Luxury homes for the super-rich

Millions to spend? Check out some of our swisher overseas brochures

STAGGERINGLY, despite all sorts of bad weather forecasted in the financial markets and whatnot, there are now close to 1,000 billionaires residing around the world, with many of them now calling a number of addresses 'home'. The sharper minds move regularly across continents to the more exclusive must-have addresses springing up in Delhi, New York or St Tropez, for example, where the entry level often exceeds €5 million.

It's not just a phenomenon among the nouveau-riche, the planet's aristocracy is also moving away from the ancestral stately rocks or castles which, despite the pull of heritage and tradition, often eat into a portfolio's budget, and they are always susceptible to that ridiculous offer one can't refuse.

So, if you were thinking of swapping Dublin or Cork for the south of France or the Indian Ocean, where would you look? Well, Knight Frank's new International Property 2008 brochure is as good a start as any, with every page enticing people into paradises with blue skies, greenery and a style, elegance and grandeur you'd easily drape from any window.

Take the magnificent €5.25 million six-bedroom villa with two reception rooms overlooking the Mediterranean at Sainte-Maxime in the Côte d'Azur, that just screams, "the-dude-on-the-hill who never seems to have to work, sipping champagne, with his babe".

Or, the private peninsula (price on application) with the four-bedroom private villa and swimming pool at Roca Lisa in Ibiza with direct access to the sea. This just begs you to party into the small hours in the old town and then to invite everybody back for a shindig.

Mmmmmm, the list goes on: Los Angeles, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Barbados and Queensland. So who is buying these amazing magnets? According to Knight Frank's Paul Humphreys: "In Europe, our core market, and particularly in France, it's the British, Irish, Russians, northern Europeans and Italians. Most are buying second homes as holiday destinations during the summer and for some short-term lets.

"They are buying them because they like them and not because they're wondering how much rent they'll get." With prices in the millions of euros, you'd certainly want to more than like such properties, that include hunting lodges in the Dordogne, chateaux in the Gironde, country homes and farmhouses in Umbria and estates in Mallorca, among many beautiful spots you could happily live out more than one existence.

Much less expensive, and decidedly down the property chain, the new development market is also attracting its supporters with holiday destinations such as Bulgaria being a huge favourite with new investors, even though it is still in short trousers.

Knight Frank's Mark Harvey is involved in the new development market, specialising in established destinations such as France, Italy, Spain, the US and the Caribbean, and here too the oligarchs are making their presence felt.

"We're getting a very strong appetite from the Russian market - buying everywhere and particularly in the south of France, with a good sea-view. The Irish are buying in the more ambitious markets, such as Montenegro, Croatia and Bulgaria and the British are in the Alps, Italy, Spain and the Caribbean."

Another company with a big say in the international overseas property market is Hamptons International. Its international property director James Davies tells a similar story when it comes to who's buying what and where.

"It's a real mix, with pure speculators looking to buy and flip the property prior to completion; owner-occupiers looking for either a potential investment and rental which they might use a bit themselves; and then there is the pure owner-occupier who wants to use it with family and friends."

At this level you're either working Monday to Friday and flying down to France, Spain, Italy or Portugal for the weekend and taking advantage of your little piece of heaven for three or four weeks a year.

Or, you're sitting tidy on a nice tribunal nest-egg or a couple of multi-million record-deals and have decided to retire early and abroad.

HAMPTONS International has six-bedroom villas called, Les Salines, in the Indian Ocean overlooking a lagoon and the iconic mountain, Le Morne Brabant, costing from €605,000 to €3 million-plus. They come with an infinity pool, servants quarters and enough garden to train a rugby team in.

Davies says that the South Africans in particular are "buying big" in Mauritius, along with Europeans and Indians; the Chinese are doing little as they are "struggling to get their money out of the country".

Because of Indian and Pakistani property rules - that only allow natives to buy locally - young successful UK Asians with family links to either country are buying readily.

In Dubai, the home away from home for so many displaced nationals, continues to attract many property buyers including Russians and some Europeans.

"Irish people, along with the Brits, continue to buy where they see a deal in Europe, Dubai and Mauritius, and particularly in Barbados where, if you walk into the Sandy Lane hotel at Christmas, the bar is full of Irish."