DOWN ON ITS LUXE: Portugal has sold this diplomatic pad at the Dakota. (
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Cash-strapped Portugal has been quietly selling off its assets — including a swanky prewar pad at the famed Dakota apartment building on the Upper West Side, The Post has learned.
The nearly bankrupt nation had used the sprawling eight-room apartment overlooking Central Park for decades as an entertainment space, hosting formal parties thrown by ambassadors and other government honchos, sources said.
But the country recently had to dump the apartment — which boasts original 19th-century details, three wood-burning fireplaces and 12-foot ceilings — for $11.5 million as it tries to negotiate a $107.6 billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Portugal is also selling off stakes in its national airline, oil, utility and electricity companies by the end of July.
Its other global real-estate assets — former consulates, official ambassador residences and other properties that the country has owned for decades — are also on the market.
Portugal bought the seventh-floor Dakota apartment for around $250,000 in 1971. At the time of the recent sale, the asking price was $12.95 million, down from $14.5 million last year.
Broker John Burger, of Brown Harris Stevens, had the listing while Jason Haber, of Rubicon Property, represented the buyer.