[lang_en]Celebs losing £80K a week on their Dubai mansions[/lang_en]
[lang_en]By Will Payne
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.
The oil-rich Gulf state courted the famous for its Palm and World Islands developments, a series of artificial peninsulas in the Persian Gulf.
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.
England footballers were some of the keenest buyers.[/lang_en][lang_en]
When the squad stopped off in Dubai on their way to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, they were shown plans for Palm Jumeirah, a vast, palm-tree shaped island made from sand dredged from the seabed.
Beckham, Michael Owen, Ashley Cole, David James, Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes put down deposits on £800,000 sixbedroom villas at a special rate.
They immediately looked like unbelievable investments, as real estate prices quadrupled over the next six years.
But last October, amid the global recession, Dubai was hit by a housing market crash, which has now cost investors billions.
Jack Whisker, of luxury agents Dream Property Dubai, said: “The Dubai market has fallen off a cliff.
“The credit crunch hit us suddenly because all the foreign investors lost confidence.
“It has hit the higher-value properties the hardest. Fourbedroom villas worth £3million a couple of months ago are now being sold for £1.5million.”[/lang_en]
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