Donald Trump has been trying to offload the sumptuous Château des Palmiers on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin for years now. But despite slashing the asking price by almost half, no potential buyers have ponied up to purchase the manse. Click or scroll through for a tour of the dreamy estate and discover the secrets of this tropical retreat...

Never one to do things by halves, Donald Trump went all out when he purchased the West Indian idyll in 2013. Billed as a world-class estate, the beguiling property is spread across 4.8 acres within an ultra-exclusive gated community on the southwest coast of French Saint Martin, overlooking one of the territory's most beautiful beaches.

The estate's prestigious location is matched by its high-end design and amenities. The handiwork of local architect Jean-Paul Goergler, the Château des Palmiers, which translates to 'the Castle of Palms', was designed in 2000 in a grand Provençal style to evoke the luxe residences of the South of France, and has all the trappings of a billionaire's vacation home.

The property wows with an opulent five-bedroom oceanside villa, as well as a less formal four-bedroom garden villa and two-bedroom staff cottage. There's also a wealth of further amenities, ranging from a fabulous heated pool and a tennis court to a fitness centre and a state-of-the-art security system – a must, of course, for the Trumps.

The oceanside villa is the jewel in the property's crown and contains the most elaborately decorated rooms. Serendipitously, the former owner, Indiana entrepreneur Steve Hilbert, shares Trump's taste for lavish Louis XIV-style furniture and copious bling – the bathroom fixtures in his Indiana manse for instance are plated in gold – and the villa has plenty of this sort of finery. Let's begin our tour here...

Upon entering the villa you'll see a gilded coat of arms on the double front doors. The emblem bears an uncanny resemblance to the coat of arms registered in 1939 by Joseph Edward Davies, the husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post who built Trump's Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. The two designs are identical, apart from the Latin word for integrity which has been replaced by the Trump name.

Stepping inside, the grand double-height foyer boasts a mezzanine with exquisite wrought iron balustrading and a Roman-style marble table, two dramatic columns and solid stone flooring. Elaborate flower displays create a stunning first impression.

Decorated in shades of gold, the formal living room is as fancy as they come, with its attention-grabbing chandelier, gilded furniture and reproduction baroque paintings, not to mention the marble fireplace and the two tiger-print chairs. Regal arched windows with swagged curtains add a sense of drama to the room.

Moving on, the grandeur continues in the luxurious kitchen, which is kitted out with an ornate crystal and gold leaf chandelier, solid marble countertops, Shaker-style cabinets and a reproduction of a still life by a 17th-century Dutch painter. There's even what looks like a gold-plated handle on the range cooker.

The formal dining room has got to be the most elegant space in the property. A stunning baroque-style fresco adorns the extra-high ceiling. At its centre hangs another crystal gold chandelier, which looms over a marble-topped dining table. The painting on the far wall is a reproduction of Dutch Master Jan Davidsz. de Heem's Still Life with Parrots from the 1640s. The original can be viewed in the Ringling Museum in Florida.

At the opposite end of the room hangs a copy of a detail from a work by the same artist, Abundant Still Life with a Parrot, which dates from around 1655. The real deal is on display at Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts. With two elaborate pieces of art bookending the room, this is a dining room made for formal entertaining. 

The family room is up next, though it's reportedly been treated to a much-needed contemporary revamp recently. Here, we can see the vaulted wood-beamed ceiling, which adds an air of grandeur to the den. Trump is said to have been a regular guest at the property before he bought it in 2013, having been a long-time friend of the villa's previous owner, Steve Hilbert, an insurance and finance executive.

The opulent master bedroom is steeped in regal furnishings, from the canopied bed to the gilded armoire and framed classical artworks. The elevated internal windows, dressed up to look like balconies with their wrought-iron balustrades, are an unusual touch. 

The master bathroom is suitably extravagant too, with the bathtub tucked away in its own alcove, and not one but two showers. During the 2000s and early 2010s, before Trump snapped up the estate, Steve Hilbert and his wife, Tomisue, welcomed a slew of VIPs to the property, including Hollywood celebrities like Anna Nicole Smith and various NBA and NFL stars. 

Gold hues also dominate in this bedroom, which has a cleverly hidden TV lift cabinet. Trump struck up a friendship with Hilbert in 1998 when the Indiana executive was at the helm of insurance and financial services giant Conseco – the pair had partnered on an $800 million (£599m) real estate deal. The Hilberts even went on to collaborate with Melania Trump on a high-end caviar-based skincare line.

Shown here is another of the oceanside villa's sumptuous bedrooms. Complete with a dressing room and ensuite bathroom, it's a lavish space to host guests. Facing extensive legal battles, the Hilberts placed the Caribbean estate on the market in 2010 and though they'd slashed the asking price from $29 million (£21.7m) to $19.7 million (£14.7m), the estate just couldn't find a buyer.

In this striking guest room, the eye-catching vaulted ceiling takes centre stage with its exposed wood beams and gilded chandelier. Trump agreed to buy the property to help the Hilberts cover their legal bills, and the transaction went through via an LLC in the summer of 2013.

Shown here is the fifth and final bedroom in the oceanside villa. You can just about make out the copy of François Boucher's 1751 painting The Blonde Odalisque on the wall. With its four-poster bed crowned with gilded pineapples on each column, it's among the residence's most luxurious spaces.

And what opulent, oceanside escape is complete without a private gym? Fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment, it's got everything a fitness enthusiast could ask for. Meanwhile, the vaulted ceiling and plaster-effect walls evoke a charming, Mediterranean feel to the workout room.

The property's grounds are just as spectacular as its interior, with plenty of outdoor entertaining areas like this covered pavilion, which offers shade from the sun – annual temperatures on the isle rarely fall below 20°C. The villa is perched on the shores of Plum Bay within the gated community of Terres Basses on the west coast of Saint Martin, an area known for its white-sand beaches and glittering turquoise sea. 

The pool also overlooks the dazzling ocean, offering breathtaking views as residents soak up the sunshine. Saint Martin, which is the French side of the island, is rich in luxury real estate, and the waterfront is home to an array of spectacular beach houses – often the vacation homes of the wealthy.

Complete with an eight-foot-tall boundary wall and a state-of-the-art security system, the estate was clearly built with privacy in mind. According to the National Post, the Trumps were regular visitors to the villa until 2015, the year Trump launched his presidential bid. 

Since his successful run for the White House, the estate has been mostly rented out. Financial disclosures show the billionaire pocketed between $200,000 (£150k) and $2 million (£1.5m) in rental fees from 2014 to the middle of 2016, so the property is quite the earner. Now let's take a look around the garden villa, which is set back from the ocean.

This villa is more modest than its glamorous counterpart nearer the beach, with little in the way of ostentation. The living room especially is strikingly simple compared to the formal version in the other villa. Simple whitewashed walls and a rustic wood-beamed ceiling offer a relaxed, pared-back feel. 

The garden villa houses the estate's commercial-grade catering kitchen, which must come in very useful indeed for big parties and other glittering events. In addition to an abundance of countertop space, there's a vast Viking range cooker and professional-style extractor, along with tons of other top-end appliances.

Compact and cosy, the bedrooms in the garden villa are more muted as well, with simple tiled floors and neutral walls. Sadly, calamity hit in September 2017 when Saint Martin was devastated by Hurricane Irma, but the estate was spared major damage, which is a testament to its robust construction. The storm also paid a visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, but it too escaped pretty much unscathed.

This bedroom is also relatively simple in terms of decoration, but the few pieces of furniture it does contain appear to be beautifully crafted. Despite the property's fat rental yield, Trump listed it with Sotheby's International Realty in May 2017 at an asking price of a whopping $28 million (£21m).

However, offers were thin on the ground, so the price was reduced by 40% to $16.7 million (£12.5m), then slashed even further to $15.5 million (£11.6m). Few potential buyers have reportedly viewed the estate and it remains on the market. A Russian investor is said to have shown some interest but ended up backing out. 

The property is available to book now that COVID-19 restrictions have eased, but it certainly isn't cheap, with both villas starting at $45,000 (£34k) per week in low season, rising to $60,000 (£45k) during peak periods. The price does, however, include a coterie of staff, from a private chef to personal maids, to cater to guests' every whim.

Guests also get to enjoy the long list of amenities. As you might expect, considering its owner's love of golf, the estate features a 100-yard golf hole. The mini course is dotted with palm trees, which is fitting given the name of the property, and arranged around a charming artificial lake. Note the formidable-looking security fence to the right of the shot.

Next to the golf hole is yet another upscale amenity, the estate's tennis court. Trump purchased the villa for an undisclosed price, so we can only speculate as to the potential loss or gain he could make on the sale. If the estate sells for $15.5 million (£11.6m), the billionaire ex-POTUS could be looking at a loss of $4.2 million (£3.1m), if he did indeed pay $19.7 million (£14.7m) for the pad back in 2013. Watch this space...

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