Live Like an 18th-Century Aristocrat in This Wildly Decorated Parisian Apartment

Listing of the Day

Location: Paris

Price: €4.2 million (US$4.49 million)

This Rue de Rivoli home in the heart of Paris’s 1st Arrondissement comes with some serious design cachet: For one, it was one of the first major projects of notable French interior designer Didier Rabes, according to listing agent Paola Feau.

While an apartment, the four-level home is large enough to feel like a detached house, and Rabes decorated it lavishly to evoke an 18th-century chateau, complete with chandeliers, mirrored ceilings, Versailles-style parquet flooring and stucco imitation sculptures.

A wrought iron stairway connects the home’s four floors, while a lift also connects the three main floors.
Sébastien Dondain

Most of the building dates to the mid-19th century, though there are some remnants of the older Directoire style with its Neoclassical architectural forms, which were popular in the late 1700s, according to Feau.

This particular residence in the building also has the legacy of being the couture workshop of designer Madeleine Vionnet during the early 20th century, Feau said. It was later transformed into a private home, and with recent renovations, it boasts both a distinctive period atmosphere and modern comforts such as an elevator and a large modern kitchen.

Stats

The 3,207-square-foot apartment has four bedrooms with three full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. The apartment is spread over four floors including a lower ground floor, and is entered on the ground floor of the building.

Amenities

The home boasts a lift that goes between its three main floors, as well as a home office, and a 300-square-foot paved courtyard on the second floor that two of the bedroom suites open onto.

A separate, renovated apartment on the second floor connects to the main house, and can be accessed by both an interior staircase from the main house or through the building’s common areas. With two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen, “the apartment could be kept completely separate and rented or used for guests, or it could be used as an extension of the main house,” Feau said. “This little apartment has been fully renovated in a completely modern style, in contrast to the 18th-century-style main house.”

Neighbourhood Notes

Sitting right on the expansive Tuileries Garden, a 17th-century formal garden filled with statues, including 18 bronzes by Aristide Maillol, the location is also within a few minutes’ walk of the Louvre, Place Vendôme and Place de la Concorde, as well as the Jardin des Champs-Élysées.

“It’s one of the best areas in Paris,” Feau said. “It’s very, very central, with all the finest restaurants, fashion and jewellery boutiques and hotels, including Hotel Le Meurice and the Ritz.”

The Place Vendôme has historically been the home of many famous dress designers, with the stores of the couturier Chéruit and the shirtmaker Charvet still in situ.

Agent : Paola Feau, Daniel Feau and Luxury Portfolio International

Australia’s housing crisis will not be solved by first-home buyer incentives or tax changes alone, with leading property figures warning governments must tackle supply constraints if affordability is to improve.

Speaking at the Kanebridge Quarterly Property Leadership Summit in Sydney last week, expert project marketing specialist Sam Elbanna, property investor and fund manager Paul Miron and property consultant Karla McNeice said that a lack of housing supply remained the central issue facing the market.

Elbanna, Director of CPM Realty with more than 30 years’ experience in project sales, argued that successive governments had focused too heavily on stimulating demand rather than addressing the barriers preventing new housing from being delivered.

“The misconception is that politicians think the way to solve the housing crisis is to drive demand,” he said.

“The reality is that’s not the way. This is a supply-side problem, and it needs to be solved on the supply side.”

Drawing on his experience in project sales, Elbanna said policies designed to help first-home buyers often had unintended consequences, pointing to previous grants that ultimately flowed through to higher property prices.

Instead, he said developers were facing increasing red tape, approval delays and rising costs, which were discouraging new housing supply.

“In the absence of stock, demand exceeds supply,” he said.

Miron, a Co-Founder and Fund Manager of Msquared Capital, said the housing debate had become overly focused on tax policy while overlooking broader structural issues.

He argued that affordability challenges stemmed from a combination of factors, including planning constraints, supply shortages, migration levels and interest rates.

“No-one can be 100 per cent certain on the real reason for property prices is going up,” he said.

“The reason why property prices are higher is a combination of interest rates, lack of supply, migration, vacancy rates and maybe taxes play a role.”

Miron was critical of recent federal housing policy changes, warning they could reduce the number of new homes being built and further constrain supply that was even highlighted in the budget.

He also highlighted the importance of the property sector to the broader economy, noting that residential real estate and related industries employed more than one million Australians.

McNeice, who advises developers on sales strategy and market intelligence, said understanding buyers had become increasingly important as affordability pressures intensified.

While affordability remained a major consideration, she said today’s buyers were focused on value rather than simply price.

“People are looking for value for money,” she said.

She said buyers were increasingly evaluating factors such as transport connections, walkability, nearby amenities and flexible living spaces that could accommodate changing family needs.

“What infrastructure is going on? Can I walk to the shops? Can I meet people at the local cafe?” she said.

The panel also discussed the mounting pressures facing developers, with Elbanna arguing that many projects become financially unviable from the moment a site is purchased.

“The viability of a development happens at the moment the site is bought,” he said.

He said rising construction costs, higher interest rates and overly optimistic feasibility assumptions had left some developers exposed as market conditions changed.

While acknowledging the growing number of smaller and first-time developers entering the market, Elbanna said property development required expertise across finance, construction, marketing and legal disciplines.

“It is actually a business that requires a level of expertise,” he said.

Looking ahead, the panel agreed opportunities remained in the market despite current challenges.

Miron said property should continue to be viewed as a long-term investment and cautioned against trying to time short-term market movements.

McNeice said success would increasingly depend on identifying projects that genuinely met changing buyer expectations.

Elbanna said affordable housing remained achievable, but developers needed to deliver more than just homes.

“We can provide affordable housing in this country,” he said.

“But we’ve got to wrap that affordable housing with the things that people want.”

As Australia’s housing affordability debate intensifies, the panellists agreed on one point: without a meaningful increase in housing supply, demand-side measures alone are unlikely to solve the nation’s property challenges.

Live Like an 18th-Century Aristocrat in This Wildly Decorated Parisian Apartment

The four-bedroom home is decorated lavishly, complete with chandeliers, mirrored ceilings, Versailles-style parquet flooring and stucco imitation sculptures

Australia’s housing affordability crisis is being fuelled by chronic undersupply, planning delays and rising development costs, as politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.