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

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

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.

The news release said that after Hefner’s tenancy concludes, Metropoulos plans to reconnect the Playboy Mansion property with a neighbouring estate that he purchased in 2009, combining the two for a 3 hectare compound as his own private residence.

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner will be allowed to live in the Playboy Mansion for the rest of his life. Photo: AFP

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