THE TELEGRAPH: Once, very wealthy people owned big estates in the country. Now they have homes all over the world and flit to and fro in private jets, yachts - or even submarines. Mark Palmer reports
Even before rumours began to circulate that it was haunted, David and Victoria Beckham had never slept a night in Domaine St-Vincent, the estate in Var-Provence they bought three years ago for £1.5 million. This might seem odd for those of us who can only fantasise about a second home in the South of France, but to the money-bags crowd there's nothing unusual about it at all.
In 2006, the super-rich - that exclusive group - like to see themselves as citizens of the world. They flit from one continent to the next, wheeling and dealing at 30,000 ft, always a few hundred miles ahead of the tax man but only a couple of clicks away from their PAs, solicitors, financial advisers, accountants, wives, mistresses and children.
"I was at an amazingly swanky wedding in Paris recently," says Stephen Bayley, the style guru and art historian. "With my pitiable suburban reflexes, I asked another guest where he was from. He said: 'I've just flown in from Ibiza. I have a flat here in Paris, but my real home is Rio. Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to my apartment in New York.' Then he added, and this is the interesting bit, 'In this milieu, we don't commit adultery, we travel'."
Once upon a time, the rich were rooted. They had big estates in the country. They were chairmen of local charities; they hosted the summer fête. Today, they are rootless - international nomads forever in search of fertile ground in which to sow the seeds of another bumper financial harvest.
Wander down the Bishop's Avenue in north London - which boasts Britain's highest concentration of multi-million pound homes - and you'll find the place practically deserted.
"That's one of the problems we have," says Trevor Abrahmsohn, head of Glentree International, a firm of estate agents that specialises in upscale houses in the area. "For a lot of people, this is their third or fourth home and sometimes they lose interest. They can't be bothered to live here and they can't be bothered to sell."
So, where are they? Well, they're everywhere and nowhere. Some follow the sun while others follow their business investments - and the best chance of seeing them in the same room is likely to be at art sales in London or New York. Never has the phrase "jet set" been quite so appropriate to describe this tribe, were it not for the fact that if you want to buy a plane with room for five passengers, there is a two-year waiting list. And never has the gap between the super-rich and the middle classes been so wide >>> Mark Palmer | Wednesday, June 07, 2006
