Celebrities Losing $110k a Week on Dubai Mansions
The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid has reported that, “Celebs losing £80K a week on their Dubai mansions,” as Dubai’s property market goes into a tailspin. It is a rather entertaining piece of………. I hesitate to use the word “journalism,” but can’t really come up with an appropriate alternative. The article reads,
Stars including David and Victoria Beckham, Michael Jackson and Brad Pitt are losing £80,000 A WEEK as their luxury Dubai villas crash in value. Celebs who bought the properties in their droves over the last few years have seen prices halve, with pads worth £3.2million in October now on the market for £1.6million. And with the world’s superwealthy cutting their losses and selling up, Dubai’s bubble has well and truly burst.Among those who bought there were Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and ex-Formula 1 champ Michael Schumacher, who owns a £5million slice of “Antarctica” in the World Islands. Story.
Which is all rather funny. David and Victoria Beckham were given their villa on Palm Jumeirah, as part of a marketing campaign by the developers. Apparently, they believed that if an England footballer buys an investment property in Dubai, the rest of the British public will follow along and do the same, which didn’t work out too well for many who did just that. A recent announcement that the Beckhams were to buy another property in Dubai was a thinly disguised attempt to renew interest in Dubai. The latest developer to go broke in the UAE is Khoie properties in Ras al Khaimah, costing over 400 British investors thousands of pounds, and ground is hardly broken.
Michael Schumacher was also given his “slice of Antarctica,” as a promo (the German public being the second most prolific investors in Dubai.) And as far as I can tell, Brangelina do not own any property in Dubai and have never set foot in the place. They prefer an estate in France, Chateau Miraval.
I don’t know if Michael Jackson owns any property there, but I do know he is being sued by Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who paid the $2.2 million in legal fees when Jackson defended himself against child molestation charges along with an estimated $7 million advance on Jackson’s next album which never appeared. Oh well, that’s show business. Maybe he will be able to pay when the contents of Neverland are auctioned off next month?
So, no “celebs” are losing a penny, and it just gives credence to the paranoid delusions emanating from the emirate at the moment that the international media is out to destroy Dubai’s economy. About the only thing the Daily Mirror got right is the fact that the Dubai property bubble has well and truly burst. But we don’t need to make stuff up to show that. And this wasn’t an excuse to publish a photo of a half-naked Angelina Jolie, although I was sorely tempted.
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Comments on Celebrities Losing $110k a Week on Dubai Mansions
I saw the documentary series on the concept and creation of this tacky and ridiculous island, a couple of years ago now.
What struck me was not only the gawdiness of it, but the ecological ramifications in building it, which frankly disgusted me and still does.
I am glad it’s fallen in a heap and the only glimmer of light in the whole thing, is the little reef that nature is building for itself there, although it’s probably the same ocean animals that were uprooted from their own environment, when the island project began.
The wise man built his house upon the rocks and the foolish man built his house upon the sand. Eat it, Dubai. Wealth doesn’t mean you’re entitled to destroy an ecosystem, for the sake of your own tacky vanity and ego.