Revealed: The ultra mansions of the very, very wealthy
A 38,000 sq ft mansion called The Billionaire in Bel Air comes with 12 luxury cars and motorbikes, a staff of seven (prepaid for two years) and 7,000 films preloaded into a cinema covered in Hermes leather. You can sign the papers, move in and throw a dinner party that night
Jeff Hyland, arguably one of Los Angeles’ most powerful real estate brokers, knew that he was in the throes of a phenomenon while at a recent property event in London.
“People were saying to me: ‘We don’t understand why the Los Angeles market is so hot’,” Hyland said. “Miami has a four-year supply. Nobody wants to build in Paris. [New regulations stipulate that low-income housing needs to be included in luxury developments.] They think Los Angeles is on fire. I said to them: ‘You’re absolutely right’.”
These are the houses that are among the most expensive in the United States and the ones people want to talk about – even if the vast majority of high-net-worth individuals can only admire from afar.
“You can put up two hands and count the number of US$100 million estates that are available,” Hyland said. “Each one is so unique that no two are alike. It’s a completely different set of rules. If you’re in the US$30 million range and can’t do the deal, you can go around the corner and buy a similar house. When you’re talking about US$100 million and up, if you’re in love with the house, you’ve got no other place to go.”
Currently, the most expensive house for sale in the US is called, fittingly, The Billionaire, located atop a hillside in the rarefied setting of Bel Air. Priced at US$250 million, it was built by Bruce Makowsky, a handbag entrepreneur who sold his business to trading company Li & Fung in 2008 for US$330 million.
