In France, the most expensive villa in the world is for sale for one billion euros

Paris - A villa on the French Riviera, which once belonged to Belgian King Leopold II, is on sale for one billion euros (about 27 billion crowns). If it sells for this amount, it would become the most expensive house in the world, reported the news site The Times.

Villa les Cèdres (Cedar Villa) in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a peninsula between Nice and Monaco, was built in the 1870s. With the purchase, the new owner would also gain exclusive neighbors—including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The residence, surrounded by more than 14 hectares of land, has ten bedrooms, a 50-meter swimming pool, and an exotic botanical garden. According to Nice-Matin, the price was set by Campari, which acquired the property this year as part of its purchase of Grand Marnier. The Marnier-Lapostolle family, which controlled this world-famous liqueur maker, had owned the villa since the 1920s.

However, achieving a billion euros for the villa could prove to be an unrealistic goal. Property prices on the Côte d'Azur have fallen since Russian oligarchs began to feel the economic downturn in their country. This includes Mikhail Prokhorov, who lost a deposit of 39 million euros when he backed out of a deal to buy the nearby Villa Leopolda for 390 million euros. The villa's owner, Lily Safra, stated that she would donate this money to charity.