360 mln. USD in total for just two villas: who bought overexpensive property
Amazon founder Jeff
Bezos, also being the richest man in the world, bought a Beverly Hills mansion
for 165 million USD, as The Wall Street Journal has reported. Interestingly,
this is a record-breaking deal for Los Angeles. Never before any residential
property in Los Angeles area was sold for such a large amount.
The territory of
the mansion is 3.6 hectares and has a golf course, tennis courts, several
gardens and houses.
Bezos, whose
fortune exceeds 132 bln. USD, bought it from media mogul David Geffen, while he
acquired it from the Presidents of Warner Bros., Jack Warner for 47.5 million
USD in 1990. According to the sources of the publication, real estate
agents did not participate in the deal. Remarkable that, at that time the deal
set another price record, being the largest amount paid for a residential
property.
Let’s hold out for
a higher price for the mansion in another dozen of years.
Apart from that,
there was another similar high-profile real estate deal, being completed by Rinat Akhmetov, a billionaire from Ukraine. Recently he
bought a €200 mln. Villa Les Cèdres, which is located on the French Riviera,
A 18,000
sq. ft. ornately decorated mansion on the coast with one of the world-class
botanical garden and 14 bedrooms was constructed in the 1800s and had
originally belonged to King Leopold II of Belgium.
The
previous owner of the villa was Campari Group, which produces the Campari aperitif,
as well as fifty different drinks.
Akhmetov’s SCM company (System Capital Management) has a widespread real estate investments in Europe and North America, apart from owing stakes in metal, mining, media, energy and finance businesses. He is also the owner of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk. It is still in question, whether it will be used private purposes or it is just as a matter of a long-term investment.
However that may be, there upmarket deals confirm that real estate remains a convertible investment tool for those, who are looking for a safe heaven in a drastically changing global environment.