Países pobres com ricas mansões em Nova Iorque

New York’s Upper East Side is a neighbourhood of celebrities and millionaires – and home to some of the poorest countries on the planet. An investigation by The Telegraph has found dozens of embassies, consuls, missions and ambassadorial residences, worth tens of millions of dollars, dotted along the rarefied streets of Manhattan’s wealthiest district. They include a number owned by some of the most impoverished countries on the planet, including Congo, ranked in 186th place out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI), the annual report produced by the United Nations which assesses the wealth of populations around the world. Others belong to nations struggling to cope with war and dictatorship, including Iraq and Myanmar. And some are owned by middle-ranking countries economically, whose citizens may nonetheless question why their governments hold properties in the most sought-after quarter of one of the most expensive cities in the world. Greece, which has struggled with debt and recession since the 2008 financial crisis, falls into this category. Diplomats from around the world are assigned to New York because Manhattan is home to the United Nations, meaning each nation is entitled to maintain an embassy – known as a mission – in the city. But while more frugal nations occupy office buildings close to the UN, in Manhattan’s Midtown, others maintain lavish residences a 10-minute car ride away on the Upper East Side. Many are tucked away on quiet cross streets between the millionaires’ rows of Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue and Park Avenue, where property prices for a town house run into the tens of millions of dollars. A large number are close to Central Park and amenities such as the designer boutiques of Madison Avenue and Uptown’s most exclusive bars and restaurants. Diplomats living on the Upper East Side, which runs between 59th Street and 96th Street, and Central Park and the East River, can expect to rub shoulders with celebrities including Madonna and Woody Allen, and the billionaires Michael Bloomberg and David Koch, the fourth richest person in America. Amid concern in some countries, including the United Kingdom, about the cost of maintaining expensive overseas properties, a number of nations have sold off their Upper East Side mansions in recent years. They include France, which this year divested itself of the ambassador’s residence, an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, known as the most expensive apartment building in New York, for $70 million (£43.8 million). Ivory Coast and Senegal have also recently sold off property on the Upper East Side. But a number continue to allow their diplomats to live in a style which the vast majority of their citizens could only dream of. They include Congo, where average income is just over a dollar (62p) a day, and which owns a large town house on East 65th between Fifth and Madison Avenues. A house across the street from Congo’s recently sold for $40 million (£25 million), which would make a not insignificant dent in its national debt of $6 billion (£3.76 billion). The tiny nation of Cape Verde, which is ranked 123 in the HDI, owns a town house on East 69th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues; the neighbouring property was on the market in 2012 for $48 million (£30.1 million). A third African country, Angola, possesses a town house on East 73rd Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues, where the house next door sold for $32.5 million (£20.3 million) in 2008. Iraq’s property, on East 79th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, neighbours one which is currently on the market for $48.5 million (£30.4 million). A property close to Iraq’s embassy is currently on the market for $48.5 million And a house belonging to Myanmar, the dictatorship formerly known as Burma, which has one of the widest wealth discrepancies in the world, is beside one which is for sale for $33 million (£20.7 million), on East 77th Street, also between Fifth and Madison. Burma/Myanmar house The Philippines owns a town house on East 66th Street between Fifth and Madison, which is used as an official residence and was once the home of dictator Ferdinand Marcos' wife Imelda Marcos, and another on Fifth Avenue for its administrative offices. Like those belonging to the other countries, it is difficult to give a precise estimate for the current value of the house, as it has been off the market for so long. However, a single apartment in a building a few doors down is currently up for sale for $11.5 million (£7.2 million). Philippines residence The Upper East Side is one of the priciest property markets both in New York and the US as a whole. According to the 2014 Forbes list of America's most expensive zip codes (post codes), two of the Upper East Side's neighbourhoods are in the top five, with its third in 25th place. The average price of a property in the zip code 10065, where many of the nation's most expensive properties are located, is just under $6 million (£3.8 million). This includes apartments as well as houses. Frances Katzen, Principal Broker for the estate agent Douglas Elliman, said town houses on the Upper East Side were currently being sold for anything between $24 million (£15.1 million) and $100 million (£63.2 million). She added: "This is a very nice place to live indeed. It's a destination unto itself. For most people it is a surreal market, beyond the dreams of the normal demographic." The Telegraph contacted the embassies of all of the nations mentioned in this article. With the exception of The Philippines, all either failed to respond or were unavailable. Elmer Cato, a spokesman for The Philippines, said the townhouse on East 66th Street had been bought for $350,000 (£220,000) in 1960. He added: "Subject property [is] the official accommodations of our top diplomats and is being used for a variety of reasons intertwined with our official functions and community relations to some 350,000 Filipinos in the Northeast. "The rental of accommodations for diplomats and office spaces as well as entertaining and hosting diplomatic and official functions in New York, year-by-year, are prohibitively priced. "Our officials and government planners had the foresight to acquire these properties which in the long term benefited our government and, needless to say, saved taxpayers’ money, by substantially saving on rental, administrative and other logistical costs for both residences and offices of the Philippine Government agencies in New York. "In addition, the official residential properties have been used as accommodations for and as venue for functions by visiting top-level officials from the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of our government, befitting the status of a sovereign government." The Telegraph