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A poor man in Monaco

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Many rich people are jostling for properties in Monaco, as they prefer to settle in a stable and safe environment. Monaco residents are invariably very sophisticated. Most have various other homes around the globe.

WHEN I submitted my passport at the French Embassy in Harare, as I prepared for my once in a life time travel to Monaco — one of the world’s epicentres of extravagance — an official remarked: “You must be very wealthy going to Monaco and staying at Monte Carlo.”
Returning the retort through an uncomfortable smile I became even more inquisitive about this place officially known as the Principality of Monaco, an amazingly tiny two-square kilometre sovereign microstate on the French Riviera.
So far, I only knew four things about the kingdom of Monaco: The famous Monte Carlo casino; Monaco Grand Prix, the country’s attractive tax laws; and the soccer team, AS Monaco, which is home to Lacina Traore, Joao Moutinho and Fabio Henrique Tavare — some of the finest football players in France today — the best of their generation, in actual fact.
I have globe-trotted a bit in the past 15 years, with my long haul flights taking me to global capitals spanning from Berlin in Germany, Rome in Italy to Instabul in Turkey, and to the badly managed West African beaches of Lome in Togo, Accra Ghana right up to Ethiopia, the home of the African Union.
I have seen flashes of extraordinary opulence in the European capitals, while at the same time being confronted by mind-blasting abject poverty in Africa.
But what awaited me in Monaco was amazing. The place’s organised set-up and opulence was simply alien. I was shocked dizzy by the out-of-this-world high costs of properties in the European country, the home of some of the richest people on planet earth.
A waterfront one-bedroom flat can easily fetch £15 million (US$21 million), for instance. In the rest of Europe a similar property can be bought for about US$15 million. There is also room to bargain downwards, something that I learnt was not common in Monaco.

The US$21 million is probably enough to buy all the houses in Mutare’s Dangamvura high density suburb or Harare’s Warren Park.
In Zimbabwe, some of the most expensive houses range between US$1 million — US$1,5 million, according the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe.
And the citizens of Monaco can simply write a £15 million cheque without even batting an eye. It is just one of those normal transactions for the majority of the mega rich 40 000 citizens of the tiny kingdom.
Flying from Harare to Paris via Johannesburg, and then to Nice, the fifth most populous city in France, I had not researched much about my destination except for the weather.
And upon arrival there I was glad I had not googled anything at all about the Principality because the place surprised me beyond my wildest imagination.
A dramatic and cascading hilly, waterside setting, fantastic historic architecture and a temperate climate makes Monaco the place for anyone who dares to dream big.
They don’t pay income tax in Monaco, which makes it one of the most sought-after destinations in the world. No wonder it has become that expensive to settle in.
Monaco is home to billionaires Dmitry Rybolovlev the owner of Monaco FC, Richard Starkey known professionally as Ringo Starr of the famous music group —The Beatles, Tatiana Casiraghi heiress to a beer empire and the wife of Prince Andrea Casiraghi of Hanover, who also happens to be fourth in the line to the Monegasque throne.
It is also home to David and Ezra Nahmad, two of the most successful art dealers in the world and Lily Safra is a Brazilian philanthropist who moved to Monaco part time in the 1970s after marrying banking mogul Edmond Safra.
And arriving there from southern Africa, Zimbabwe to be more precise, you risk being one of the poorest people in the monarch, where one in every 100 people is officially said to be a millionaire.
“There are no poor people in Monaco, it is a land of the rich and famous,” remarked our guide on the tour bus.


Arriving from a country where the majority of its citizens wallow in abject poverty, and where a 16-year old economic crisis has pushed 90 percent of productive age people out of employment, I could not help but feel really small in the monarchy. During my stay there, which was like eternity, I must have been the poorest person.
While the average consumer basket for a family of six is US$561 according to the consumer council of Zimbabwe, a family of five in Monaco is said to spend an average of US$12 000 per month.
In Zimbabwe the average salary is about US$450. Most people who live there have business around the world, with those who rely on salary earning an average monthly disposable salary of US$5 000. The majority travel from France and Italy daily just to work in Monaco.

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Monaco has built its reputation by thinking outside the box, doing things differently, and exceeding observer’s expectations. Technical support is just a phone call away, and no matter what time you call, you’ll always get a person on the phone to assist you.

Monaco has been a Principality since the 16th Century and under an on and off rule of the House of Grimaldi since the 13th Century. It became a member of the United Nations with full voting rights in 1993.
Famous as a playground for the rich and famous since the introduction of its gambling industry in the mid-19th Century, prices in Monaco rose steadily until the real estate bubble burst about five years ago.
But the world’s wealthiest still come to live there.
And the closer you get to the casino and the beaches, the more expensive it gets.
Most properties start at £17 000 per square metre (sq m) but can easily reach £43 000/sq m or even double that in some of the choicest locations such as Avenue Princess Grace in Monte Carlo; on beach fronts or on the so-called Golden Square, around the famous casino.
The property market is all orderly and done above board.
When I left Harare, citizens were still smarting from the ruthless destruction of houses built on contested land, in the noise of which it was difficult to understand just who was telling the correct version, the authorities or the affected residents.
Recalling what I witnessed in Monaco, Zimbabwe is light years away.
Populated mainly by foreigners, many of Monaco’s older residents are French speaking, but there are younger incomers from elsewhere, particularly Britain, because there are no real restrictions or indigenisation laws for foreign buyers.
So, say you land in Monaco one day with a briefcase containing £1 million, what kind of property can you purchase?
Nothing enormous at all!
Maybe a studio apartment in the Saint Roman district, near a country club and fabulous beaches, might just be the area you may settle. A one-bedroomed apartment in the garden of the casino with a harbour view at £5 million, might just send you packing.
How do you think I felt, coming from a country where a global business magazine had just ranked it as the second poorest country in the world?
The New York-based Global Finance Magazine placed Zimbabwe second poorest after the Democratic Republic of Congo in its survey of 184 countries.
The survey, based on International Monetary Fund data, says Zimbabweans’ average annual income between 2009 and 2013 was around US$589.

Lamb loin with radishes and small grains ‘greeted me’ when I arrived .

I really felt betrayed by circumstances, given the vast riches in my country that can easily make Monaco kids’ play if they were transparently exploited, especially our diamonds.
At least US$15 billion diamond revenue was looted and cannot be accounted for.The average day of most Zimbabweans who are unemployed cannot be properly defined as they will be hustling to make end meet. Even those formally employed committee an hour or two to make extra money with activities that are not attached to their employment contracts. It is a sharp contrast to Monaco. Many will be enjoying investments made during the course of the year visiting surrounding tourist attractions, eating out at expensive hotels and restaurants, car racing or scrambling to buy the next expensive asset that comes in town.
Many rich people are jostling for properties in Monaco, as they prefer to settle in a stable and safe environment.
Monaco residents are invariably very sophisticated. Most have various other homes around the globe.
Monaco has built its reputation by thinking outside the box, doing things differently, and exceeding observer’s expectations.
Technical support is just a phone call away, and no matter what time you call, you’ll always get a person on the phone to assist you.
After my short visit to the tiny French Riviera kingdom, I now understand why the personnel at the French Embassy in Harare sounded “envious” of my sojourn to the land of the rich and famous.
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