News for the Network — Dec 2009 — Christie’s Great Estates

Hilton & Hyland’s $50 Mil­lion September

“Who says the mar­ket is soft?” says Rick Hilton, co-owner of Hilton & Hyland Real Estate with Jeff Hyland. Four high-value Cal­i­for­nia estates, total­ing US$50 mil­lion, were sold by the com­pany in Sep­tem­ber. The properties—located in Bev­erly Hills, Bel Air, Brent­wood, and Malibu—were listed for US$19.99 mil­lion; US$17.9 mil­lion; US$7.3 mil­lion; and US$5.7 mil­lion. “While peo­ple are look­ing for value,” adds Hyland, “we encour­age them to rec­og­nize and act on an oppor­tu­nity when they see one.”

Stiller & Hohla’s Schloss Velden Success

Austria’s leg­endary resort Schloss Velden is expe­ri­enc­ing brisk activ­ity because of the sales and mar­ket­ing exper­tise of Salzberg’s Stiller & Hohla Immo­bilien GmbH. The com­pany sold 24 apart­ments at the resort for a com­bined total of €35 mil­lion. “The Aus­trian real estate mar­ket is very con­ser­v­a­tive and was never a spec­u­la­tive mar­ket,” says Leo Hohla, com­pany pres­i­dent. “For this rea­son, the price lev­els of high-end res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties remains sta­ble.” Stiller & Hohla is the exclu­sive rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Schloss Velden and has fea­tured the prop­erty on a Cus­tom Cover of Christie’s Great Estates mag­a­zine. It can also be seen in New Devel­op­ments on www.christiesgreatestates.com.

Alton & West­all Reports a Near-record Sale

The second-highest res­i­den­tial sale in Williamstown, Mass­a­chu­setts, was reported last month. The spec­tac­u­lar 16-acre Shephard’s Well estate was sold for US$2.2 mil­lion by Alton & West­all Agency, Real Estate. Sited at a 1,300-foot ele­va­tion, the beau­ti­ful 5,000-square-foot home is bor­dered by hun­dreds of acres of state-owned con­ser­va­tion land. The high­est sale on record, also rep­re­sented by Alton & West­all, was the Cole Porter estate in 2004, which sold for US$2.3 mil­lion. List­ing bro­ker Gintare Everett noted in an inter­view with the North Adams Tran­script that Alton & Westall’s two high­est sales are due in large part to the company’s affil­i­a­tion with Christie’s Great Estates.

Tax Law Changes Spark Inter­est in Switzerland

The Switzer­land mar­ket is ben­e­fit­ing from pro­posed changes to tax laws in the U.K. and the Ital­ian government’s tax amnesty to encour­age repa­tri­a­tion of foreign-parked money. “We are see­ing more inquiries than usual from these two coun­tries,” says Peter Rab­itz of Wetag Con­sult­ing in Locarno. Switzerland’s investment-friendly tax laws and the advan­ta­geous Mediterranean-like cli­mate have resulted in 80 per­cent of Wetag’s buy­ers com­ing from out­side the coun­try. The com­pany reports two Sig­nif­i­cant Sales from the past month: a clas­sic villa built in 1700 for CHF 5.35 mil­lion and another villa for CHF 1.8 million.

Isle­worth Realty’s Novem­ber to Remember

Novem­ber 3 was an aus­pi­cious day for Isle­worth Realty. Three prop­er­ties, with a com­bined value exceed­ing US$10 mil­lion, sold on that date. The real estate com­pany, which exclu­sively sells prop­erty behind the gates of Isle­worth Golf & Coun­try Club, said the three res­i­dences were pur­chased by cur­rent Isle­worth home­own­ers and an Isle­worth club mem­ber. Prices: US$4.2 mil­lion, US$3.26 mil­lion, and US$2.7 mil­lion. “While the afflu­ent can afford to buy in any mar­ket, many were wait­ing on the side­lines until now,” says Lisa Richards, com­pany president.

Harry Nor­man Reports 15 Sales over US$1 mil­lion in October

Seventy-seven prop­er­ties in Atlanta, Geor­gia, all listed for more than US$1million, were sold by Harry Nor­man, Real­tors since Jan­u­ary of 2009. Octo­ber was the most suc­cess­ful month to date with 15 such trans­ac­tions. Two of the list­ings were fea­tured in the cur­rent issue of Christie’s Great Estates mag­a­zine. “We cer­tainly feel that the rela­tion­ship with Christie’s has con­tributed to an increase in sales of our lux­ury list­ings,” says Martha Hay­hurst, Pres­i­dent, Harry Nor­man, Realtors.

Santa Fe Prop­er­ties Com­mands Local Lux­ury Market

From Octo­ber 1st through Novem­ber 30th, Santa Fe Prop­er­ties closed 11 prop­er­ties priced at more than US$1 mil­lion includ­ing La Cueva Ranch, listed at US$5.8 mil­lion. “Lux­ury sales in Santa Fe had slowed con­sid­er­ably in 2009 until recently, when we expe­ri­enced a buy­ing spree for homes priced over a mil­lion dol­lars,” says Candy Bren­ton, Mar­ket­ing Direc­tor. “The flurry of activ­ity took us all by sur­prise.” From Jan­u­ary through mid-August, Santa Fe had a grand total of 33 sales over US$1 mil­lion. By con­trast, between mid-August and early Novem­ber, there were 43 sales for the same price point.

More Sig­nif­i­cant Sales from the Network

David Ogilvy & Asso­ciates, Inc., Green­wich, Con­necti­cut. List Price: US$10,000,000

Joshua & Co., Aspen, Col­orado. List Price: US$8,750,000

John Tay­lor, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. List Price of €5,800,000

Ken Jacobs, Wagstaffe Point, Aus­tralia. List Price: AU$3,600,000

Ken Jacobs, Bal­main, Aus­tralia. List Price: AU$2,800,000

Spe­cial Prop­er­ties, Sad­dle River, New Jer­sey. List Price: US$2,395,000

Fen­ton Lang Bruner & Asso­ciates, Jupiter Island, Florida. List Price: US$2,350,000

Select Prop­er­ties of Virginia/Richmond, Rich­mond, Vir­ginia. List Price: US$2,200,000

Trails West Real Estate, Big­fork, Mon­tana. List Price: US$1,995,000

For­mer Home of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in Turin Hills Hits the Market

The Cas­tle of Castag­neto Po, a his­toric 11th-Century res­i­dence in Italy’s Turin Hills, is now on the mar­ket. Sur­rounded by more than 70 hectares, or nearly 173 acres, of ver­dant beauty, the sto­ried cas­tle is rep­re­sented by exclu­sive affil­i­ate Immo­bil­Sarda, and was once home to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the First Lady of France. Her grand­fa­ther Vir­ginio Bruni Tedeschi—the founder of Ital­ian tire man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pany CEAT—renovated the prop­erty into a refined res­i­dence as well as a venue for exhi­bi­tions and events of spe­cial artis­tic inter­est. To read more or to share this story on your blog, Twit­ter, or Face­book accounts visit the News Cen­ter.

Ing­mar Bergman’s Estate in Fårö, Swe­den, Sells

Leg­endary direc­tor Ing­mar Bergman’s fam­ily com­pound in Fårö, Swe­den, has been sold. Located on Fårö, the stun­ning Baltic Island off the coast of Got­land, the estate com­prises five prop­er­ties and was the set­ting for some of his most famous films. Pre­mier inter­na­tional mar­ket­ing ser­vices for the prop­erty were pro­vided by Christie’s Great Estates. Read more at the News Cen­ter.

Data Feed Ser­vice: Cost-effective Global Exposure

One third of the affil­i­ates are tak­ing advan­tage of Christie’s Great Estates Data Feed Ser­vice. In addi­tion to con­sid­er­able sav­ings on the cost of Web ads, the pro­gram also offers inter­na­tional Web expo­sure on The Wall Street Jour­nal, Coun­try Life, and the Robb Report via the Trans­fer Data Feed Ser­vice. New enrollees this month include IRG Inter­na­tional Realty Group of Lis­bon, Por­tu­gal; Van Sciver Real­tors of Man­tolok­ing, New Jer­sey; and PureWest Inc. of Boze­man, Mon­tana. For details—including the three pric­ing plans and the Data Feed Guide—go to www.christiesgreatestates.net.

The Art of Liv­ing Newsletter

The Client Newslet­ter has a new look. The Newslet­ter is enti­tled “The Art of Liv­ing,” and is avail­able for down­load from the Extranet site. On the cus­tomiz­able back page, share your local mar­ket trends, new list­ings, and sales. The newslet­ter tem­plates are avail­able in Microsoft Word, Adobe InDe­sign, and Microsoft Pub­lisher. If you encounter any pro­duc­tion prob­lems, Monique Sofo, msofo@christiesge.com, is avail­able to assist.