Luxury Real Estate News 01/27

Obviously the big news this week is the biggest foreclosure in history – the $5 billion collapse of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper village developments from rent-controlled, war-vet apartments into luxury condos.

The investors in the deal are slowly coming to light and the New York Times has some of them listed here:

In the beginning, investors and lenders could not get enough of the record-breaking $5.4 billion deal to buy the largest apartment complexes in Manhattan: Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Now, three years later, they cannot get away from it fast enough. NY Times

The list sadly includes a number of pension funds who should have known better and – the Church of England. Whilst the Archbishop of Canterbury lectures on “Ethical economics,” the church’ money lenders are busy investing in morally-questionable deals.

Ouch! It appears the church of England is – once again – better at preaching morals than actually practicing them. A £40 million investment in a decidedly-dodgy Manhattan luxury real estate deal has just gone up to heaven to be with Jesus. Church of England investment in Manhattan

Nicholas Cage managed to offload – if that is the right term for a foreclosure – one of his mansions for a tidy $5 million in Las Vegas. Whether this will be enough to extract him from teh clutches of the IRS remains to be seen.

A real estate broker says a Las Vegas mansion that belonged to Nicolas Cage before it was foreclosed on sold for nearly $5 million its first day on the market. Records show Cage owes millions of dollars to the IRS in unpaid taxes. The Oscar-winning actor has said he’s had to sell numerous assets because of his finances. ABC news

A recent luxury real estate leadership forum kicked off this week.

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty (DGSIR) recently participated in the 5th Annual Sotheby’s International Realty® Leadership Forum. This dynamic, three-day event provided a unique opportunity for a number of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty’s key executives, department heads and managers to network and share best practices with the top brokers, owners and managers of other firms affiliated with Sotheby’s International Realty. Luxury real estate conference

The Huffington Post is proud to report that Donald Trump has managed to sell his Palm Beach mansion for the princely sum of $100 million, which then turns out to be only $95 million.

Much of the country’s real estate market may be languishing, but not apparently in Palm Beach, where Donald Trump earned a return of more than 130% after his luxury beachfront mansion sold for a record $95 million. The 60,000 square-foot property, which Trump bought in 2004 for $41 million, was purchased by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. Huffington Post

Seeing as we reported the sale back in May 2008 I am not sure what to make of that. A slow news day?