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Cold War nuclear bunker for sale in Scotland

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A Cold War nuclear bunker in Scotland has been put on the property market by its owners, Comrie Development Trust (CDT). The nuclear bunker is located beneath the rolling Scottish hills of the former Cultybraggan Camp, over a mile south of the town of Comrie and within fifty miles of Edinburgh and Glasgow. The former military installation was built in 1939 and played host to some of the most notorious Nazi prisoners of war during the Second World War. At the end of the Second World War the camp was turned into an Army training area, until 1960 when it became the Royal Observer Corps nuclear monitoring post. Originally commissioned by the Scottish Parliament, the huge underground bunker housed over one hundred and fifty staff who worked to protect England and Scotland from nuclear, biological and electromagnetic attacks. It was the most technologically advanced bunker built during the Cold War, complete with a BBC studio, a canteen, a telephone exchange and dormitories. Construction cost in the region of USdollarsignr48.2 million, which would be around USdollarsignr144.4 million in today’s money, allowing for inflation. Once the bunker was completed, however, the Cold War quickly came to an end and it was no longer needed. In August 2007 CDT, a non-profit organisation, bought the Cultybraggan Camp site for £350,000 (USdollarsignr559,000) with the intention of redeveloping it to provide commercial premises for local businesses at competitive rates. Over the last three years CDT has rebuilt the camp and spent a total of USdollarsignr722,000 on its infrastructure, upgrading the drainage, sewage, electricity, telecoms and water systems. Nine of the camp’s huts and the former mess building have been refurbished and are now being rented to local businesses. Proposals are also underway to equip the camp with a renewable energy system in the future. Since the unusual property was first advertised, the Scottish nuclear bunker has attracted a great deal of interest from all over the world. “Potential purchasers have come from Bermuda, Australia, America, France, Germany, South Africa, Dubai, India, Spain and the UK and we have several interested parties lined up for viewings on the 9th, 10th and 11th February. Possible uses suggested for the bunker have ranged from an antiques or wine store to a residential home to a telecommunications centre. We have even had interest from someone who would use it as a doomsday shelter,” commented Andrew Black, Associate to Carter Jonas who are marketing the property. “This really is a fascinating installation which would suit a variety of uses including high security computer data storage, a disaster recovery facility or even a temperature controlled fine wine store. This is the first step in a historic route as the Trust is calling for interested parties to come forward and develop this truly unique building set within the magnificent backdrop of the surrounding hills and glens on the edge of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.” Black concluded. For anyone interested in making an offer the bunker has a guide price of £400,000 (USdollarsignr642,000).

Johnny Depp, The Tourist, buys Palace in Venice, Italy

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Actor Johnny Depp, whose recent films include The Tourist, has bought the Palazzo Donà Sangiantoffetti Palace in Venice, Italy for a reported USdollarsignr 13.8 million. The forty seven year old actor apparently fell in love with Venice last year whilst filming The Tourist with co-star Angelina Jolie. According to local newspaper La Nuova Venezia, the Hollywood star outbid an Arab prince for the empty property. The seventeenth century Palazzo Donà Sangiantoffetti was one of the only properties for sale overlooking the Grand Canal in the highly sought-after Santa Croce area of Venice, close to the Santa Maria Mater Domini Church. Depp’s new pad needs extensive renovation but has lots of original features such as high ceilings, ornate columns and a roof platform. The Palazzo will be a holiday retreat for Johnny Depp and his French girlfriend, singer and actress Vanessa Paradis, and their two children Lily-Rose, eleven and Jack, eight. During the promotional tour for his recent film, The Tourist, Depp spoke of his love for Venice and admitted to walking through the quiet alleyways late at night when the paparazzi had gone home. “My experience of Venice really happened between 10pm and 2am when the streets closed and I was able to walk around and experience the poetry of Venice, the ghosts of Venice, all those wonderful dark alleys,” Depp commented. “For an actor being able to film within the confines of that magical city certainly helps. The city's magic shone through completely,” he concluded. The impressive Palazzo Donà Sangiantoffetti is just one more property in Johnny Depp’s growing real estate portfolio; Depp also owns homes in West Hollywood, USA, Oahu, Hawaii, Somerset, England along with a forty-five acre island in the Bahamas. When taking a break from filming, Depp usually resides at his USdollarsignr2 million farmhouse in Plan-de-la-Tour, France.

Hong Kong property most expensive in the world

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The Global Cities Survey, published by Savills PLC, reported last week that Hong Kong residential property is now the most expensive in the world. In fact, based on the property price index contained in the survey, residential property in Hong Kong is 55 percent more expensive than property in London. The report compared four cities; Hong Kong, New York, London and Moscow. Property in Moscow emerged as being 7.4 percent more expensive than property in London, whereas property in New York was 15 percent cheaper than in the U.K. capital. The report also noted that the price of a typical home of purchased by a company chief executive in Hong Kong has risen by 148 percent over the past five years. Over the same period, this figure in Moscow rose by 110 percent, London by 47 percent and in New York it fell by 7 percent. The Head of Savills Research, Yolande Barnes, commented; “By looking at a basket of properties by occupier type we gain insights into the fluctuating costs of housing - a vital component cost of doing business in a given location." Interestingly, although the cost of buying a new property when relocating has continued to rise, the cost of rental property has remained constant in all four of the capital cities surveyed. Hong Kong is currently experiencing a housing shortage, with a lack of supply and high demand leading to sharp increases in property prices. In an attempt to tackle rising prices, in November last year, the Hong Kong Government introduced a number of measures such as applying stamp duty of up to 15 percent to property transactions and increasing the minimum down-payments for mortgages. To address the housing shortage, Hong Kong Government chief executive Donald Tsang promised to release more land for the development of low cost housing and added that the government should supply land to support the construction of 20,000 new apartments per year, although he said the figure was “not a fixed target.” Although these measures were trumpeted as some of the strongest ever, property prices in Hong Kong have remained resilient since their introduction. As interest rates in Hong Kong continue at near zero levels and with increased demand from investors in mainland China, it would seem that property prices in Hong Kong will not fall anytime soon.

Tiger Woods Dubai golf course shelved

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The Tiger Woods Dubai, a USdollarsignr1.1 billion golf course and luxury property development designed by Tiger Woods, has been suspended indefinitely, according to an announcement by the property developer Dubai Properties. The Tiger Woods Dubai was scheduled to open in late 2009 but ran into difficulties when the global financial crisis struck in 2008; property prices in Dubai crashed and, as a result, the opening of the Tiger Woods golf resort was pushed back on several occasions. In November last year it was revealed that construction work on the two hundred and ninety two residential properties had never started and that most of the staff employed by Dubai Properties had been laid off months earlier. In an official report, Dubai Properties released a statement regarding the suspension of the project; “This decision was based on current market conditions that do not support high-end luxury real estate. These conditions will continue to be monitored and a decision will be made in the future when to restart the project". There are, however, strong doubts that The Tiger Woods Dubai will ever be completed, due to the large number of high-end property developments abandoned in Dubai last year. In spite of this, Dubai Properties said it will continue its commercial agreement with Tiger Woods and his organisation. Tiger Woods is reported to have received a USdollarsignr10 million fee for designing the golf course, as well as receiving royalties on property sales and his choice of mansion on the development, once completed. In an interview with the Associated Press, Tiger Woods commented; "It's been put on hold for right now. A lot of projects are out there. It's still there. We've got six completed holes and a few that were about to be grassed before construction was halted. Everything is on hold." Even by Dubai’s standards the Tiger Woods Dubai was opulent, with mansions and palaces for sale, some priced as high as USdollarsignr25 million. The project was also to feature a boutique hotel and a Michelin-starred restaurant. Thirty percent of the properties at The Tiger Woods Dubai have already been sold and, at this time, it is not clear whether investors will have their deposits returned. In the fourteen months since his infamous car crash outside his Florida home, Tiger Woods has endured the first season of his golfing career without a win. In the wake of the car crash scandal he lost many of his largest commercial sponsors including American telecoms company AT&T, financial firm Accenture and Gillette. Now it seems the Tiger Woods brand is suffering further setbacks.

Jordan sells Surrey mansion

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Ex-glamour model Jordan [real name Katie Price] is selling the £3million (USdollarsignr 4.85million) mansion she shared with her estranged cage fighter husband, Alex Reid. According to reports, Jordan wants to get rid of the property in Surrey, England fast and she has already instructed her real estate agents to sell as quickly as possible. Jordan met Reid, a mixed martial artist and actor who is often referred to as ‘Rocky’, in 2009 and they married in Las Vegas in February last year. However, In 2009 Jordan revealed that Reid liked to dress up as a woman called ‘Roxanne’ - something which may have contributed to their break-up. Jordan and Reid separated in January of this year, after just eleven months of marriage. When news broke of their split earlier this month, Reid briefly moved out to stay with his parents, but he has now moved back in and is, apparently, refusing to leave. Since the brief stint at his parents, Reid has been staying in a separate part of the Surrey mansion, whilst Jordan is staying with friends in Switzerland. Once the couple’s Surrey mansion has been sold, Jordan is planning to move to a ‘secret country location’ in West Sussex. Jordan’s new £2million (USdollarsignr 3.2million) home will have five bedrooms, a drawing room, a dining room, a family room and stables for her horses.

Bangkok, Thailand building China City free trade centre

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Bangkok, Thailand: China is building a USdollarsignr1.5 billion “commercial city” in Bangkok, Thailand to help traders re-export Chinese goods from Thailand by avoiding costly tariffs. The 700,000 square metre site (the equivalent area of one hundred football pitches) will be in the China City Complex on the outskirts of Bangkok City and will have enough space for over 70,000 Chinese traders. Construction began in January of this year and completion is expected by 2013. “Apart from the business opportunities in Thailand, Chinese exporters can also promote their products to developed markets such as the European Union and the United States through this project," commented Yang Fangshu, chairman of the ASEAN-China Economic and Trade Promotion Centre. In January 2010 China signed a free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which created the third largest trading zone in the world, after the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Under the terms of the AESAN agreement, tariffs are removed from ninety percent of goods traded between the following countries; China, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. For the remaining ASEAN member countries, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the tariff reductions will come into effect in 2015. In recent years China has seen its export trade boom, reaching levels of USdollarsignr196.1 billion in 2009 and USdollarsignr190 billion in 2010. This increase in China’s exports has led many nations to complain about cheap Chinese goods flooding the market. The US and Europe have also criticised China’s exchange rate controls; accusing China of making their exports artificially cheap and giving Chinese manufacturers an unfair advantage over their European and American counterparts.

The Ascott backs Europe and Asia

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The Ascott, one of the largest serviced residence companies in the world, has announced plans to invest in twelve new properties across Europe and Asia by the end of 2011. The new properties are likely to be located in Shenzhen in China, Chennai in India and Doha in Qatar. The Ascott is also looking to increase its presence in Europe and management are eyeing locations such as Paris, France. They also aim to double their presence in China by 2015. Singapore property developer CapitalLand, the parent company of The Ascott, has reserved a total of USdollarsignr800 million (Sdollarsignr1 billion) for its expansion plans in 2011. Of this, The Ascott will invest USdollarsignr54 million (Sdollarsignr70 million) to renovate sixteen residential properties across Europe and Asia. CEO of The Ascott, Lim Ming Yan, commented; "A weak Euro has generated a lot of demand because it has become a lot cheaper for travellers to go to Europe. The exchange rate will obviously affect us but on the other hand the absolute value in the Euro term has gone up, so the two will compensate each other and on the whole, we expect that to be neutralised. All in all, I will say that at this point in time, with the euro devaluing, it gives us a lot more opportunities to look into new opportunities and new projects in Europe". The Ascott are also planning to increase their residential properties in India, from 1,396 currently, to four thousand in the next five years. "Although we have six projects [in India] under various stages of development, we haven't yet got operating properties so that, to me, is a very major untapped market. So we will want to do a lot more in India.” Lim added. This year The Ascott plan to add a total of two to three thousand serviced apartments to their worldwide portfolio. This will increase the total number of serviced apartments under their management to twenty nine thousand.

China still buying up Europe

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As the British Pound and Euro remain weak, and with European property prices at levels well below their 2007 highs, Chinese investors are continuing to buy up property in some of the most sought after locations in Europe. China’s rich are buying up a diverse range of prime, luxury real estate which ranges from historic castles in Germany to Chateaus in France and villas on the Spanish Costas. London, however, remains the most desirable location for Chinese buyers. In fact, investors from mainland China and Hong Kong now account for ten percent of all new property purchases in central London. Chinese investors are attracted to London for several reasons; one being, they can buy property and live in the UK for up to ninety days per year without paying UK taxes on their worldwide income. Real estate agents and developers in London have been taking advantage of the surge in the number of Chinese investors by holding exhibitions and seminars in China and hiring Mandarin speaking sales consultants and translators. Several property developers in the UK capital are even seeking the advice of Feng Shui experts and some London apartment blocks are even without a fourth floor, as the number four is considered unlucky in China. Currently the Chinese government limits the transfer of funds out of China to a maximum of £31,700 (USdollarsignr50,000) per person, per annum. However, many mainland Chinese citizens get around the restrictions by using black-market money changers in southern China. Additionally, as many of London’s Chinese buyers are members of China’s super-rich, they usually have companies in Hong Kong along with both corporate and personal bank accounts. As the financial restrictions do not apply in Hong Kong, they are free to transfer funds overseas in order to buy foreign property. The surprising thing for many real estate agents in London has not been the quantity of real estate bought by the Chinese, but the speed at which the decision to buy has been made and the transaction then completed. Buyers from the UK usually take weeks to decide, whereas buyers from mainland China take just one day on average. People from Hong Kong are even quicker, with most decisions to buy being made around an hour after viewing the property.

Oxo mum Linda Bellingham linked to Turkey property fraud

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The star of the Oxo British TV commercials, Linda Bellingham, has been linked to the Royal Resorts, Paradise Bay property scam in Akbuk, Turkey. Bellingham, who starred as the Oxo mum in the advertisements for twenty-three years, has been connected to the scam through her husband, Michael Pattemore. Bellingham met Pattemore in Spain in 1997, after he served a two-year jail sentence for investment fraud. Pattemore ran a real estate company in Calpe on the Costa Blanca in Spain along with the prime suspect in the Turkish scandal, New Zealander Lionel Andrews. The Oxo mum has always dismissed her husband's criminal past with comments such as: "He was a small pawn in a financial scam. Michael has done his stint and it should be left to rest." Police finally arrested Lionel Andrews this month in Alicante, Spain after a nationwide search. Andrews allegedly sold apartments of for a non-existent Turkish Mediterranean resort in partnership with his brother Nigel and sister-in-law Margaret. The search for Nigel Andrews and his British wife Margaret continues, after they disappeared from their Spanish office in June last year. Interpol have reported that the outfit absconded with up to £1.2 million (USdollarsignr2 million) of their investor’s money, which they took as deposits for non-existent properties on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Allegedly, the group set up front companies in high-end venues, such as the Guadalpin Hotel in Marbella, before disappearing quickly without settling their bills. Bellingham now stars in the popular UK daytime TV show ‘Loose Women’ and is set to be reunited with Oxo in a new series of TV commercials. In the new, £10 million (USdollarsignr16 million) advertising campaign for Premier Foods, Bellingham will appear as herself, offering recipe tips for using Oxo. “Oxo and I have decided to get together again. I was very upset when it ended ten years ago. I am so associated with it and it has many fond memories and the time is right,” she commented.

F1s Bernie Ecclestone splashes the cash for his ladies

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Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One Supremo and CEO of Formula One Motorsport, has recently purchased two London properties for his daughters. According to a recent report, Bernie Ecclestone paid a total of £101 million (USdollarsignr 161.4 million) to acquire two of Londoon's most expensive properties for his daughters Tamara and Petra. Ecclestone's daughter Petra received a £56 million, grade two listed, eight-bedroom house in Chelsea, named Sloane House. Whilst Ecclestone's other daughter Tamara received a £45 million (dollarsignrUS 72 million) house in Kensington Palace Gardens. Ecclestone is quoted by U.K. paper The Sunday Times saying; "I'm very proud of them. They're good girls. They're not stupid when it comes to money. They are very level headed and that's something I and their mother insisted on. At Christmas we bought them things we thought they needed and would use." "They've both got boyfriends, they travel, and renovating a property will be good work for Tamara. There won't be a housewarming party for a while because there's a lot of work to do, but that's good. It will keep her busy and it will be a good project for her to learn from. I think they will even be able to make a healthy profit when they come to sell," he added. Ecclestone, whose divorce settlement with ex-wife Slavica in 2009 cost him a reported £1 billion (USdollarsignr1.6 billion), was also asked whether he would be retiring as Formula One CEO at any time soon. "I'm not taking it easy. I can't afford to take it easy. It's business as usual," he said. Perhaps the comments are justified if his recent presents to his daughters are anything to go by.

Trump Tower to be built in Mumbai, India

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Trump Organisation, the real estate and entertainment company, privately owned by businessman Donald Trump, has announced plans to enter the Indian property market by building the Trump Tower Mumbai. In what will be Donald Trump’s first real estate venture in India, Trump Organisation will work alongside Indian property developers Rohan Lifescapes to construct the luxury residential project in Mumbai. Rohan Lifescapes will be responsible for building the Trump Tower, which will be officially launched by Donald Trump himself when he arrives in India. The Trump Tower Mumbai will be a 3,000,000 square foot complex with 45 spacious apartments. The building will feature a luxury spa, a gymnasium, a mini-theatre and residents will benefit from a state-of-the-art security system. Donald Trump Junior, executive vice president of Trump Organisation , commented, “The market place [in India] is beginning to understand and appreciate luxury, so there is a great opening for us there, as well as in resorts". The property market in Mumbai was badly affected by the global economic downturn in 2008 and saw new home sales fall by twenty five percent. However, during the last ten years, the number of wealthy Indians has grown rapidly. In fact, the Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report showed that the number of millionaires in India had increased from 84,000 in 2009 to 126,700 in 2010. As the wealth of the Indian population has continued to grow, luxury property developments in India have seen increasing demand. A recent, if extreme, example of this was the construction of Antilla; a twenty seven-storey house in Altamount Road, south Mumbai. Owned by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and named after a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean, it is estimated that Antilla cost Ambani around £44 million (USdollarsignr70.3 million) to build. Unsurprisingly, according to recent reports, the new Trump Tower will be in south Mumbai; the same location as Antilla.

Facebook Mark Zuckerberg moves house to escape Oprah

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Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg moved to a new home this week, but only a few blocks away from his old one. In a move out of character, Zuckerberg, who is well known for staying away from the limelight, invited talk show host Oprah Winfrey inside his former property in September 2010. It seemed that the Facebook CEO had finally come to terms with his celebrity status but, only three months after the show aired, Zuckerberg felt the urge to move. Zuckerberg’s new property has already been the talk of the neighbourhood. However, the installation of banks of security cameras before he moved in show that, contrary to how he made his fortune with Facebook, Zuckerberg is determined to ‘Friend’ as few people as possible. It’s true that Zuckerberg, the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of twenty-six, has been restrained in his real estate investments since his rise to fame. In fact, the new home is only a rental and is in the same Palo Alto neighbourhood as his former four bedroomed house. Although only seven blocks away from his previous abode, his new home will make driving to work a little easier; its location is only streets away from Facebook headquarters, where Zuckerberg is said to spend around sixteen hours a day. Zuckerberg’s new home is only slightly bigger than his former and has five bedrooms as opposed to four. The total plot size is not much bigger either, with around three thousand eight hundred square feet; his old home had two thousand three hundred and fifty square feet. Compared with technology moguls Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the twenty six year old billionaire’s new home is extremely modest. Steve Jobs is currently building himself a new home, valued at USdollarsignr8.45 million, the single family home will be 4,910 square feet in size, with four bedrooms, a three car garage and a vegetable garden all set on six acres of land. Bill Gates owns a 66,000 square foot mansion overlooking Lake Washington in Medina Washington, valued at USdollarsignr147.5 million. As you would expect, the impressive property has some state-of-the-art technology built in, such as heated floors and driveways, an estate-wide server system (running a Windows operating system, obviously), guests also get to wear pins that automatically adjust temperature, music and lighting based on the guest's preferences, when they enter a room.

Vietnam real estate ranks fourth in emerging markets

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Vietnam is enticing more and more international investors lately and, in a recent survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), Vietnam ranked fourth in the world in the emerging global real estate markets category. The AFIRE survey was a poll of a group of investors who hold more than dollarsignr627 billion of global real estate in assets collectively. The results showed that Brazil, China and India dominate the emerging real estate markets for investment, but Vietnam, unranked in 2010, jumped straight into the world top five, taking fourth position. Among the emerging markets, Brazil took first place from China in second , which ranked top in 2010. India came in third, Vietnam fourth and Mexico ranked fifth, losing last year’s position to Vietnam. Russia, which has been amongst the top five emerging real estate markets for the last two years, dropped to tenth place. Peter Ryder, general director of Indochina Capital, which currently has several real estate projects under construction in Vietnam, commented on the recent rise in investment saying; "This result is due to the rapid growth of Vietnam's real estate market and the open regulations, which allow the participation of foreign investors." Currently Indochina Capital is developing the Indochina Hanoi Plaza, a retail complex worth dollarsignr160 million, and the Da Nang Hyatt Regency, worth an estimated dollarsignr130 million. Both projects will be completed by the second half of this year. The group also plans to launch a new development project in Nha Be District, Ho Chi Minh City called the Saigon South. This project will provide over one thousand apartments for Vietnam’s middle-income earners. Vietnam continues to appear attractive to foreign investors and its economy has recovered well from the global recession. Other factors enticing overseas investors to Vietnam are its strong economic growth, fast rate of urbanisation and the growth of its new middle class.

Mahatma Gandhi South African home named Satyagraha

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We recently reported that the former South African home of Mahatma Gandhi was up for sale and that Coal India Limited were making their second attempt to buy the property. We have since discovered this information to be incorrect. Read o

Maldives Herathera Island Resort contract goes to Thailand property developer

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Herathera Island, Maldives: News has just emerged that the Thai residential property developer, Amari Estates Company, has won the lease management contract for Herathera Island Resort in the south Maldives. The four star resort is surrounded by a lagoon and has long, white, sandy beaches. It is the only resort on the island of Herathera and guests arrive via a twenty minute speedboat ride from Gan International Airport in the Madives. Company president and chief executive officer Yuthachai Charanachitt said refurbishing and rebranding the resort would cost over 100 million baht (US dollarsignr3.31 million) but he refused to reveal the bid price until the company signs an official agreement on January 15th 2011. "Turnover is expected to exceed ten billion baht (USdollarsignr331.4 million), from an estimate of about one billion baht (USdollarsignr33.1 million) currently. We are a mixed-used property developer, including hotels, condominiums, and fully furnished serviced apartments,” commented Yuthachai. The Herathera Island Resort forms part of Amari Estates’ expansion plans in Asia. Future projects include the development of a three star, two hundred room hotel, under the Ozo brand name, in Koh Samui, Thailand. The resort, worth six hundred million baht (USdollarsignr19.8 million), is due to start construction next year with completion scheduled for 2012. This year, Amari Estates will invest in three other properties in Thailand with a total project value of almost 5 billion baht (USdollarsignr166 million); Oriental Residence in Bangkok, Amari Residences Hua Hin and Amari Hua Hin.