By Angela Harper-Erini
Madonna’s hubby Guy Ritchie is bemoaning high property prices in central London, blaming the escalation on rich foreigners. Ritchie says most Brits are being priced out of the market unless they had a spare £10 million.
“There hasn't been a property correction here for 20 years,” he said in an interview with Empire magazine while plugging his new movie, RocknRolla.
“House prices don't go down, they just go up. And the natives of England are sort of being left behind because the big money came in and if it wanted something, it bought it and it made a bigger fortune by doing so.”
The film-maker currently lives in a £7million Marylebone house with Madge, 49, and their three children.
According to The Independent they also bought the £6m neighbouring house that has been converted into a gym.
Other properties include
-Two mews cottages.
-A Georgian home in Regent’s Park, North London.
-£9m home in Ashcombe estate, Wiltshire.
Described as a shrewd property investor, Madonna also owns properties in the United States; in Beverly Hills and New York.
Ritchie blames the “Russian oligarchs” for the London property boom.
“They have a unique way of doing business. They don't haggle – they double the price on everything. If it's going for £500m, they'll pay £1bn. So it has left everyone with their pants down a bit,” he says.
Coincidently, Ritchie’s new film involves Russian mobsters and Brits who get embroiled in a property deal that goes wrong.
And the 39-year-old could soon find himself out in the cold if rumours are true that he and Madonna are about to split after seven years of marriage. A formal announcement about the marriage is expected to be made at the end of Madonna’s world tour, which finishes on November 29 in Mexico.
Source: The Independent and Empire magazine.
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