NEWS FLASH: Hot Real Estate For Sale in Latin America....and other places

[El Capitan]

This is interesting...I wonder what Hugo is going to have to say about this bargain...





For sale: State Department property overseas

WORLD BRIEFINGS
By Matthew Lee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 7, 2007

Although the winning bidders won't own the property outright -- 939 years are left on the 999-year lease -- they will be connected to military history dating back to the 1940s when Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower worked there planning the invasion of North Africa in World War II.
Home-improvement project
In search of a fixer-upper? The former U.S. ambassador's residence in Libya can be yours for a cool $1.5 million, marked down from its multimillion-dollar estimated market value because of damage it sustained in anti-American riots and demonstrations in the 1980s and '90s.
"Internal renovation is needed," according to the department's prospectus on the house, which omits all reference to the gangs of rock-throwing protesters that once gathered outside and the 26-year rupture in diplomatic ties between Washington and Tripoli from 1980 to 2006.
However, the department plays up the 6,500-square-foot home's swimming pool, changing area, staff quarters, extensive garden space and broad verandas.
But buyer beware. There are "title issues" to be worked out between the State Department and Libyan government, despite a thaw in relations, according to the prospectus.
Nifty Ottawa suburb
Clear title won't be a problem in Canada, where $2.25 million will get you the three-story house in the leafy upscale Ottawa suburb of Rockcliffe Park that has housed generations of deputy U.S. ambassadors since 1948.
"At once stately and imposing," the department's broker says of the 64-year-old house that experienced a period of Hollywood celebrity as the home of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the 1990 movie "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge."
Farther afield, the State Department is building a new embassy in Nepal, making obsolete the existing 22,700-square-foot complex in Katmandu, a sprawling affair that includes an office building, annex and cafeteria, nestled in the foothills of the towering Himalayas.
Vistas at less-elevated altitudes are available from a former diplomatic home built of stone in Taipei -- a steal at $2 million that is surrounded by "undeveloped mountain and forest settings" from Taiwan's Yang Ming Mountain National Park.
2.2 acres in Caracas
In Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, the expansive former U.S. ambassador's home, spread across 2.2 acres, is up for sale. In addition to a master suite, four bedrooms with private baths, family room, kitchen, pantry and house manager's quarters, the residence features a pool, terraces and gardens perfect for black-tie soirees. Basement rooms for servants are also part of the $2.1 million package.
Ambassadorial elegance abroad, however, can be found for less.
In Belize City, the five-bedroom, five-bath, 6,000-square-foot home is being sold for $700,000 because the U.S. Embassy and its diplomats have moved to the new capital of Belmopan.
The North King's Park neighborhood "commands some of the highest prices for residential property" in the main city of what was once British Honduras, the State Department assures prospective buyers.
Other locales beckon
A pair of four-bedroom town houses in Warsaw's trendy Mokotow district are available for $400,000 each, as are nearly twin homes in Lima, Peru, each costing $215,000.
In Nicaragua and Mali, former embassy compounds are also for sale, asking prices $2 million and $2.1 million, with the Bamako property in Mali including two parcels with a cultural center and snack bar.
In Indonesia, $550,000 will get you a 107-year-old single family home dating to the Dutch colonial era, near a commercial corridor filled with new restaurants, cafes and offices.
If commercial space is what you need in Thailand's capital, the State Department has a 78.5-acre vacant lot south of Bangkok near the new international airport amid several major roadways now under construction: Yours for $2 million.