Landlady
Caprice is bouncing back from property crash |
|
There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for lingerie model turned international real estate speculator Caprice Bourret, whose property fortunes hit rock bottom at the start of the year. The 37-year-old, who split from property developer John Hitchcox in May, has finally found tenants for her Surrey mansion, which has been empty since the last tenants left almost a year ago. Caprice dropped the rent on the seven-bedroom property in Walton-on-Thames from £8,000 to £6,500 a month and spent £15,000 landscaping the grounds and redecorating. 'The new tenants have just moved in on an 18-month let,' she says. 'I love the house and in the long term I'm saving it for my mother Valerie for when she retires.' Meanwhile, Caprice has decided to hold on to her four-bedroom house in the Bryanston district of Johannesburg. When she last spoke to Property on Sunday in February, she said she was planning to sell the house, on which she has spent £400,000 extending to include a triple garage and a luxurious entertainment area featuring a bar and a dance floor. 'I had some offers but they were ridiculous. I'd have lost so much money if I'd accepted. I'm just going to sit out the slump and be patient. I'm hoping to get a tenant until the market improves,' she says. But she is throwing in the towel when it comes to the four-bedroom new-build house near Windermere in Florida that she bought with her mother for $850,000 (now £530,000) four years ago, after failing to find a buyer. 'We bought
it at the height of the market so there comes a time when you
have to accept that the best thing to do is cut your losses. I'm
trying to convince my mother that now is the time to give the
keys back to the bank before the losses - already severe - become
more substantial.' |
|
|
No comments have been provided. |
