Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch has returned to the low-priced housing market. Its decline has been pronounced as the complaints of sexual abuse against the singer increase.
The property of the singer in California, now called Sycamore Valley Ranch, is on sale for 27 million euros, which is a significant drop compared to the sale price, 89 million euros, which came out when it was first put in the market in 2015. Real estate agent Kyle Forsyth has explained to CBS News that the price drop is due to drought and natural disasters, but that the property is well maintained. Jackson bought it for 17 million in 1987.
The news comes just a few days after HBO releases Leaving Neverland, a four-hour documentary featuring the testimony of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two men who allege that the singer sexually abused them as children. In the
The property, which is managed by the Coldwell Banker company, measures 10 square kilometres and is located 30 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara (California). The house occupies 1,114 square meters and also has a secondary house of 343 square meters. Among its features, there is a separate building with a cinema for 50 people, a dance studio, a fire station and a barn.
Little is left of the ranch that was once a theme park. Their exotic animals, elephants and monkeys no longer live in their gardens. There is also no trace of the secret rooms or alarm systems that Michael Jackson installed when he acquired the property in the late eighties. He called it Neverland in homage to The Land of Never Again, that imaginary world of Peter Pan in which children did not grow up. The king of pop installed a zoo and an amusement park for children at the ranch, but after his death, in 2009, they disappeared.
Credits: elpais.com