Russian Oil Oligarch Pays 750 Million For Cote d’Azur Mansion Villa Leopolda
A unnamed Russian Billionaire has paid the record sum of 752 million dollars for Villa Leopolda. Villa Leopolda is one of the most glorious mansions in the world on the Riveria between Nice and Monte Carlo.
The excesses of the Russian billionaires have become legendary, and this home purchase has not changed things much. While this home is one the the greatest in the world, the price far exceeds what anyone had ever predicted by it’s sale.
Even as recently has July of this year the price for Villa Leopolda was estimated at 500 million dollars.
The price of the Villa Leopolda, a Belle Époque mansion on the heights of Villefrance, has amazed estate agents but fuelled local worries that the invasion of Russian money on the Côte d’Azur is getting out of hand.
Since the early 1990s, Russian oligarchs, drawn by memories of the Riviera-mad old Russian aristocracy, have been piling into seaside properties at Cap Ferrat, Cap d’Antibes, Saint-Tropez and the other great playgrounds.
None, however, has come near the price with which the unnamed Russian clinched the Leopolda deal with Lily Safra, the widow of Edmond Safra, a Lebanese banker who was killed by an arsonist’s fire in Switzerland in 2003. via Times Online.
Overhead view of Villa Leopolda
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Comment by Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice on 11 August 2008:
Wow…Santa Barbara and Montecito CA are filled with luxury properties and estates…but this is a different Realm.
Comment by Bob Mortimer on 12 August 2008:
It’s a crazy price, it is so overpriced. This villa is surrounded by traffic jams all summer long, and really the views where it’s set are not that great compared to many regular properties in the area, here’s another picture I took of the villa last year http://www.rivierarentalguide.com/view_image_set.php?page=26&mode=area&id=448
If you want to sample that lifestyle for a tiny tiny fraction of that price here’s a very affordable rental in a better location in the same neighbourhood. You will see that if you can rent a cool villa closer to the water on the beach for only €15,000 per week, this Billionaire has wrecked one billion unnecessarily. http://www.rivierarentalguide.com/properties/the+corniches/villefranche-sur-mer/villa/253/
Best regards,
Bob
Pingback by Hitting the Links | Redfin Boston Sweet Digs on 15 August 2008:
[...] Some Russian dude bought a $750 million dollar home. [The Real Estate Bloggers] [...]
Comment by Marc Jansen on 15 October 2008:
A local real estate in Nice estimated this property 2 years ago for only 280 Million euros.
villa Palm Beach on the beachfront in Cannes is ever better located and for rent for a weekly rate of only 3.500 euros
http://www.riviera-rental.eu/directory%20-%20rental%20-%20villa%20-%20cannes%20-%20palm%20beach/index%20-%20rental%20-%20villa%20-%20cannes%20-%20palm%20beach.htm