Recession-hit billionaires selling castle, jets and yachts

With the global economic downturn making holes in pockets of billionaires, the richie-rich of the world are out to dispose of all their costly belongings, including castles, yachts, private jets and even soccer team.

In its annual ranking of world's richest billionaires, business magazine Forbes found that the number of billionaires has fallen to 793 from 1,125 last year, while the total billionaire wealth has taken a hit of about $2 trillion.

According to another report from Forbes, many of the "billionaire toys" are up for sale and the available multi- million-dollar items include a castle, a luxury hotel, private jets, a soccer team and large-size yachts.

"A year ago Sergei Polonsky had everything. At 35, he debuted on our World's Billionaires list as one of the youngest members... One Russian market collapse later, Polonsky is scrambling to raise funds," Forbes said.

The report quoted Polonsky as blogging this January that he has "decided to sell my hotel Sungate Port Royal, yachts and the house on the Cte d'Azur and put all the proceeds into further construction of our projects".

Besides, there are many yachts and seaside villas available in the market as "a number of billionaires, former billionaires and their ex-spouses are now trying to unload some pieces of their billionaire lifestyle".