It's Official: America's Most Expensive Home Has A Brand New Billionaire Owner
By Morgan Brennan
Well folks, it’s official. The Spelling Manor, America’s most expensive home for sale, officially has a new owner. The sale of the $150 million Los Angeles, Calif. estate closed today and FORBES has the exclusive interview with co-listing agent Sally Forster Jones of Coldwell Banker Previews International. Forster Jones, who has more than $1 billion in sales to her name over the past decade alone, shared the listing with Rick Hilton and Jeff Hyland of Hilton & Hyland, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.
“We are sold, it is closed,” says Forster Jones. “It’s the highest broker sale in Southern California in the history of Southern California and Los Angeles.”
As with many other ultra luxury home sales, the brokers signed Non-Disclosure Agreements on the property, meaning they can’t divulge the final sales price or confirm the identity of the buyer. But we have good reason to believe it is Petra Ecclestone, heiress to the Formula One racing empire and daughter of British billionaire Bernie Ecclestone. Representatives of Ecclestone, 22, announced she was in contract on the 56,500-square foot mansion last month. Today The Wall Steet Journal reports that the opulent estate sold for $85 million, or at a steep 43% discount off the $150 million asking price.
The Spelling Manor, built by Candy Spelling and late TV producer husband Aaron Spelling, was on the sale block for two and a half years, maintaining that hefty nine figure asking price the entire time. Forster Jones says the sale transaction went very smoothly. Deals of this magnitude tend to be all-cash — something we strongly suspect to be the case with this transaction. The high-end home broker could not confirm the nature of the sale but she did assert that sales of trophy properties like this one, “tend to be cash-type buyers because they [the home buyers] are the ultra wealthy part of population.”
Forster Jones also notes that the property enjoyed a “tremendous amount of interest” and that, unlike for sale homes at lower price points, two and a half years is not a long time on the market. “This is a glitzy Hollywood property, but it is also very homey – all the potential buyers could picture themselves calling it home,” remarks the Realtor.
The Spelling Manor, originally named L’Oiseau, is situated on about 4.7 acres in tony Holmby Hills, an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood. The three-story, seven bedroom estate boasts every outrageous amenity a celebrity or billionaire could imagine. Among the offerings are a dog grooming room, five bars, a wine cellar and tasting room, a China room for displaying ritzy server ware, a “gift-wrapping” room, a flower-cutting hall with professional florist fridge, a projection room, game and billiards rooms, a bowling alley, and a beauty salon. An elevator runs between the floors.
The lavish estate’s grounds encompass expansive gardens, an orangery, a koi pond, lamp posts imported from Paris, a pool complex and tennis courts. The fountain-studded motor court holds up 100 cars in front of the limestone mansion.
Ecclestone is said to be moving into the palatial pad following her August nuptials to James Stunt, a businessman and London nightclub fixture. It’s been reported that the couple will split their time between London and and their new SoCal digs.
Candy Spelling, mother to actress-turned-reality star Tori, was the home’s seller. She snapped up a $35 million penthouse apartment in Century City, a luxe L.A. high rise owned by billionaire Stephen Ross‘ Related Co. in December and relocated there shortly after. Forster Jones has represented the Spelling family on six real estate transactions and says Spelling is “wonderful to work with.”
The Spelling Manor joins the ranks of most expensive billionaire homes in the country with Yuri Milner’s $100 million Silicon Valley estate, and industrial billionaire Ira Rennert‘s hulking Fair Field Estate in the Hamptons, valued at $200 million according to tax assessments.
Its sale today sheds light on a growing trend in America’s ultra high-end housing market: foreign buyers. Forster Jones says foreign buyers, primarily from Asia, Russia, Europe and the Middle East, constitute roughly 75% of all showings she gives of her $20 million and higher property listings. Coldwell Banker Previews International’s $10 million and higher listings in the Los Angeles area have been enjoying a rebound this year. Twenty-seven homes worth $10 million or more have sold thus far in 2011, compared to 15 sales in 2010 and 12 in 2009. Many of them were purchased by foreigners.
