Posts filed under ‘Overseas property’
Truman Capote’s home for sale: perfect setting for breakfast in Brooklyn
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
FindaProperty.com’s thoughts have turned to American literature – there seems to be connections everywhere of late. First, Victoria and David Beckham call their daughter Harper – we like to think it’s after the great Harper Lee – author of To Kill A Mockingbird. And now, comes news that the former New York home of Lee’s great friend Truman Capote is still on the market – despite a hefty price cut from £11 million to £9.7 million earlier this year.
Capote lived in the garden apartment of the distinctive bright yellow 70 Willow Street, Brooklyn for ten years between 1955 and 1965 as a tenant of the artist Oliver Smith. The story goes that Smith was often away travelling and during these times Capote would move upstairs, invite guests over and play lord of the manor instead of tenant.
While living at 70 Willow Street, Capote penned some of his most famous books including Breakfast at Tiffany’s, In Cold Blood and a short story called A House in the Heights, a tribute to 70 Willow Street in which he summed up his feelings about his home: “I live in Brooklyn by choice”.
Today, 70 Willow Street, which is for sale through Sotheby’s International, is no longer divided, but stands as a single residence, specifically a five-storey townhouse with 11 bedrooms, seven bathrooms, 11 fireplaces and 38 windows.
Built in 1839, it’s had a long process of renovations over the past few years, but retains many of its original charms, incuding a rather lovely porch that run across the rear of the house leading to a lush looking garden.
Inside, things are grand and decadent enough to make Holly Golightly feel at home. There’s even a three-storey mahogany staircase with a rosette oculus window at the top – something you don’t see every day.
The home first came onto the market in May 2010, had its priced slashed by £1.3m earlier this year and remains for sale.
We wonder if anyone’s told the Beckhams yet …
Set sail to a home in Cyprus
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
The international property market on Cyprus suffered severe casualties in the recession with a serious case of boom followed by bust. At its peak in 2007 11,281 homes in Cyprus were sold to non-Cypriots but by 2009 it dropped 84 per cent to 1,761. Last year it increased slightly to 2,030 sales but it’s a long way from the golden age of 2007.
At a time of uncertainty, why would a property developer begin work on a £350 million luxury development on the island, aimed at the international market? The developer, Cybarco, were in London last week and we went to the launch of luxury Limmassol Marina to find out more.
“It’s the most exclusive marina project in the Mediterranean”, says CEO Michalis Hadjipanayiotou, “Well, that may be a little arrogant, but only maybe”, he concludes. Hadjipanayiotou (let’s call him ‘Mich’) is Passionate about the new Cyprus property development and tells us about how fabulous it is going to be over a suitably luxury lunch.
What gets Mich most excited is the concept of living “on” the sea. While we indulge our salmon confit with black truffle sauce washed down with a chilled Sauvignon Blanc, he explains: “It’s not just a home with a sea view, or by the beach, it’s actually on the sea”. In a similar (but better) design to Dubai’s Palm, Cybarco are building out into the ocean.
The selling power of Limassol Marina is the water and it’s aimed at wealthy sailing enthusiasts (also joining us at lunch were Motor Boat and Yachting magazine and Superyachts.com). All of the homes come with the option of a berth (or two) and with some of the villas you can “drive up to one door and sail away from another”.
If the target market is yacht owners, have they had any celebrity or high net worth individuals interested? Mich says that the international glitterati are interested and arrive in private jets to come and buy. Mainly Russians and Arabs have bought. One client arrived in the sales office and was so impressed with the multi-million-pound villas that he called a friend and told him about them. “My friend will have one as well please”, he said when he came off the phone.
So will this brave development sink into the ocean it’s built on or glitter on the sea? Only time will tell but, for now, sales are doing well and the government and locals support it. And it has the potential to put the wind back into the sails of a struggling market and take the island of Cyprus to the next level in luxury living.
Limassol Marina has apartments for sale from £400,000 and villas for sale with either beach or a berth at the back door for sale from £1.4 million. The first show home is scheduled to be ready in autumn this year.
The Beckhams’ renting reality
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Victoria and David Beckham are really just like the rest of us when you think about it: sometimes your life situation means you’re better off renting –at least for a while.
And that’s especially true if you’re a working mum juggling the demands of career and family or a hands-on dad with his nose to the grindstone at LA Galaxy. And with Posh pregnant with child number four, renting this £16 million Malibu mansion for the summer, seems, well, the sensible option for this transatlantic power couple.
With seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, Posh and Becks apparently chose this corker of a home because of its secluded location overlooking a beach where their sons Brooklyn, 12, Romeo, eight and Cruz, six can frolic freely in the summer sun. It can’t hurt that it’s also got a 50 foot pool, a spa, a sauna, a tropical gardens and that it has views of “gray whales hugging the shore as they migrate” around the coast.
According to The News of the World, the family are paying £61,000 a month for the luxury pad.
But given the home is currently listed for sale (for $27 million), the Beckhams are no doubt trying to keep the place spick-and-span in case potential buyers need to come round to view the property at short notice.
So, yes, the Beckhams are just like tenants everywhere, really.
“Arrrggghhh!” Home Alone house for sale
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Will anyone buy a home that’s famous for being burgled? The owners of a property in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka are about to find out after putting their four-bedroom house on the market for £2.4m (£1.47m).
But it’s not just any home, of course. This is where cute-as-a-button Macauley Culkin charmed the pants off the cinema-going public in 1990 while playing Kevin McCallister – the eight year old who outsmarts a couple of dim-witted burglars when mistakenly left at home while his family go on holiday.
The film Home Alone, directly by Christopher Columbus, was a blockbuster and earned more than $477m (£291m) at the box office and spawned three sequels (of varying quality).
Current owners John and Cynthia Abendshien, lived in the home while the movie was filmed and say it was chosen because of its warmth and “clear representation of family life”.
Previously approached by producer John Hughes’ company about using their property as a set for his earlier film Uncle Buck, the couple declined that approach. But when the location scout came knocking about Home Alone they say they finally decided to open their front door to the cameras.
John Abendshien describes the film’s child star Culkin as “a nice, but quiet young boy” and says the couple spent most of the five-and-a-half month shoot camped out in their master suite.
“This property has been home to our family for more than 20 years, and has been a perfect location for us to raise our daughter,” he says. “There is such a strong sense of community in Winnetka and we will always have fond memories of the fun we’ve had here and the many people we’ve come to know and love.”
Marissa Hopkins, of listing agent Coldwell Banker Residential, has clearly embraced the home’s film credentials as a key selling point. She says: “Very few homes have a leading role in a movie, in a sense becoming an additional character.”
While FindaProperty loves the idea of living in a piece of big screen history, we were also deeply impressed by the unique handpainted dining room walls, which we think have been ever so slightly overlooked in the brouhaha over the film. Seriously though – wouldn’t you just love to eat your tea in that room. Wonder if we could recreate it at home…
Kate Hudson nesting in north London
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
FindaProperty has always been a big fan of frothy and fun actor Kate Hudson and even more so since hearing she’s just dropped £4 mill on a mews house in north London (no stuffy mansion for Goldie Hawn’s daughter!).
Kate Hudson has spent £4 million on a North London mews home
Hudson, 31, who is expecting her second child with muse rocker Matt Bellamy, 32, has been a regular visitor to these shores in recent times and spoken on more than one occasion about her affection for old Blighty.
The star of How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days apparently went to a lot of trouble to make sure her new gaff had enough space to accommodate her extended family and she’s reportedly already shown Goldie and Kurt around the area.
Hudson and Bellamy are clearly set to go the bi-continental route of Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna and split their time between the UK and the US, with reports that the couple’s house buying spree ain’t over yet: they are apparently looking for another home in Miami (apparently a five bedroom beach house!).
FindaProperty isn’t surprised to hear Hudson’s now well and truly focused on feathering her nests and is spending quality time sourcing the perfect accessories to make her new homes, well, erm, homely.
“I love shopping but once you get into houses and wanting to nest you get into lamp shopping and bedding,” she told the latest edition of Look. “I really love interior design. My shopping has gone from fashion to more of the house stuff.”
