La Villa Plaisance on the Peninsula of Billionaires! Our Newest Fractional Ownership Property

Have you ever been to the illusive and illustrious Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the “Peninsula of Billionaires?” It’s just a 20-minute drive from Nice. The Number 15 bus takes you from central Nice to the Port de Plaisance on the Riviera peninsula in about 35 minutes.

The famous municipality which is made up of about 500 luxurious villas and about 1,600 permanent residents, is drowned under flowers, palm trees, Aleppo pines, and olive trees—which are not native to the peninsula. The shrubbery which makes this home of the rich and famous so lush and lovely was actually imported by its wealthy residents who built the villas and landscaped them to the nines. It was once just covered in wild grass. Can you imagine it?

One afternoon a few years ago I took a beautiful walk along the water’s edge from the Port and down the winding lanes to what is now known as “Place David Niven.” A hidden highlight for tourists is here—David Niven’s home, “La Fleur du Cap.” Originally, the mansion was named “Lo Scoglietto” (The Little Rock) and was built in 1880 by the son of an arms dealer. Niven and his second wife, Hjördis Genberg, Sweden’s first supermodel, were more comfortable in this house than his others. He boasted that he’d turn down movie roles just to spend his summers there. Even though the house has had a host of important occupants—the Duchess of Marlborough and Leopold III (King of the Belgians)—Niven’s name is what stuck. Charlie Chaplin also stayed there, but only for a week. The house is in perfect condition now, as it was refurbished recently at a cost of 10 million euros. It showed.

At the beginning of the 20th century, King Léopold II of Belgium owned an estate on Cap Ferrat and built several houses and an artificial lake. The main residence is the Villa des Cèdres, which had been owned by Marnier-Lapostolle (the founder of Grand Marnier) since 1924 and is now part of a botanical garden called the Jardin Botanique Les Cèdres. It was again sold in August 2019 for 200 million euros to Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian billionaire and businessman who in January of this year was listed as the 639th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of US$5.7 billion. You can see the villa from the window of “La Villa Plaisance,” our newest Fractional Ownership project.

Among the famous villas, there is also the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, donated to the Institut de France in 1934. Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild chose Cap-Ferrat to build her Tuscan-style palazzo in 1905 in this very scenic location. During our 2022 Living and Investing in France Conference, we took our entire attendee group on a tour of the mansion with an elegant lunch in their Salon du Thé. The luxurious home, the lush gardens and the scenery of the Cap was unforgettable.

Today Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat has some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and continues to attract the rich and the famous. Current residents include theatrical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. But, the peninsula can boast of such luminaries as Rainier III, Somerset Maugham, Jean Cocteau, Lady Kenmare and Roderick Cameron, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Hubert de Givenchy, Rachel Lambert Mellon, Mary Wells Lawrence, Isadora Duncan, Winston Churchill, French prime ministers Maurice Rouvier and Raymond Barre. Scoring a home here puts you on the same level as such world renown characters.

Apartments in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat can currently go for as much as 24,375€ a square meter and homes as much as 42,857€ per square meter, rivaling Paris’ most expensive districts. The lowest price per square meter for properties is 7,000 €, the average price is 23,044 €, and the highest is 77,311 €. (Source)

This is just one reason La Villa Plaisance is such a special property—it’s just steps from the Port with a view of the sea. Restaurants line the port, overlooking an array of boats, from dinghies to sailboats, to cabin cruisers to luxury yachts. I was on the port once with a close friend who is an author of novels and an experienced sailor and boatman. He enlightened me on the characteristics of almost every vessel moored there. The beautiful Riviera port with all of its attributes contributed to his nostalgia as he rediscovered the little hotel in which his family once stayed and spots where he had recreated scenes that appeared in his novels.

This property we have on the drawing board is a two-bedroom/one-bathroom apartment steps from the Port de Plaisance. We have named it “La Villa Plaisance”—because it’s going to be every bit as pleasant and beautiful as the location itself. We spent a couple of hours on Monday of this week reviewing the fabrics and colors for the decor and any physical changes we want to make to the apartment to prepare it for a January 2024 occupancy.

The apartment is one corner of a “manoir” just steps from the bus stop. You enter an iron gate, walk down a short flower-lined path to a beautiful door to enter the building. Just up one flight is the apartment that has undergone a complete renovation to create a luxurious space. It will be further enhanced by our idea of perfection. In our usual style, it will be missing nothing!

You enter directly into the fully equipped kitchen, then a spacious living room/dining room explodes in front of you, filled with light, high ceilings and with large French doors that lead to a lovely balcony with beautiful views (including the Villa des Cèdres). There is a bedroom on each side of this central salon, each with two large windows and again, filled with light. At the far end is a laundry closet and large, luxurious bathroom that has a gum-drop window destined to have custom-made stained glass to allow the light in while maintaining privacy.

Included here in some of the photos are our ideas (not yet realized!) for decor that matches the peninsula’s style and colors. I wanted to share with you some of our designer’s ideas of beautiful fabric and decor even in advance of making the property available.

Owning a share in a property on Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, in such a convenient location, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We know of no other Fractional Ownership properties on the Cap and is as prestigious as it gets. What’s even more amazing is that the shares will not be a fortune like the other properties on the peninsula, as we plan to price the four-week-per-year shares under 100,000€!

The usage calendar we offer is France’s smartest, proven by the success it has had with other properties we developed. Occupancy for the 13 owners begins on Thursday and ends on Thursday, in two-week intervals, 26 weeks apart. Each year, the rotation moves forward by 10 weeks to allow for a full mix of seasons. Owners may trade weeks with other owners as they like throughout the year. It’s easy to plan as the calendar is set for the next 13 years. Owners who wish to have four weeks of consecutive usage may choose a share adjacent to another owner with the same request. By trading weeks between them, each can have four weeks of consecutive usage. The calendar may be altered by a unanimous owners’ vote. Usage of this property is scheduled to begin January 4, 2024.

To learn more about Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, visit this site for an online brochure.

For those who want to learn more about our Fractional Ownership properties, visit our own website.

If you would like to be on our special mailing list to be notified the moment this property is launched for sale, please email us today.

A la prochaine…