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Property portfolio: here’s what the US President-elect owns in the UK

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2 weeks ago

November 6, 2024

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Property portfolio: here’s what the US President-elect owns in the UK

Trump’s net worth is $5.6 billion (£4.4bn), according to Forbes. Of this, an estimated $1.1 billion is in real estate investments, including Trump Tower, 17 condos on Trump Park Avenue and four Florida homes. A further $1 billion (£777m) is in his 18 golf clubs and resorts, 11 of which are in the US, two in Indonesia, two in the Middle East, one in Ireland and two in Scotland, with a further golf course to open next year.

From golf courses to historic buildings, here’s a look at Trump’s UK property portfolio.

The Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire

Trump on his controversial Aberdeenshire golf course

REUTERS

The Trump Organisation, headed by the president-elect, bought the 1,400-acre Menie estate, along with Menie House (now renamed Trump MacLeod House and Lodge), in 2006. Situated eight miles north of Aberdeen, this wild stretch of sand dunes, meadows and woodlands was turned into a five-star golf resort called Trump International Scotland, to much controversy.

The 18-hole Trump International Golf Links course was opened in 2012, spanning 500 hectares. Its construction has been blamed for damaging the dunes system at Foveran Links and stripping it of its protected status as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in 2020. “There is now no longer a reason to protect the dunes at Menie,” said Eileen Stuart, the interim director of NatureScot at the time. “They do not include enough of the special, natural features for which they were designated.”

Recently, the man who helped broker the deal for the golf resort told the BBC he was “hoodwinked” by Trump’s claim that he would invest $1 billion (£777m) on the scheme – something that did not materialise. “He was willing to fight the environmental battle and create this impression that this was a $1bn project and Scotland absolutely needed it. But I think he never really had the money or the intention of finishing it.”

Trump MacLeod House and Lodge, Aberdeenshire

MacLeod House and Lodge is now a five-star hotel

AFP via Getty Images

Macleod House and Lodge, part of Trump’s Menie Estate, is a former baronial mansion and hunting lodge now turned five-star hotel. The building, cut from granite and sandstone, has foundations dating back to the 14th century, but its current structure was designed in 1835, incorporating parts of an earlier house built in 1783. The lodge, on the other hand, is a converted 19th century stable that formed part of the estate’s original buildings.

Billed as “the ultimate Scottish retreat in the most luxurious and exclusive setting”, the property has 16 bedrooms available for guests, along with a whisky bar, courtyard with hot tub and spa. It’s walking distance from Trump’s golf course and 22-acre driving range. Rooms start at £240 a night, rising to £715 at peak times.

Turnberry golf resort, Ayrshire

The Trump Turnberry hotel and golf resort

AFP/Getty Images

The Trump Organisation purchased this 800-acre site on the west coast of Scotland in 2014, intending to turn it into “the finest golf and spa resort in the world”. It was already home to a golf and spa resort at the time, with a hotel dating back to 1906 and updates made by a string of successive owners.

The Trump Organisation says it invested £200 million in the hotel and Ailsa golf course, which reopened in 2016. Today, the resort also offers activities like clay shooting, archery, horse riding and falconry.

With the purchase, Trump also acquired the ruins of Turnberry Castle —a 13th century structure built on the site of an earlier fortification— and a lighthouse, built in 1873 by the family of Robert Louis Stevenson. Today, the 24-metre-high lighthouse has been converted into what the Trump Organisation calls “the best halfway house of the world” (yes, it likes superlatives), with a two-bedroom suite.

This year was the first in the 10 since Trump bought Turnberry that it generated a profit.

MacLeod Golf Course, Aberdeenshire

The 18-hole course spans hundreds of acres of the rugged Aberdeenshire coastline and claims to be “the greatest 36 holes on earth”, according to Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son and vice president of the Trump Organisation. “We have the greatest sand dunes anywhere in the world, the vast North Sea and the most incredible land!”

The golf course has been met with staunch objection, with conservation experts urging Aberdeenshire council to reject the proposal for the course, following the controversy surrounding the Trump International Golf Links course. Trump International claims that the new course is “one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable” ever built, but campaigners are not convinced. The plans have been deemed “laughable” and “complete nonsense”.

The gates to Winfield House

PA Wire/PA Images

Trump does not own property in London, to our knowledge. On his previous visits to the capital, he’s stayed at Winfield House, the US ambassador’s residence on the edge of Regent’s Park. The property, designed by John Nash, stands behind fifteen-foot-high iron gates. It occupies 12.5 acres, making it the largest private garden in central London after Buckingham Palace.

When the US embassy relocated from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms in 2018, Trump wasn’t happy. He pulled out of cutting the ribbon at the opening, complaining about the new location. “In the UK, in London, we had the best site in all of London. The best site,” he said at the time. “They go out and they buy a horrible location. And they build a new embassy. That’s the good news. The bad news is it cost over a billion dollars.”