Real estate has always been a business full of powerfulpersonalities. But can one person ?create ? or recreate ? an entire luxuryproperty market? Looking at the cases of Marbella, Belgravia, Bel Air andMonaco, it would seem so.

Marbella and Prince Alfonso zu Hohenlohe

Until the 1940s Marbella was nothing but a village of 900inhabitants on the Spanish coast. That all changed when, according to legend, aGerman prince's coal-powered Rolls-Royce broke down there. Prince Alfonso zuHohenlohe fell in love with the place and decided to stay.

Born into one of the oldest noble families in Europe (hewas godson to the king of Spain), Hohenlohe was a successful businessman andnotorious playboy, fluent in five languages and skilled at sports such asrally-driving and tennis. After his fateful stop in Marbella he decided in 1947to build a grand private residence there ? the Finca Santa Margarita, withtraditional whitewashed walls, red-tiled roofs, charming patios and terracesand wonderful, sprawling gardens with fountains, thousands of old trees andmanicured lawns. There he played host to a constant flow of glamorous visitorswith names such as Bismarck, Metternich and Thyssen, many of whom eventuallybought adjacent plots to build their own homes.

But Hohenlohe had even grander plans. In 1954 he sold hisown home (to his friends the Rothschilds) and used other parts of the estate tobuild the famous Marbella Club, which quickly became synonymous with Europe?smid-century elite ?jet set? lifestyle. (Indeed Hohenlohe was often creditedwith having ?invented? the jet set.) Regular guests included the Duke andDuchess of Windsor, the Formula 1 driver James Hunt, photographer PatrickLitchfield, actors Sophia Loren and Sean Connery and many others.

Soon the former village was a fully fledged internationalresort, with Hohenlohe still a driving force. As head of the Costa del SolPromoters? Co-operative, he successfully lobbied for improvements to roads,airports and water supplies in the region. He continued to run the Marbellaclub and eventually set up another estate, not far away in the hills nearRonda, where he planted Bordeaux grapes and produced his own award-winning wineunder the ?Principe Alfonso? label.

By the late 1970s, however, Hohenlohe had becomedisenchanted with Marbella's move toward mass tourism and so he sold the clubto a consortium of Arab businessmen. Yet he was still proud of his accomplishmentsand in 2003, only days before his death, he accepted a medal for merit intourism from the Spanish government.

One of Hohenlohe's famous quips was: ?I have lived incastles, in Venetian palaces and the world's finest hotels. I have watched thesun rise over the beaches of five continents and I have looked into the eyes ofthe most beautiful women of the universe.?

The latter group included Princess Ira von F'rstenberg, aFiat heiress whom he married when she was 15, actresses Ava Gardner and KimNovak, with whom he had affairs, and actress Jackie Lane, whom he married in1970. But his greatest love was probably Marbella.

Bel Air and Alphonzo Bell Sr

Los Angelenos describe the three neighbourhoods of BeverlyHills, Holmby Hills and Bel Air as the ?golden triangle?. Beverly Hills startedout as a dry oil well of the Amalgamated Oil Company; Holmby Hills was foundedby wealthy retailer Arthur Letts Sr. And Bel Air, on the west side of the city,was the brainchild of Alphonzo E. Bell Sr.

Bell was born in 1875 into a family of entrepreneurs; hisfather created Bell Station Ranch, now the City of Bell, in Santa Fe Springs,while his uncle was Ed Hollenbeck, founder of the First National Bank and adriving force behind the creation of LA's first public transportation system.Alphonzo first found fame as a champion tennis player, winning bronze andsilver medals at the 1904 summer Olympic games, then went on to become asuccessful gentleman farmer in Santa Fe Springs.

But his life changed dramatically in the early 1920s afteroil was discovered on his land. The profits allowed him to buy a 4,500-acreranch in the LA area, the Danzinger Estate, complete with a Spanish-stylemansion. Inspired by the views from this house, he realised he could use theland to create a magnificent, upscale community. And the idea for Bel Air wasborn.

Engineer Wilkie Woodward planned the houses and roads,while landscape architect Aurele Vermeulen co-ordinated the plantings. Bel Airofficially opened on more than 600 acres in October 1922 and was a successright from the start, thanks in part to the growth of Hollywood. Huge irongates marked the entrance to the new community and uniformed guards checked invisitors, a novelty at the time. Bell built a sales and development centre inStone Canyon and worked in an office that is today a large suite at the HotelBel Air. He also built the elegant Bel Air Beach Club in Santa Monica and theBel Air Country Club in 1924. Land purchasers in Bel Air were required to spenda minimum of $20,000 on home construction and most early residents built inSpanish-Mediterranean style. Nowadays, the community's architecture ranges fromclassic Californian to mid-century modern and contemporary. The neighbourhoodhas become one of the most exclusive in LA, with notable residents includingthe late US President Ronald Reagan.