Sunday, 8th November 2009

 

Even Britney feels the pinch

Britney Spears, the US pop singer, is having difficulty selling her $7.9m (€5.3m) Beverly Hills mansion due to a lacklustre property market in the US, a sign that the mortgage crisis is trickling up to the top of the real estate industry.

The 23-year old singer is trying to sell her six bedroom property through high-end estate agent Sotheby's in the US. If she manages to sell at the asking price, she stands to make a $700,000 profit.

Spears paid $7.2m for the mansion when she moved in less than two years ago, according to local press.

But the likelihood of selling is looking increasingly slim. Yesterday the singer posed for photos in many of the rooms for the sales catalogue in a bid to attract buyers.

Spears, whose new album "Circus" will be out later this year, is looking for a new house at the moment and reportedly wants more privacy. She is keen to get rid of the mansion because it reminds her of her drug problems and mental breakdown.

Sotheby's website describes the property as an "exquisite gated Italian Renaissance-inspired villa.

Tags: Britney Spears , Sotheby's

Brummel

Relocation, relocation, relocation

Banks have never been shy of firing staff at the merest whiff of a downturn. First the fat, then the muscle and finally the bone. In the past, cuts have been so deep that firms have found it hard to benefit when the markets rebounded, paying over the odds to restaff at speed. Such wild oscillations in staffing numbers are known as “doing a Merrill”.

Rich Monitor

Sotheby's 3Q loss widens

Sotheby's third-quarter loss widened as the art auction house posted a worst-than-expected decline in revenue and a tax expense.

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