Ant and Dec face losing £2.5m each after resort where they bought villas goes bust
ANT McPartlin and Declan Donnelly face losing £2.5million each after the Algarve resort where they owned luxury villas went bust.
The TV stars bought adjacent holiday homes near an exclusive golf course in the Portuguese region in 2015.
But the luxury Keys resort where they snapped up the properties went bankrupt owing millions to a government bank.
Both McPartlin, 42, who has stepped away from TV commitments until 2019 to recover from alcohol and drug addiction, and Donnelly are owed £2.5million.
This Morning host Phillip Schofield was also listed on official documents as being owed £1.5million. ‘It’s been a nightmare’, a source told Mail Online. ‘It’s devastating for both stars to lose their villas in such a special place. It was meant to be a perfect bolthole for them.
‘They finally bought in Portugal after years of returning for holidays in the resort which is now really popular with Brits abroad. They loved it for the golf and celebrated Dec’s 40th there. Ant’s place would have been one of the most attractive homes on the complex as he’d hired an interior designer to turn it into his dream holiday destination, with pools on the roof and on the ground floor.’
‘The developers went bankrupt in December two years ago but it’s really starting to hit home now that they’ve had to move everything out. They’re totally gutted.’
The Keys Resort, near the exclusive Quinta do Lago golf course, where the rich and wealthy own villas up to the value of £25million, has gone into liquidation owing £250million to Caixa Geral de Depositos, the state-owned bank.
Developer Birchview Imobiliaria has assets of £104million - but officially declared insolvency in May.
McPartlin, Donnelly and Schofield paid deposits on their villas to secure the properties, signing preliminary contracts, which in Portugal normally involves a down payment of around a third of the total value.
Full ownership of the property only takes place on payment in full.
McPartlin and Donnelly are believed to have spent at least two years fighting the case when faced with the threat of the Portuguese bank repossessing their homes.
Villas at The Keys cost from £3.7million. The ones the stars picked were said to include two swimming pools, including a rooftop pool, and a luxury basement level with a cinema, bar, butler’s kitchen and staff quarters.
Schofield’s home was said to be an Art Deco-inspired six-bed ‘Bel Air’ villa with a cathedral-height atrium and personal lift to a sky garden.
McPartlin, who is on currently on holiday with girlfriend Anne-Marie Corbett, 42, has a difficult year. The star split from his wifeof-11-years Lisa Armstrong in January and was charged with drink-driving after his car careered onto the other side of the road, hitting two cars, in March.
The initial investors in the The Keys are reported to be trying to convince real estate investment funds to negotiate with Birchview and Caixa Geral to buy the luxury Quinta do Lago project for just €100 million, around one third of the money owed.
The This Morning host has posted photos of his holiday in Portugal this summer, but is believed to have been staying in nearby Quinta do Lago.
A spokesman for Schofield did not respond to a request for comment.