Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch sold for reported US$22 million, a huge discount
- Sale comes more than 10 years after the death of the pop star who abandoned the property
- In 2015, the asking price was US$100 million and in 2017 it was re-listed for US$67 million
Michael Jackson’s former Neverland Ranch in California has sold to US billionaire Ron Burkle, his spokesman said Thursday, reportedly at a steeply discounted price of around US$22 million.
The late “King of Pop” famously converted his sprawling, gated home into a fairy tale-themed retreat – complete with toy railroad, Ferris wheel and orangutans – and penned some of his top hits on the ranch.
But Neverland was also the infamous location where Jackson invited children to visit and sleep over, and where he was accused of molesting young boys. It was rebranded after Jackson’s 2009 death as Sycamore Valley Ranch.
Burkle, a Montana-based businessman with investments ranging from supermarkets to the entertainment industry, purchased the ranch “as a land banking opportunity,” his spokesman said.
The US$22 million price tag reported by The Wall Street Journal – and confirmed to AFP as roughly accurate, by a source familiar with the deal – would mark a dramatic decline from the ranch’s US$100 million asking price in 2015.
