Bunnies not included: Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion sells for US$100 million

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A view of the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:18am, 17 Aug 2016

The famed Los Angeles Playboy mansion belonging to Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, has been sold for US$100 million, and Hefner, 90, has the right to live in the mansion for the rest of his life, a representative for the buyer said in a news release on Tuesday.

The property was bought by Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Co, for half of the US$200 million it was initially listed for earlier this year.

Metropoulos said Hefner’s 1927 Gothic Tudor-style mansion, which has an area of 20,000 square feet, had a “rich and storied legacy” and is a “masterpiece in design.”

Daren Metropoulos, the new owner of the Playboy Mansion, is seen at its sister house in Holmby Hills, California. Photo: Reuters

The pool area of the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Photo: AP

Hefner and Playboy Enterprises did not comment on the sale.

The property, which was purchased by Playboy in 1971 for a reported US$1.1 million, sits amid 52 hectares in Holmby Hills, west of Los Angeles, and includes 29 rooms, a tennis court and a free-form swimming pool. It also has a zoo license.

It is home to the famous Playboy grotto, which over the years served as the setting for some of Hefner’s most lavish, hedonistic parties.