SEVEN-TIMES Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher is due to move to Mallorca where his wife Corinna has just bought a villa for €30 million.
The property, previously owned by Real Madrid chair Florentino Pérez but barely used since the death of his wife, is in Andratx in the south-west of the island and has been prepared specially for Michael to move in, according to Swiss magazine L'Illustré.
Mayoress of Andratx Katia Rouarch has confirmed the report is true.
It is not known whether he will become resident in Spain or whether he will only stay there for part of the year, since it is likely the family will want to continue being Swiss taxpayers, although as European Union citizens – originally from Germany – they do not have any restrictions on movement.
The Schumachers have been living in Gland, in the canton of Vaud, since 2002.
Their Andratx villa is 3,000 square metres in size and sits in the centre of 15,000 square metres (3.7 acres) of land, with spacious gardens, two swimming pools, and two separate self-contained wings for staff and guests.
Its location on a hill with a small precipice behind it and in a walled compound makes it very private, and even has a helipad well-hidden by palm trees.
Andratx was an obvious choice for the family since the motorsport legend's brother Ralf Schumacher spends a large part of the year there, Michael himself holidayed in Mallorca many times and the German community is one of the largest expatriate groups in the town, with around 3,500 citizens from the central European country.
Michael Schumacher suffered serious brain damage in an off-piste skiing accident in the French Alpes in December 2013, but nobody outside the immediate family knows anything about his condition, other than that he is very severely disabled and unable to walk.
Both Corinna Schumacher and Michael's former PR manager and family spokeswoman Sabine Kehm have always insisted on the strictest privacy and refused to give any information to fans about their hero.
The family's current home in Gland was kitted out with latest-generation equipment and facilities costing tens of thousands after Michael's accident to ensure it was fully adapted for his care.
