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Immediate release

Contact: Sharon Simms, RE/MAX Metro  (727) 896-1800

Russian billionaire’s purchase of French villa sets new world record for most expensive home — $750 million!

Most expensive home on the market in Pinellas County is listed at $16,999,000 in Tarpon Springs

Most expensive home on the market in Hillsborough County is listed at $25,000,000 in Tampa

August 11, 2008 — The market for the average priced U.S. residence may be soft, but the über rich (especially the Russians) continue to drive prices up at the very top of the world’s luxury market.  Case in point — Villa Léopolda, one of the most historic estates on the French Côte d’Azur, is now under contract by an anonymous Russian billionaire for $750 million (€500m).  This three-quarters-of-a-billion dollar sales price sets a new record for the most expensive home sale in the world. The previous record was set earlier this year by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, with the reported purchase of a London home for his son for an estimated $236 million. 

“While the French Villa is a fabulous property, this sale does put into perspective the value U.S. properties represent,” said Sharon Simms (www.ssimms.com ), a luxury home expert with RE/MAX Metro in St. Petersburg.  “The most expensive residences on the market locally are listed for just $16,999,000 in Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County and $25 Million in Tampa in Hillsborough County.Both of these homes have between 28,000 and 29,000 sq ft. The record residential sale in the Tampa Bay area was in May of this year, a 13,000 sq ft waterfront home in Belleair that sold for $10,250,000.

Villa Léopolda, a cream-colored, turreted mansion with two guest houses, is midway between Monaco and Nice overlooking Cap Ferrat, near Villefranche-sur-Mer.  The villa was originally built about 1902 by King Leopold II of Belgium. The grounds are regarded as among the most spectacular on the Côte d’Azur.  Fifty full-time gardeners look after 20 acres of gardens and terraces, planted with 1,200 olive, orange, lemon and cypress trees.

The property’s new owner is said to be a Russian oil oligarch but not – despite initial rumors – Roman Abramovich, the highly visible owner of Chelsea Football Club, who already owns a €100m mansion near Antibes.

According to the Nice-Matin newspaper, a contract was signed last week to transfer ownership of the villa from Lily Safra, the widow of Edmond Safra, a murdered banking billionaire.  Rumor has it that Mrs. Safra held out for months as the persistent mystery buyer kept raising his offering price.  The paper also reported that 60 villas or mansions on Cap Ferrat are now owned by wealthy Russians.  

The property has a unique history.  In 1916, King Leopold’s nephew and heir, King Albert I, turned the villa into a hospital for officers wounded during the First World War. It later passed into the hands of the Agnelli family – Fiat automotive tycoons — and became the scene in the 1960s for legendary jet-set parties attended by Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan (in his acting days) and other celebrities.

“This sale raises the bar and makes the half dozen or so $100 million U.S. properties on the market seem like bargains,” said Laurie Moore-Moore, Founder of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (www.LuxuryHomeMarketing.com), a US-based organization which trains real estate agents who work in the luxury market and awards the international Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist designation.  “Today’s affluent are citizens of the world and the successful luxury agent must know how to reach them and what lifestyles they are seeking. It’s an exciting and active market for agents at the top.”

Sharon Simms is a member of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. She and her daughter, Tami Simms, are also trainers for the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

Luxury Market Update - June 2008 - Pinellas County, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida … July 7, 2008

May was a hard month to follow, with its record high priced sale at $10,250,000. May also had the highest number of monthly single family luxury sales (over $1 Million) this year. June is less on both counts, but still the second highest number this year. The number of luxury condo sales also decreased, partly due to the season and partly due to the new building closings. What’s more relevant, though, is the number of properties going to contract.

As you can see, recent sales have favored resale condos rather than new ones.

There is less luxury inventory now in Pinellas County than in any month this year, both in single family and in condos.

In the fall of 2005 when I sold a waterfront property listed at $4,250,000 it was a record high sale - keeping in mind of course that custom homes built by their current owners never were "sold" and generally appear on the public records only at the lot price, since the construction is a contract between owner and builder. Buyers always wonder if they’ve bought too high (just as sellers wonder if they’ve bought too low).

Despite a "declining market" the past few years, 5 additional homes have sold for higher prices, two of them selling over $5 Million. One of those two, a historic property, was not a tear down, but was certainly a complete restoration - I think construction crews were working there for 2 years, but oh, what a beauty it is now.

Snell Isle currently has five waterfront homes listed over $4,000,000 with the highest price being $6,900,000 for a 7,000+ sq ft home built in 2007.

Snell Isle has curving streets, mature landscaping, and a wonderful variety of homes, some dating back to the 1920s and some currently under construction. Neighbors walk or jog along the streets before dawn and again at dusk. It’s a peaceful area with character, and yet is just 5-10 minutes from downtown St. Petersburg. Some of the homes have a view of the downtown St Pete skyline.

For information on any Snell Isle homes, Contact The Simms Team.

p.s. in this "declining market" Pinellas County recently had a record sale of a waterfront home at over $10 Million.

The latest Luxury Market Update for Pinellas County, Florida has been posted. Here are some highlights from that report:

• Record home sale in Belleair at $10,250,000.
• Inventory on luxury single family homes in Pinellas County is dropping
• Number of luxury home sales is increasing in Pinellas County

High net worth households are increasing in St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay. IXI Corporation defined high net worth households, for this comparison, as households with at least $3 million in assets. and the increase in these households in Saint Petersburg/Clearwater/Tampa is as follows, according to a summary of the IXI statistics by the Tampa Bay Business Journal:

2006:  8,285 households with over $63 Billion in assets.

2007: 10,724 households with over $78 Billion in assets.

In that one year alone, the number of high net worth households increased by nearly 30% and the assets increased by nearly 24%. It’s no wonder that more private banks and wealth management divisions are targeting the Tampa Bay area and not just in the big cities - Belleair (a town of 4,067 people, just south of Clearwater) was an early site for Northern Trust Bank and US Trust is currently building an office there.

Sales at the upper end of the Tampa Bay residential market are doing well. In the last 5 months there have been three sales in the $5 - 6 Million range and four sales in the $4 - 5 Million range:

$5,600,000     Tierra Verde (St Petersburg) waterfront home 9,404 sq ft

$5,600,000     Harbour Island (Tampa) waterfront home  8,601 sq ft

$5,000,000     Belleair Beach gulf front home  6,664 sq ft

$4,825,000     Palma Ceia golf course home  15,743 sq ft

$4,600,000     Sandpearl condominium (Clearwater  Beach)  5,283 sq ft

$4,400,000    Sandpearl condominium (Clearwater Beach)

$4,300,000     Bayway Isles waterfront home (St Petersburg)  7,028 sq ft

There are approximately 70 properties currently listed over $4,000,000 in the Tampa Bay area. The highest price is $19,900,000.

Sharon’s Luxury Market Report for luxury properties in Pinellas County has been posted.  The number of single family homes sold over $1 Million increased by 50% in February over January - but there’s still a big selection for buyers. Condo sales over $1 Million continue, and are primarily in new buildings that have recently been completed, so many of the condo went to contract two or more years ago.