyer to form an initial view but structured so that key identifying information is released only after the buyer’s identity and financial standing have been verified.
Non-disclosure agreements are standard at this level before any detailed information is shared. They are not a formality. They are a substantive protection for the seller, who may be disclosing the existence of an asset that is not yet publicly known to be available, and for the buyer, whose acquisition interest in a specific address can itself be sensitive information.
Once terms are agreed in principle, the transaction proceeds through Monaco’s notarial system, with the avant-contrat (preliminary agreement) followed by the formal deed. The timeline from initial approach to completion at the trophy level typically runs from six to eighteen months, depending on the complexity of the asset structure, the domicile of the parties, and the degree of customisation involved in finalising terms.
Standard market comparable analysis has limited application at the top of Monaco’s market. The assets are too scarce and too differentiated for a direct comparable to exist with any regularity. Valuations for trophy assets are instead built from a combination of the most recently transacted benchmark (IMSEE’s 2025 figures provide the most current anchors), a premium matrix that assigns weight to specific attributes of the subject property, and an assessment of current demand from the identified buyer universe.
The Larvotto’s new-construction benchmark of 71,241 euros per square metre and Monte-Carlo’s equivalent of 60,526 euros per square metre represent market-validated floors, not ceilings. A penthouse with an unobstructed sea panorama, direct terrace access, and a floor area that cannot be found in newer stock will command a significant premium above the relevant district average. The question is not whether the premium exists but how it is quantified and communicated to the seller without distorting expectations.
The average new-build sale price of 40.8 million euros in 2025, the first time this figure has exceeded 40 million in Monaco’s recorded history, provides a further orientation point. It reflects a market in which the standard expectation for a primary transaction in a quality new development now begins well above the threshold that would qualify as ultra-prime in any other European city.
Trophy assets in Monaco have demonstrated consistent long-term capital preservation. The 2025 data shows the average resale price reached 7.6 million euros, up 26.8% in a single year and 78% over the decade. The median resale price, a more conservative indicator, reached 4 million euros, meaning the majority of secondary market participants are operating at a level that, in most jurisdictions, would represent the outer limit of the ultra-prime segment.
The structural driver of this performance is supply constraint. Monaco cannot expand meaningfully. Mareterra is the first significant land addition in decades, and its unit count is measured in the dozens. Every year, the number of genuinely irreplaceable addresses either stays the same or contracts as older buildings are demolished for redevelopment. Against this, demand from high-net-worth residents and investors has shown no sustained tendency to diminish.
Past performance does not guarantee future outcomes, and buyers at this level should seek independent legal and financial advice before proceeding. That said, the structural characteristics of Monaco’s market, finite supply, a stable regulatory environment, and a globally recognised resident base, have historically supported valuations over extended holding periods in ways that few comparable markets can replicate.
For buyers seeking access to Monaco’s off-market trophy segment, the starting point is a conversation with a specialist who has direct access to mandated inventory. Contact Baldo Realty Group to arrange a confidential consultation. Our team works exclusively within Monaco’s unlisted property market.
The information in this article is provided for general informational purposes. It does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Baldo Realty Group recommends that all prospective buyers obtain independent professional advice prior to any acquisition.
