Everyone loves having a luxury holiday home in the sun overlooking the sea. And so do celebrities - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Steven Spielberg, Vladimir Putin, Roman Abromovich and Rafael Nadal have all been spotted recently messing about on the water in the Mediterranean playgrounds of St-Tropez, Cannes, Monaco and Montenegro.
But the latest place to buy an ocean view home isn’t any of these chic resorts but rather The World, an uber-yacht where many of the world’s wealthy are buying massive apartments, popular because you can travel the globe without leaving home.
Set Sail
This year, residents and guests of The World, which is a floating luxury apartment complex crossed with a cruise ship, get to shiver in ice-covered Antarctic, strip off in the Caribbean sun and catch spring blossom in New York’s Central Park. Other highlights of 2011’s itinerary include an expedition to the Seychelles and a meander down the Chilean fjords.
Well-off folk attracted to this all-at-sea-community are often those who are happy to part with millions for a large European second home and a yacht. They change their minds 
when they discover they can enjoy something fifty times bigger than a country pile and enjoy a more varied lifestyle.
Yacht and home in one
“They say, ‘To hell with the yacht,’ and combine both wishes with a home on The World,” says David Vaughan from Savills, who’s currently selling the £10 million grandly kitted-out and largest apartment onboard.
“Every morning when you draw the curtains there’s a new horizon,” enthuses Vaughan, who believes The World’s “the coolest thing in life” with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, Wimbledon-sized tennis court, golf driving range, cigar club, spa and call-a-chef when you want someone to cook for you in your luxury cabin.
About half of the boat’s high-earning homeowners are American. Thirty-five percent are European, while the rest paddle over from Asia, Australia, South America and South Africa.
Pluses for anyone bold enough to stump up a deposit for this room-with-a-sea-view is it’s tax free and all meals and drink are included.
The catch? Annual dues are about £1 million a year. A snip, “as running a country pile and yacht could easily cost a million,” adds Vaughan.