The Monaco Property Market: How It Works and What the 2025 Figures Say

What this page covers

Monaco's property market is small enough to be counted. Every transfer passes through one of three notarial offices and is registered with the Direction des Services Fiscaux, and the statistics institute IMSEE publishes the result each February in its Observatoire de l'immobilier. This page explains how the market is built, using the 2025 edition and the 2025 census, so that the headline figures make sense before you start reading listings. The acquisition costs, holding taxes and yields are in the real estate investment guide; the legal steps of a purchase are in the buying guide.

A stock of 22,577 homes, a fifth of them never for sale

The 2025 census counted 22,577 dwellings in the Principality on 31 December 2025, up 1.8% in a year. The figure is the whole secret of Monaco prices: it is the entire housing stock of a sovereign state, and it grows only when the State reclaims land from the sea or a block is demolished and rebuilt taller.

The 4,380 State-owned flats form the secteur domanial: they are allocated to Monegasque nationals on a points system and are never put on the market. The tradable stock is therefore about 18,200 private dwellings, concentrated in Monte-Carlo and La Rousse, which together hold 45% of all homes. Fontvieille, built on reclaimed land in the 1970s and 80s, is the most State-heavy district; Larvotto and Monte-Carlo are almost entirely private.

Two markets: new builds and resales

Monaco's tax rules draw a line that IMSEE follows. A sale (vente) is the first transfer of a home in a building less than five years old, off-plan or after completion. A resale (revente) is everything else. The two behave very differently.

New-build sales track deliveries, nothing else. 2024 was exceptional with 101 sales as several top-end programmes completed; in 2025 the quarter-by-quarter count ran 42, 15, 7 and then zero in the fourth quarter, because the stock had sold through. Eight in ten new sales were four-room apartments or larger, including four villas; five transactions exceeded €100 million, as many as were concluded under €5 million. The ten-year average is just 51 new sales a year.

Resales are the market most people actually enter. After two years of decline, 2025 bounced back to 429 transactions, helped by recently delivered apartments coming back onto the market, and the total passed €3 billion for the first time. The distribution is far less extreme than the averages suggest: 274 of the 429 resales were under €5 million, 93 between €5 and 10 million, 40 between €10 and 20 million and 22 above €20 million.

In Monaco usage a "two-room" flat (2 pièces) is a one-bedroom apartment: the count includes the living room.

Where the resales happen

Monte-Carlo's 164 resales are its highest count since 2014. Larvotto's tiny volume is structural, not a sign of weakness: the district has only 1,391 homes and owners rarely sell. Monaco-Ville, the old town on the Rock, barely trades at all; most of its 615 dwellings are in protected pre-1947 buildings.

Price per square metre

IMSEE now estimates the price per m² with a regression model that uses every sale and resale whose floor area is known, weighted by construction period. The 2025 average is €57,569, down 1.4% on 2024's €58,402. Because the method changed in 2024 to include new-build sales, the series below is not comparable with observatories published before then.

Three tiers appear: Larvotto alone at the top, four central districts around €51,000 to €54,000, and the two hillside districts around €44,000 to €45,000. Over ten years every district has gained between 25% and 40%.

The age of the building matters as much as the district. In 2025 a home in a building completed since 2020 was estimated at €65,602/m², against €42,142 for one built before 1940, with each decade in between stepping up: €48,628 for the 1940s and 50s, €53,879 for the 1960s, €55,529 for the 1970s, €57,548 for the 2000s and €59,816 for the 2010s. For new buildings alone, Larvotto reaches €71,241/m², Monte-Carlo €60,526 and even Les Moneghetti €50,198.

Why supply never catches up

• The land is finished. Fontvieille (22 hectares) and Larvotto were won from the sea decades ago. The latest extension, Mareterra, six hectares east of the Grimaldi Forum inaugurated in December 2024, added around 110 apartments and a handful of villas at the very top of the market, and is the main reason Larvotto crossed €70,000/m².
• Rebuilding is the other source. Most "new" supply comes from demolishing 1950s and 60s blocks and rebuilding higher; the Observatoire notes that villas and whole buildings are often bought precisely to be demolished.
• Demand is global and untaxed. There is no property tax, no wealth tax and no capital gains tax for individuals, and buyers of any nationality purchase without authorisation. Only the State has a right of first refusal, and only on pre-1947 buildings in the protected sector (loi 1.235, article 23).
• A fifth of the stock is outside the market for good: the domanial sector grows with each State programme and is never sold.

Reading a Monaco listing

• Prices are quoted in euros per m² of living area, and the district figures above are the benchmark; a renovated flat in a 2010s building with a sea view will sit well above its district average, a 1960s flat on a courtyard well below.
• Check the building's completion date. A dwelling in a building finished after 1 September 1947 is in the free sector and can be let to anyone; pre-1947 buildings fall under loi 1.235 or loi 887, which reserve tenancies to protected residents. The rental market guide explains the four sectors.
• Parking and cellars are usually separate lots with their own price; a parking space in Monaco is a valuable asset in itself.
• Agency fees follow an official scale. Members of the Chambre Immobilière Monégasque charge the seller 5% and the buyer 3%, each plus 20% VAT. Co-brokerage between agencies is common, and the same apartment often appears with several of them.
• Ask for the copropriété charges and the last three general-meeting minutes: lifts, pools, concierge and façade works are shared costs that can run to several thousand euros a quarter in a serviced building.
• The notary closes the deal. Monaco has three notarial offices; the registration duty of 4.75% (10% for opaque companies) is paid through them. The full cost breakdown is in the investment guide.

Where the official data comes from

• IMSEE, Observatoire de l'immobilier — published each February with the previous year's figures, built on the Direction des Services Fiscaux registers; private residential property only. The 2026 edition is due in February 2027.
• IMSEE, Recensement de la population — the annual census report (May) carries the dwelling count by district and sector.
• Arrêté ministériel on average rents — published each February for the rent-controlled sector; the only official rent figures in Monaco, since IMSEE covers sales only.

Where to go next

• Real estate prices by district
• Real estate investment: costs, taxes and yields
• Buying property: the legal process
• Property law: ownership, copropriété and the housing sectors
• Renting in Monaco: sectors, leases and tenant rights
• The luxury segment
• State housing (secteur domanial)