A developer has put the unbuilt project, known as Villa Pura, on the market with one of the biggest price tags on the Spanish island
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What will be a sprawling villa in Mallorca has hit the market for €42.5 million (US$45.8 million) making it one of the most expensive offerings currently available on the bucolic Spanish island.
Work on the almost 19,000-square-foot residence is set to begin in September, and construction is expected to take somewhere around two-and-a-half to three years, according to Alby Euesden, managing partner of the Agency’s Mallorca office, which brought the home to the market at the end of June.
Surrounded by Port d’Andratx and the scenic mountain ranges of the Tramuntana, “Villa Pura has been designed to frame its surrounding environment at every opportunity, using space, light and form,” Euesden said.
“In many ways the central feature of the space is its unique pool, which acts as its main focus point, providing a rich source of visual interest,” he said.
The sizeable infinity pool, which will run the length of the home, will be joined outside by multiple terraces, a lounge area, an outdoor bar and dining space.
Inside, the open-plan home is set to boast a sleek and organic palette, with walls of windows, exposed stone and wood details.
There will also be multiple living areas, a kitchen with two islands, a double-sided fireplace, a formal dining room, a gym and nine bedrooms, including a primary suite with a private terrace and hot tub. And of course, far-reaching Mediterranean views.
The seller is one of the leading developers on the island, according to Euesden. “They acquired the land site over five years ago and have been meticulously planning the project, which initially consisted of various lots,” he said.
Euesden declined to comment on how much was paid for the underlying property.
Mallorca’s luxury market is “very buoyant right now,” he explained. “Spain has much lower mortgage rates than the rest of Europe and the U.S., with fixed rates [currently] from 2.15%.”
With Mallorca “being a destination market which attracts buyers from all over Europe, and with an ever-growing interest from U.S. investors, the market has remained stable and even seen an increase in pricing within new developments,” he added.
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
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A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
