Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
The 200-plus acre property in Spain’s Balearic Islands comes with a vineyard, olive groves and a royal history.
Michael Douglas is taking another crack at selling his massive seaside estate in the Balearic Islands in Spain—he even took the time to voice over a new video promoting the €28.9 million (US$32.38 million) cliffside villa.
“The estate has more than 200 acres from the mountains down to the shore,” says the actor in his familiar, pointed delivery—recalling the “greed is good” monologue Gordon Gekko, played by Mr. Douglas, gave in the 1987 hit movie “Wall Street.”
Mr. Douglas has tried to unload the 150-year-old estate on and off for the past five years, first listing it in 2014 for €50 million—nearly double its current asking price. The estate, known as S’Estaca, had been in notable hands long before Mr. Douglas.
Austrian Archduke Ludwig Salavator of Habsburg, well known in Mallorca for his island conservationism, purchased the main house in the 1860s, according to a news release from Engel & Vӧlkers on Thursday.
Preferring the warm, idyllic setting by the sea to the cold and stuffy life in the Viennese court, the archduke lived most of his life in the Balearics.
After acquiring S’Estaca, he set about renovating it for one of his mistresses, a young Mallorcan woman, according to Engel & Vӧlkers.
At the top of the stairs, he built a bathhouse for another of his rumored paramours—his own cousin Sisi, Empress of Austria, Mr. Douglas said in the newly posted video about the property.
“When I first saw S’Estaca in 1990, I also fell under its spell and bought the property,” Mr. Douglas says in the video.
“Many of my friends have stayed at S’Estaca and we’ve enjoyed wonderful times together.”
Today, the estate comprises a private vineyard, terraced olive groves and seven buildings containing 10 bedrooms.
The estate can comfortably host 20 guests in “great style and comfort,” according to the actor.
Mr. Douglas, 74, has put his own stamp on the property, largely modernizing the old buildings over the past three decades.
Ref: Property Report
