Taylor Swift scores discount for new mansion

Country star Taylor Swift is adding to her property portfolio after securing a $17.75 million deal for a new seaside home in Rhode Island.

The I Knew You Were Trouble hitmaker recently went house-hunting along north-east coast with her mother Andrea, father Scott and younger brother Austin, and she appears to have settled on a lavish estate in the town of Westerly.

The property, which boasts five bedrooms and sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, had reportedly been on the market for $20 million - but Swift managed to use her charms to negotiate the lower price.

Swift is fast establishing herself as a savvy property owner - she allegedly made a profit of almost $1 million earlier this year after selling off an oceanside estate in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, near the compound owned by the Kennedy family. The singer briefly dated Conor Kennedy, the teenage son of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., last summer.