Tom Cruise’s plans to buy a sprawling country estate in Britain’s posh Cotswolds with actor Ana de Armas have left some locals less than thrilled – with residents accusing wealthy American celebrities of “turning quiet villages into luxury fortresses,”RadarOnline.com can reveal
Cruise, 63, is scouting properties near Charlbury, Oxfordshire, an area that has become a magnet for global billionaires and Hollywood stars. The Mission: Impossible actor has been renting a modernist home in the valley and is now looking to settle permanently with de Armas, 37, with whom he has been linked in recent months.
The New Beverly Hills?
Cruise is looking to buy property in Britain’s posh Cotswolds with his rumored girlfriend.
One American resident of the area he wants to move to fumed the growing influx of famous Americans was changing village life.
She said: “Every year there’s another celebrity moving in, another massive building site, and a few more helicopters overhead. It’s starting to feel less like the Cotswolds and more like Beverly Hills in the rain.”
Locals say Cruise’s impending arrival in the countryside would add to tensions already simmering over noise, construction, and sky-high property prices.
“People used to get along well here,” said one local. “But there are lawsuits between landowners now over trees and boundaries. A kind of civil war has started among the super-rich here.”
Famous Neighbors Revealed
Some residents claim Cotswold is turning into the new Beverly Hills.
Cruise’s interest in buying in rural Britain follows a wave of high-profile arrivals in the U.K. countryside, including Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who recently bought a country home nearby.
Reports have also linked Beyoncé and Jay-Z to a $10million plot outside Wigginton.
“The Cotswolds used to be about tweed and tractors,” said another resident. “Now it’s private jets, yoga rooms, and underground spas. When celebrities arrive, the prices – and the attitudes – of their neighbors change overnight.”
Local business owners say the influx has driven up costs for everyone. “Once the stars start hiring local services, everything doubles,” said one tradesman. “Builders, decorators, cleaners – they all charge what Hollywood will pay. Ordinary families are being priced out of the area.”
The A-lister is said to be looking at a change of residence.
The Cotswolds, long known for its picturesque limestone villages and gently rolling hills, has become a global trophy destination – a place to slot between Montecito and Aspen in a luxury property portfolio. Many of the wealthy newcomers reportedly visit only for a few weeks a year.
“We see a lot of big houses sitting dark for months, guarded by security vans,” said a local councillor. “They’re not communities anymore – they’re showpieces.”
Cruise’s estate would no doubt continue the pattern.
“He’ll build a fortress with everything he needs so he won’t have to leave,” one resident said. “I doubt we’ll see him at the pub, the village fête, or the book club – though he’d be very welcome.”
Beauty Disappearing From Neighborhood?
The rumored couple have yet to confirm their relationship.
Even some American expatriates admit to feeling conflicted.
“I came here because it was peaceful and British,” said one. “But now it’s full of people like me – Americans with too much money and big ideas about what rural life should look like.”
As developers quietly prepare plots for new celebrity buyers, longtime residents say the battle for the soul of the Cotswolds is already underway.
“It’s beautiful here,” said another local, adding: “But every time another superstar moves in, a bit more of that beauty disappears behind a gate.”
