Luxury Real Estate in the News 09/21

The main talking point recently seems to be the ongoing disconnect between buyers and sellers at the top of the market. The New York Observer has some good examples of this in Manhattan, quoting Kenneth D. Laub, who is asking $35 million for his Upper East Side townhouse as saying,  “If I’m overpriced, then so be it. If someone feels that the house is worth what I think it is worth, then they’ll buy it. And if not, then they won’t. And it’s not the end of the world one way or another.” New York Observer

This seems to be the prevailing attitude, although some are holding out to the point where a forced sale ensues, and the amount of bank owned property continues to grow. This French villa is a good example of an unrealistic seller – Two million Euros for a 3 bedroom Villa in France. Admittedly, St Paul de Vence is an exclusive part of the country, but this price is steep – and the seller has resorted to using a free listing site to sell the home.

The other subject on everybody’s lips is the continuing disaster-in-progress that is Dubai. With prices having fallen as much as 75% now and billions of dollars of projects canceled, including Dubai World, a lot of people have lost a lot of money in Dubai and their collapse may be signal the end of the British rush to “invest in property overseas,” for some time. The Pound fell against the Euro again last week to E1.10 and looks to be headed back to parity, which pretty much precludes any but the weathiest of Brits from making the trip across the channel to Europe. At the low point earlier in the year, a British pound was buying just 90 European cents at retail money changers, which is a “slight” change from the usual E1.40 or so, making things European very expensive.

All of which makes one wonder at the timing of the relaunch of the house of Fabergé. After a 90 year absence, Fabergé has gone back into the gold Easter egg business, with prices starting at around $60,000 and heading up into the millions. Fabergé