
Buying a villa in the Maldives: how the resort market works
The Maldivian constitution forbids foreign ownership of land. Not with some technical exception to work around: it forbids it outright.…
Insights, markets, and architecture of the luxury real estate sector, from editors and real estate professionals.

The Maldivian constitution forbids foreign ownership of land. Not with some technical exception to work around: it forbids it outright. Yet an active market of villas sold to international buyers exists inside the archipelago's resorts, and the government has recently…
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The Maldivian constitution forbids foreign ownership of land. Not with some technical exception to work around: it forbids it outright.…

In a negotiation, weeks go by arguing over a hundred thousand euros of price, and nobody spends twenty minutes on…

A steel door filled with concrete, at the end of a tunnel dug beneath a 1,400-acre ranch in Hawaii. That…

In Gstaad, in the canton of Bern, a four-bedroom chalet sells for €41,500/sqm. In Kutchan Hirafu, in the Niseko district,…

In Portofino, during the first half of 2026, a one-bedroom flat overlooking the harbour changed hands at €31,500/sqm. In Lampedusa,…

Twenty-eight million dollars for a duplex in Brera, in 2025. Not a historic palazzo with eighteenth-century frescoes: a two-level apartment…

The Maldivian constitution forbids foreign ownership of land. Not with some technical exception to work around: it forbids it outright. Yet an active market of villas sold to international buyers exists inside the archipelago's resorts, and the government has recently…

In a negotiation, weeks go by arguing over a hundred thousand euros of price, and nobody spends twenty minutes on the question that decides the outcome: what will it cost to keep the house open. The rule the industry has…