Sunday, October 6, 2013

The Beckhams Sell in the Country and Make Offer in the City

The latest celebrity real estate reports out of the U.K. say that after several years of trying David and Victoria Beckham have finally up and sold Rowneybury House—a.k.a. Beckingham Palace, their country estate in Hertfordshire in an off-market dear for for £12 million. (That's $19,207,300 at today's rates, according to Your Mama's trusty currency conversion contraption.)

Your Mama has no specific intel on the matter but the reported sale price allegedly includes not just the Georgian style pile and manicured grounds but several luxury cars—including a Ferrari and two Jaguars—as well as Domaine Saint-Vincent, their little-used holiday home in the south of France valued at around £2.6 million ($4,161,590).

The (now retired) footballer—that's a soccer player to all us Americanos—and the pop star turned fashion designer purchased the estate in late 1999 for about £2.5 million ($4,161,590).* Over the years, they added, among other amenities and luxuries, a helipad, a recording studio, fitness facility, a 52-foot long marble-floored garden pavilion, a lighted tennis court, and both indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

So the scuttlebutt goes, the comely couple desire a more cosmopolitan urban life and have already made an offer on a four-story and £45 million mansion in West London where they hope celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay will design the kitchen and designer Kelly Hoppen will do up the day-core.**

Mister and Missus Beckham, according to various reports, plan to educate their four children in the U.K. but spend holidays in the United States where they continue to own a gated estate in Beverly Hills that they scooped up back in mid-2007 for $18,200,000.

*Some reports put the property at 12 acres, others at 17 acres, and still more at 22 acres. 

**Call Your Mama a real estate cynic—and we've been called worse—but something seems amiss here. We know that Mister and Missus Beckham are wealthy by any standard. They are, to be sure, sick rich. Indeed, the folks at Forbes estimated in 2012 that the couple earned over $50 million between May 2011 and May 2012. But, seriously people, are they really rolling in so much clover they can afford a £45 million house? That's more than 72 million U.S. dollars, a vast amount of money to spend on a house that will surely require millions in customizing renovations and as ass load of dinero every year just to staff and maintain.

photo: Pacific Coast News

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

True Mama, they are smart with their money.

Anonymous said...

I think you'll find the name of the celebrity chef is Gordon Ramsay, not David

lil' gay boy said...

I have little doubt they have the money now; question is, how long will it last? I see no "...shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" , a la the Vanderbilts, et al., but rather a sudden crash. As long as there's enough left for the kids therapy.

I am a bit mystified by their ongoing appeal; sure they started out a handsome couple, but lately he's beginning to assume the appearance of an overused chew toy and she frequently skates close to making anorexia look like obesity.

Anonymous said...

Her career as a designer is really taking off. They are even rubbing shoulders with Ana Wintour. Soon Posh will be the main bread winner.

Anonymous said...

Between her and him I bet they have the money, they make a damn lot of money. Plus, isn't her father very wealthy himself?

Anonymous said...

They've done a great job of branding themselves. She's generating lots of buzz around her fancy frocks. Soon she'll sell her clothing line to some store that serves the masses. Not sure if their living large lifestyle will allow for dynastic development or if it should.

Anonymous said...

To Anon @ 6:21 PM: Wealthy-ish, but nowhere near as what the Beckhams are. Her father drove her to school in a Rolls Royce (not sure if it was new, or used, at the time), and they lived in a pleasant house in the country; by all accounts it wasn't anything super-impressive though.

I'm quite surprised they sold this home - the way she used to talk about it, I would have thought that they would have kept it in the family for generations to come.

Apparently a husband and wife have bought the property - no mention of who they are; and they don't appear to have a family.

The house was formerly a Council-run childrens' home.

Anonymous said...
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Rebecca said...

You probably know this by now, but the asking price turned out to be more like 17 million pounds.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415582/Michael-Winners-London-mansion-goes-sale-17-5million--insisted-worth-60million.html