24 How Sussex compares to other legal residences in the G7 – National

The planned restoration of 24 Sussex Drive has revived hopes that the now-vacant official residence of Canada’s prime minister could become a building on par with that of other world leaders.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said in an announcement on Friday that 24 Sussex is “a symbol of office” and should serve as the prime minister’s home and workplace. Carney said that although he will not live in the building, it should be prepared for the arrival of the prime minister.

Legal settlements around the world have faced their own saga of not being repaired and renewed. Some, like the famous white building in Washington, are still in development.

Here’s a look at how 24 Sussex compares to other official residences in the G7.

The National Capital Commission says the residence at 24 Sussex was built in 1868 but has been used as the official residence of Canada’s prime minister since 1950, after it was purchased by the federal government.

The 35-room stone mansion is approximately 12,000 square feet in size and sits on 5.3 acres on the banks of the Ottawa River. The property also includes a small coach house, pool house and two guard stations.

The main house is divided into private areas and a state area used for official functions handled by the prime minister.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau did not move to Sussex 24 when he was elected in 2015, although he used the building for some social events during his tenure.

24 Sussex was listed as “critical” by the NCC in 2021 and closed the following year due to “health and safety reasons” – including a rat infestation.

Trudeau and his successors have lived in Rideau Cottage, a 22-room, 10,030 square foot house built in 1867 on the grounds of Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General.

Carney said on Friday that the proposal to win 24 Sussex in the national competition will be announced by Canada Day next year.

A fundraising campaign will be launched to raise all or most of the project costs. It will be administered by the Rideau Hall Foundation.

Carney declined to give an estimate of how much the renovations will cost and said the budget is part of a competitive process.

Perhaps the official official residence of a G7 world leader, the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave has served as the private home and workplace of the president of the United States since it first opened in 1800, after eight years of construction.

The original building was famously burned by British troops from what was then Upper Canada in 1814, during the War of 1812. It was demolished and rebuilt, when former president James Monroe lived in 1817.

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Several of the most notable features of today’s White House — including the West Wing, the East Wing, the Rose Garden and the Oval Office — were added to the building over the following decades.

The current building is 55,000 square meters in size and contains 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms and six levels, according to the National Archives.

It sits within the 77-acre Presidential Park, which also includes the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the US Treasury Building, Lafayette Square and the Ellipse.

Zillow estimated in 2017 that the estimated value of the White House property is about US$400 million.

In 2025, US President Donald Trump authorized the demolition of the East Wing, to be replaced by a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which is under construction.

The British prime minister’s official residence and office is probably the only one in the G7 that is more famous for its front door than the rest of the building, with a golden “10” that provides the backdrop to several key moments in UK political history.

The 342-year-old city in the City of Westminster, London, was given by King George II to Robert Walpole, the first prime minister of Great Britain, who lived in 1735.

Originally three houses, these buildings were combined into one connected complex with 100 houses including private residences, government offices, including a cabinet meeting room and a dining and reception room for official events.

Although the offices at 10 Downing Street have been used by many prime ministers, not all of them have lived there, preferring their homes as the building fell into disrepair during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Several renovation projects have been completed to preserve and modernize the building, with more planned for the future.

Since 1997, most prime ministers except Rishi Sunak have chosen to live in a larger flat above 11 Downing Street near No. 10.

British real estate site Yopa says a “conservative” estimate of the property’s value, adjusted for inflation, would be 6 million pounds.

First built in 1929, the official residence of the Japanese prime minister is a two-story house whose design was inspired by the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

The 62,000 square meter building sits in the Nagatachō district of Tokyo, near the Imperial Palace.

The combined residential and office building became crowded in the 1990s, however, prompting the construction of a five-story prime minister’s office building that opened in 2002 at a cost of ¥43.5 billion ($381.6 million).

The government says the new building, known locally as Kantei, occupies 1.6 times the area and 2.5 times the floor area of ​​the old settlement.

This modern building houses government offices and cabinet meeting rooms, reception rooms where foreign leaders are received and entertained and a national crisis management center. It is equipped with solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system.

The old building was renovated and redecorated, and has served as the prime minister’s private residence since 2005.

The private residence is rumored to be haunted as it was the site of two coup attempts in 1932 and 1936, the first of which led to the assassination of then-prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi.

The French president’s official residence and office was completed in 1722 as the home of Louis Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, governor of the metropolitan region of Île-de-France. It was first named the Hôtel d’Évreux.

After changing hands among a series of French officials, in 1848 it was decided to house the first president of the French Republic, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who stayed there until a coup in 1852 elevated him to emperor.

It has served as the head of the official residence since 1871, after the end of the Franco-Prussian war, presidents added changes in the decades since then. Not all presidents chose to live in the palace until the beginning of the modern Fifth Republic in 1958.

The interior of the palace is 120,300 square meters – 3,229 of which are private apartments – and sits on 3.7 hectares of parkland, according to the French presidency. This building has 365 rooms on three floors.

The largest official residence in the G7 and the world, the Chancellery complex, or Bundeskanzleramt, is eight stories, over 693,000 square feet in size and 118 feet tall – eight times the height of the White House.

It was completed in 2001 at a cost of 238 million and replaces the former Reich Chancellery building, which was used from 1878 to 1945, when it was badly damaged during the Second World War and later demolished by Soviet forces.

The reunification of Germany in 1990 led to the selection of Berlin as the modern capital, starting a competition to design new federal government buildings.

German political journalists and locals have nicknamed the Chancellor the Waschmaschine, or “washing machine,” because of the building’s cube-like structure and large porthole-shaped window in the chancellor’s upper office.

The Bundeskanzleramt includes an air tube system to send original documents and distribute them between offices.

An extension that will add hundreds of new offices, a childcare center and a helipad will be completed in 2027.

The Chigi Palace sits on the historic Piazza Colonna in the center of Rome and is the oldest official residence in the G7, with construction dating back to the late 1500s. During its history, it has hosted members of the royal family and, in 1770, a concert by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The building did not belong to the Italian state until 1916. After the First World War, Benito Mussolini named the palace as the home of the Italian foreign minister.

In 1961, the palace became the official meeting place of the Council of Ministers – the body of the Italian Cabinet – and the residence of the prime minister.

The five-story building is approximately 28,800 square meters, according to the official 1915 plan that set the sale price at 4 million lira, or $121,635 – $3.28 million today when adjusted for inflation.

Italy’s current Prime Minister, Giorgio Meloni, chose not to live in the Chigi Palace, instead staying at his family home in a suburb south of Rome.