Top Story
Singapore luxury rents plunge, bringing prices down. Good news for Singapore speculators — many owners of high-end apartments, unable to collect rents high enough to cover their costs, are offloading their properties. Singapore’s rental market is critical to the high-end market, as it’s driven by expatriate executives who have typically arrived with generous housing budgets. That’s no longer the case, said Desmond Sim of brokers CBRE. (Singapore Straits Times)
Talking Points
Princesses rejoice as Disney offers private, upscale homes within walls of Disney World. Residents of the $2 million-plus homes in the new Golden Oaks development have free transportation rights to the gates of the theme park, and their 3,000- to 12,000-square-foot homes are surrounded by parks, gardens, golf courses and sculptures of classic Disney characters. (People) Bloomberg, eyeing expansion, buys apartments in neighboring townhouse. Former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is apparently looking to create a Russian-oligarch-style mega-mansion on the Upper East Side, buying co-op apartments in the townhouse adjoining his own on East 79th Street. He recently paid $14 million for a 2,300-square-foot two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath triplex; only one unit in the neighboring building remains unbought by Bloomberg. (The New York Times) More bad news for Trump brand as Toronto partners revolt. Talon International, the developer of Toronto’s Trump International Hotel and Tower, wants to erase Donald Trump's name from the city’s skyline, saying the presidential candidate has tarnished his brand irrevocably. Some 80% of the condo units remain unsold, amid a flurry of lawsuits, countersuits and a threat by Trump to go after "hundreds of millions of dollars" from Talon and the condo boards. (Metro Toronto) London’s super-rich turn to renting amid higher taxes, uncertain market. Put off by the more expensive stamp duty (i.e., sales tax) on expensive homes and facing uncertainty over the upcoming Brexit vote, potential buyers of £10 million-plus homes ($14.2 million) are opting to become tenants instead. Concerns over ongoing revelations from the Panama Papers leak may also be a contributing factor. (Financial Times) Beverly Hills priciest home is spec house on Barbra Streisand's former estate. A 38,000-square-foot spec house has gone up on the site of Barbra Streisand's former mansion, Mon Reve, at 301 Carolwood Drive in Beverly Hills. The property comes with 10 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, a movie theater complex, parking for 60 cars and a spa. Asking price? $150 million. If it sells for the ask, it would be the highest price ever for a single home in Los Angeles. Frank Sinatra once lived across the street. (SFGate)
The Shortlist
• For sale: magnificent manse on 16 acres, comes with royal heritage, ready for restoration, ghost included (Mansion Global) • Let’s map the Bay Area’s most expensive homes (SFGate) • Untouched, single-owner 1953 Marcel Breuer house for sale in Princeton, New Jersey (Curbed) • In Abu Dhabi, developer to offer 99-year leases to foreigners interested in new apartments and villas (Gulf News) • Is it time to buy in Greece? (Mansion Global) • Britney Spears puts Thousand Oaks home on market for $8.995 million (Los Angeles Times) • U.K. home asking prices reach record high on surge of first-time buyers (City A.M.) • George Clooney and Cindy Crawford’s husband sell their Casamigos compound in Mexico for $100 million (The Daily Mail)
Listing of the Day
