Daily Briefing: April 22, 2016
Top Story
What will happen to Prince’s Paisley Park fortress in Minneapolis? The Minneapolis-area home of pop icon Prince, who died yesterday at 57, will be a tough sell, brokers say. The $10 million complex has four recording studios and resembles a mid-90's office park, topped with a large glass pyramid. It may become a museum to Prince, or it could be torn down for spec houses, brokers say. (Realtor.com) Also see: Prince’s Villa in Marbella Has Been on the Market for Two Years
Talking Points
Waiting for Socialist Hollande's defeat, some wealthy French sell their apartments. Owners of expensive real estate in France are hoping the winner of next year's presidential election will roll back Socialist President Francois Hollande's wealth tax that's kept many buyers out of the market. Homes priced at more than €2 million ($2.25 million) have dropped 3.7% in the six months through March, while the wider Paris market has gained 2.6%. (Bloomberg) London to crack down on so-called iceberg basements. Giant basement developments that cause misery for neighbors face tighter planning restrictions, the British government has announced. The tighter scrutiny comes amid complaints that residents living next to the developments "have no peace” during construction. (The Telegraph) See Mansion Global’s previous coverage. U.S. recovery slowed by lack of borrowing against rising home prices. Economists say they've figured out why the U.S. economy has recovered so slowly since the housing bubble burst in 2008, and it's not much of a surprise: Wary homeowners are no longer borrowing as much against the value of their property and spending the cash. (Bloomberg) New York’s condo boom lets only a few Lower East Side icons survive. Development in downtown Manhattan may undermine itself by devouring the very neighborhoods meant to attract high-end condo buyers. The iconic Katz's Deli was able to survive by selling its air rights to a neighboring luxury condo, but the neighborhood’s other small businesses were pushed out. (New York Times) L.A. broker says contemporary homes are selling, often with unexpected features. Ten years ago, you couldn’t give away a contemporary home, says broker Valerie Fitzgerald. But today’s high-end buyers in West L.A. like the open spaces, infinity pools, glass garages and walls made entirely of candy. Some homes now have tiny chef’s kitchens so guests needn't hear the clink-clink of catering. (The Real Deal) San Francisco housing activists trying to block Lennar development. Affordable housing activists want to delay approval of a new luxury condo in San Francisco's Mission District until June, after a referendum on a rule that would double the amount of affordable housing new projects must include, to 25%. (El Tecolote)
The Shortlist
• Meet the technology startups disrupting luxury real estate (Mansion Global) • In Chicago, record-setting $140 million sale of Streeterville development (Crain’s Chicago Business) • Home sales surged in the U.K. as buyers rushed to avoid new tax (Mansion Global) • “Broke” Indian beer magnate Vijay Mallya failed to disclose Trump condos he owns (Business Today) • Coldwell Banker posts spoof listing/advertisement for X-Men's mansion (Coldwell Banker) • New York luxury towers to be connected by swimming pool bridge (Gizmag) • Australia's Victoria state to raise taxes on foreign property owners (Bloomberg) • For sale: Andrey Melnichenko’s superyacht, discounted to $300 million (Forbes)
Listing of the Day
