Millionaires' street is snapped up for £70,000

The Presidio Terrace in San Francisco

AN ENTIRE street in an exclusive part of San Francisco has been bought for just $90,000 (£70,000) — because homeowners failed to pay a $14 annual property tax.

Presidio Terrace, an oval-shaped street, lined with palm trees and 38 multi-million-dollar homes, was snapped up through an online auction by property investor Michael Cheng and his wife Tina Lam. The couple (pictured below) own the gated private road, the pavements and other areas of ‘common ground’.

However, Mr Cheng said the reaction from the street’s wealthy residents, where the average price of a house is $5.1million (£3.9million), has been frosty. ‘I thought they would reach out to us and invite us in as new neighbours,’ he said.

‘This has certainly blown up a lot more than we expected.’

The city’s tax office put the street up for auction at a starting price of just $994 (£765) after the £11 yearly property bill had gone unpaid for decades.

Angry residents said the tax bill was sent to an accountant who had not worked for the homeowners’ association since the 1980s.

Scott Emblidge, the lawyer for the Presidio Homeowners’ Association, said his clients did not know their street had been sold until a firm hired by the couple asked if they had any interest in buying it back.

The association has petitioned the city’s Board of Supervisors for a hearing to rescind the tax sale.

It is also suing the couple and the city, seeking to block them from selling the street while the appeal is pending.

(Metro, UK)