And there’s another unique aspect that nearby properties can’t claim: It is owned by the president of the United States.
Le Chateau des Palmiers, which President Trump described as “one of the greatest mansions in the world” when he bought it in 2013, was quietly listed for sale last month on the website of Sotheby’s International Realty, whose St. Martin office noted coyly in an Instagram post, “It’s huuuuuge!” The price, according to a person familiar with the listing: $28 million.
It’s unclear why the property is for sale. It earned Trump between $200,000 and $2 million in rental fees between 2014 and mid-2016, according to financial disclosures. Officials with the White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The effort to sell the high-priced estate in the midst of Trump’s tenure could present a similar ethical problem to the one his lawyer cited in defending his decision not to sell off his company after the election: that a buyer could overpay as a way to gain currency with the president.
If the estate is sold, the public probably would learn little, if anything, about who has purchased it.
Public records in the French territory do not always show details of private property transactions. Trump would eventually have to disclose the sales price on his financial disclosure form — a report detailing 2017 transactions must be filed in the spring of 2018 — but he would not be required to reveal the identity of the buyer.