IT’S JUST what recession-hit Ireland needs: a new type of property investment opportunity.
A luxury liner, offering you the opportunity of acquiring a (very) mobile home the size of a hotel room, all for an initial payment of about €500,000, docked in Dublin yesterday.
The World was built eight years ago but it has arrived in Dublin probably three years too late.
The ship is billed as a floating “world” of residential homes, that has already circumnavigated the globe three times.
“This is not a cruise ship,” said Ann-Christin Harr, The World’s Oslo-based director of sales and marketing. “It is more like a private resort that moves around.”
Boasting six-star facilities, it is in Dublin for a four-day stay and, while the city’s authorities are hoping the high-spend passengers will leave a few million euro in Ireland, the operators are hoping to find that by-now-rare species of “high-net-worth” Irish individuals with a few million euro to spend.
The World’s owners are said to be “very low-profile people” with a net value of at least $10 million. Because while €500,000 or so might get you that hotel-room-sized studio, your management fees will set you back a cool $28,400 a month in service charges. That does, however, include $25,000 in food from the liner’s four restaurants and its gourmet grocery and delicatessen.
More upmarket, two and three bedroom apartments, which have a separate livingroom, kitchen and large terraces, start at 100 sq m upwards and cost €1.664 million ($2.2 million).
Jayne Alexander, the liner’s European marketing director, said a number of Irish families had already bought apartments. “We have one or two prospective buyers coming on board while were docked in Dublin.”
Asked further about such interest, however, Ms Harr said the company would “never disclose” the nationality of owners.
The company also dismissed suggestions that The World might be a good option for tax exiles. Asked whether it could be used for this purpose, Ms Harr said under international law, you could not be domiciled on a ship. A spokesman for the Revenue Commissioners said anyone who tried would “come a cropper very quickly”.
The vessel has two swimming pools, a spa, jewellery and clothing shops, gym facilities, a casino, tennis court and golf facilities. After Dublin, the ship will move to Scotland, the US and the Caribbean before spending Christmas in Antarctica. If you are undecided about buying, you can rent for a minimum of six nights at a cost of $1,400, or $4,800 for two.
But is it a good investment? “This is not a property investment. It’s a lifestyle investment,” said Ms Harr. For Lotto jackpot winners, the agents are Christies Great Estates in London.