Video | Take a look inside Trump’s Caribbean estate, quietly put on sale for US$28m. Yes, it’s huge

The opulent beachfront estate that recently went on the market on the Caribbean island of St Martin has a number of appealing factors, including two elaborately adorned villas and an expansive pool overlooking the crystalline waters of Plum Bay.

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 Donald 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: US$28 million.

It’s unclear why the property is for sale. It earned Trump between US$200,000 and US$2 million in rental fees between 2014 and mid-2016, according to financial disclosures. Officials with the White House and the Trump Organisation 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.