The £1.6bn ‘eco-district’ built in the sea that expanded microstate’s size by 3%

A tiny European state on the French Riviera has just grown in size by 3 percent after a newly-built “eco-district” was formally unveiled.

Mareterra, Monaco‘s new €2 billion (£1.6billion) project in the Mediterranean Sea was inaugurated by the microstate’s Prince Albert II on Wednesday, and boasts a seaside promenade, a major injection of new high-end property and a marina.

The site has more than 100 apartments and 10 large villas, with structures in the district created by world-renowned architects including Tadao Ando and Norman Foster.

Meanwhile, the firm of Italian architect Renzo Piano, who co-designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris, were behind a residential development building, named Le Renzo, after him.

Property prices have not yet been revealed, but perhaps unsurprisingly they’re not cheap. Knight Frank estimates that properties in the district could go for around €100,000 (£82,949) per square meter.

But it won’t just be a playground for the district’s residents, with around half of the newly-created landmass accessible to the public.

The amenities include shopping facilities and cycle paths. Monaco, which is synonymous with its wealthy residents and low tax, is the second smallest country in the world behind the Vatican, covering just 0.7 square miles.

It’s also among the most densely populated, with some 39,000 people living there, seven in 10 are millionaires, according to property firm Knight Frank.

They’re all crammed into an area that could fit inside New York’s Central Park, but the latest development saw the landmass expand by nearly 15 acres, CNN reports.

The Grimaldi Forum, Monaco‘s conference centre, was also expanded as part of the decade-long construction project.

As there’s little room for construction in the principality land reclamation projects have been used to expand buildable land outwards into the sea. These developments now represent quarter of the Monaco‘s territory, according to the outlet.

Such projects are now tightly regulated, and according to the developers, various steps were taken to “minimise the impact on the natural ecosystem as much as possible.”

This included consultation with marine experts to protect sealife and saw new habitats specially created, including artificial seagrass beds, their website says.

80 percent of heating and cooling in the district will be powered by renewable energy, the team claims. This will include power generated by over 1.2 acres of solar panels.

Mareterra’s green spaces have also been decked out with 1,000 trees from Tuscany. Though the project was privately funded, Monaco’s government will receive 20 percent tax on the properties sold.