Real Estate Investment in Monaco: Prices, Yields and What You Actually Buy

The market in one paragraph

Monaco is the most expensive residential market in the world and one of the smallest: 2.02 km², about 39,000 residents, and a stock of apartments that grows only when the State builds on land reclaimed from the sea. IMSEE, the national statistics office, counts a few hundred resales a year. In 2025 those resales exceeded €3 billion for the first time (about €3.2 billion, up roughly 50% on 2024), the average resale transaction reached €7.6 million, and the average price across all sales was €57,569 per m², a dip of 1.4% after 2024's €58,402. Nothing about the fundamentals — no income tax for residents, a State with no public debt and a constitutional reserve fund, permanent excess demand from people who want a residence card — has changed.

This page sets out the investment case: what you own, what it costs to get in, what it costs to hold (nothing), what it earns, and the one rule about letting that most foreign buyers discover too late. The step-by-step purchase, the holding structures and the financing are on the companion page, buying as an investor.

What you actually buy

Almost every residential purchase in Monaco is an apartment held in full ownership within a copropriété — the same freehold-in-condominium regime found across the Riviera. You own your lot outright and a share of the common parts; the syndicat de copropriétaires votes the budget and works. Villas are rare and seldom come to market. There is no general leasehold or ground-rent system for private buyers: the State's own housing stock (the secteur domanial) is rented to Monegasque nationals and is not for sale.

Two things do not exist either: a restriction on foreign buyers, and an authorisation procedure. Anyone may buy, resident or not, individual or company. The one variable nationality introduces is tax — see below.

Prices by district (IMSEE 2025)

Averages hide the spread. A studio in an older Moneghetti building can trade below €2 million; a whole floor in the Carré d'Or or a Mareterra villa runs well into eight figures. As a rule of thumb, a two-bedroom apartment of 90–110 m² in a good building costs €5–8 million in 2026.

What it costs to get in

Monaco taxes property once, at purchase, and never again. For an individual buying a resale:

• Registration duty: 4.75% of the price (rate set by loi n° 1.548, in force since 1 October 2023; it was 4.5% before and 6.5% before 2011).
• Notary fees: about 1.5% plus a few hundred euros of disbursements. The three Monaco notaries collect the duty with the deed.
• Agency commission: 3% + 20% VAT for the buyer under the Chambre Immobilière Monégasque's official scale; the seller pays 5% + VAT.

Budget about 6.25% in statutory costs plus 3.6% for the agency. Two exceptions matter to investors. A new build bought off-plan (VEFA) carries 20% VAT in its price but a reduced registration duty, so the statutory costs fall to about 2.5%. And a purchase through an opaque structure — typically a foreign or offshore company whose beneficial owners are not disclosed to the tax authorities — pays 10% instead of 4.75%, which is the whole point of loi n° 1.381: Monaco wants to know who owns its buildings.

What it costs to hold

For an individual owner, nothing:

• No property tax and no municipal housing tax.
• No wealth tax.
• No income tax on rents.
• No capital gains tax on the resale, whatever the holding period.
• No inheritance tax in the direct line or between spouses on Monaco assets; 8% between siblings, 10% between uncles/nephews, 13% to fourth degree, 16% beyond.

The exception is French nationals, who under the Franco-Monegasque convention of 18 May 1963 remain taxable in France on their worldwide income — including Monaco rents and gains — and, for those who settled after 1989, on wealth. Companies holding property may fall within the impôt sur les bénéfices depending on their activity; take advice before choosing a structure.

Running costs are those of any copropriété — service charges of the order of €4–10 per m² per month in serviced buildings with concierge and pool, higher in the newest towers — plus building insurance.

What it earns

Rental demand is structurally strong: employees, executives and new residents who need a Monaco address for their residence permit. Vacancy is close to nil in the open market. But rents, high as they are in absolute terms (roughly €80/m²/month in Moneghetti to €150–190 in the Carré d'Or, a studio rarely below €3,000), are low relative to capital values. Gross yields of 2–3% are typical; net of charges, agency fees (10% of the first year's rent + VAT, paid by the tenant under the CIM scale) and the 1% droit de bail, count on less. Seasonal lets around the Grand Prix and the Yacht Show earn more per night but are a hospitality business, not a passive investment.

The return has historically come from capital: IMSEE's own series shows the average price per m² roughly doubling between the early 2010s and 2024, with the 2025 correction the first for several years.

The rule that decides whether you can let at all

Before buying "for rental income", ask the notary for the building's completion date.

• Completed after 1 September 1947 — secteur libre. You choose the tenant and the rent; the lease terms are free. This covers the large majority of the stock investors look at.
• Completed before 1 September 1947 — loi n° 1.235 (protected sector) or loi n° 887 (liberalised sector). The tenancy is reserved to defined categories of Monaco residents and Monegasques, the rent is indexed and capped by reference to official benchmarks, offers must be published in the Journal de Monaco, and the term is six years. A pre-war building in Monte-Carlo or La Condamine can still be a fine home, but it is a poor rental investment.

The four sectors are explained in the rental market guide.

Supply: where the new stock comes from

Monaco cannot buy land, so it makes it. Fontvieille (22 ha, 1970s–80s) and Larvotto were reclaimed; Mareterra, six hectares delivered in December 2024 east of the Grimaldi Forum, added around 110 apartments and villas at the top of the market and is why Larvotto's average crossed €70,000. The State also delivers new buildings for Monegasque nationals that never reach the private market — a point worth remembering when reading headlines about "new housing" in the Principality.

Risks, plainly

• Illiquidity. A few hundred resales a year in a market of tens of thousands of dwellings; a well-priced apartment can still take a year to sell.
• Round-trip cost. About 10% in on the buy side (duty, notary, agency) and 6% on the sell side (agency). The asset must appreciate by that much before you break even.
• Concentration. One asset class, one 2 km² jurisdiction, one currency.
• Residency is separate. A purchase supports a residence application (it proves accommodation) but does not replace it — see the carte de séjour guide.

Where to go next

• The purchase itself, cost scenarios, holding structures and financing: buying as an investor
• The legal framework — copropriété, notaries, the sectors: property law in Monaco
• The plain-language walkthrough for a home rather than an investment: buying property guide
• Who the agents are and how the top of the market trades: luxury real estate market