Living in luxury

Ibiza again and again: Benko’s secret villa worth millions

Married couple Nathalie and René Benko

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/picturedesk.com/Hans Klaus Techt, Rainer Fleckl)

While René Benko's Signa group plunged into the abyss, the fallen real estate tycoon and his wife devoted themselves to another villa project on the Balearic island - discreetly and in secret.

At the beginning of January 2025, everything seems deserted on Ibiza, where winter puts the island into a quiet hibernation. Tourists are rare at this time of year, and there are no direct flights from Vienna-Schwechat during the winter months. While life pulsates on Mallorca next door, Ibiza lies under a silent blanket at a spring-like 16 degrees. In a villa settlement near Santa Eulalia del Río, you hardly meet anyone - only a few Peruvian guest workers and gardeners tend to the abandoned properties.

Here, in a district called Jesus, is the Can March property. In May 2022, the finca, which had a constructed area of 524.05 square meters on a plot of 10,000 square meters, changed hands. A reference to the new owner can now be found next to the new brown entrance gate. It is emblazoned with a large N. The N stands for Nathalie. For Nathalie Benko, wife of the fallen real estate speculator René Benko, who caused the biggest bankruptcy in Austrian post-war history with his Signa and against whom an Italian anti-mafia prosecutor's office has issued a European arrest warrant.