July 03, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1428

NEW YORK: Former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar Bin Sultan has put up his $135 million single family house in Aspen Colorado up for sale and it is soliciting more voyeur interest than actual buyers, says a report in a leading American daily.

“Hala” Ranch is a 95-acre estate built in 1991 for the family of Prince Bandar but he was only an occasional visitor to the vacation home. At $135 million, Hala, just northwest of downtown Aspen, is the most expensive single-family residential property in the nation on the market, said the New York Times quoting the Prince’s agent.

The agent, Mr Saslove says that he has received about 1,000 requests to tour the home since last October when it went on sale, and he, along with lawyers for the prince who review every call, have granted just 11 of them. “This is what high-mountain hideaway money in Aspen has come down to: Even the ordinary rich can no longer press their noses to the glass,” the newspaper quipped.

In the marketing of “Hala,” which means “Welcome” in Arabic, non-billionaires need not apply.

“Hala” will almost certainly, Mr Saslove believes, be a new owner’s second, third or fourth home.

Mr Saslove told the newspaper that people like Prince Bandar, who is now the secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council and is not spending as much time in the United States as he once did, helped establish Aspen's newer style, which is much more about family, culture and art — and wealth that even Hollywood stars cannot match.

Money on that scale does not just stumble in off the street. There are 946 billionaires, according to this year’s tally by Forbes magazine, keeping Mr Saslove’s list of potential buyers relatively short, the newspaper said.