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London embassies
倫敦大使館
Envoy envy
招人嫉妒的大使館
Embassies in London are worth a lot of money
倫敦的大使館價值不菲
IN 2009 America sold its embassy in fashionable Grosvenor Square for a reported ￡500m ($800m) to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. By 2017 its new embassy should be ready in gritty Vauxhall. The details of embassies' ownership or leaseholds are not known, but a new survey has created a sort of “fantasy embassy valuation”, estimating how other nations could be cashing in.
2009年，美國以媒體報道的5億英鎊（8億美元）向卡塔爾主權財富基金出售了其位于時尚的格羅夫納廣場的大使館。美國在地表多沙的沃克斯豪爾（位于英國倫敦南部）的新使館也將于2017年建成。使館所有權和使用權的細節都不為人所知，但是一項新調查卻創造了一種“大使館估算體系”，以此來評估其他國家如何賺得個盆滿缽盈。
The report, by Spear's, a magazine, and Lichfields, a buying agent, suggests that the embassies of Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia could be worth more than ￡100m each (assuming they were sold as residential freeholds). More surprisingly, the Nepalese embassy and Zambian high commission, both in Kensington, are worth ￡30m and ￡40m respectively. Many members of the British Commonwealth gained locations in central London decades ago: Uganda, Zimbabwe and Tanzania have swanky central digs that would fetch a fortune.
Spear雜志和買方代理商Lichfields的一項報告聲稱，日本、德國和沙特阿拉伯大使館的價值可能超過1億英鎊/一座（如果他們把大使館作為住宅不動產來出售的話）。更令人驚訝的是，位于肯辛頓的尼泊爾大使館和贊比亞高級專員公署，分別價值3億英鎊和4億英鎊。早在數十年前，就有許多英聯邦成員在倫敦中心占有一席之地：烏干達、津巴布韋和坦桑尼亞在倫敦中心地帶都有房產，都可以大賺一筆。
Some are already liquidating their assets. Canada sold the long lease on Macdonald House, its consular section in Grosvenor Square, for ￡306m last year. The Dutch embassy on Hyde Park Gate is for sale and could fetch ￡150m. The Chinese may sell their embassy in Portland Place and search for a new site, perhaps also in Vauxhall.
有些國家甚至已經開始清算他們的資產。加拿大去年以3.06億英鎊的價格出售了麥克唐納大廈的長期租賃權，麥克唐納大廈是加拿大在格羅夫納廣場的領事處。荷蘭位于海德公園大門的大使館也在出售，可能會賣到1.5億英鎊。中國也打算賣掉其在波特蘭的大使館，正為新使館尋找一個合適的地址，或許也是在沃克斯豪爾。
The cheapest embassy appears to be North Korea's semi-detached house in Gunnersbury. But least proportionate to national wealth could be the consulate of Tuvalu, based in a ￡750,000 property in Wimbledon. If sold, it could pay off 11% of the tiny state's national debt.
最便宜的大使館似乎是朝鮮在根拿斯貝利的半獨立式房屋。但與國民財富最不相當的要數圖瓦盧的領事館了，位于溫布爾登，價值75萬英鎊。如果出售，所賣得的錢就可以償還這個小國家國家債務的11%。 譯者：胡雅琳 校對：邵夏沁
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