Outrageously over-the-top Beverly Hills pad complete with gold accessories galore goes on sale for £80 million; buyers will get a gold Lamborghini, a gold Rolls-Royce and 170 gold coloured bottles of Cristal
Sold last for £7.7 million ($9.8 million, €9.3 million or درهم36 million) in 2012 when it was a 5,926 square foot house, 1175 Hillcrest Road on the Trousdale Estates in Beverly Hills, California has been completely redeveloped and renamed ‘Opus’. It now provides 20,500 square foot of accommodation on a 1 acre plot and has gone on for sale for the astonishing sum of £80 million ($100 million, €95 million or درهم367 million).
Now featuring 7 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, it is the ‘extras’ that come with the property that make it newsworthy. Amongst the ‘toys’ thrown in are a gold Lamborghini Aventador and a gold Rolls-Royce Dawn, £1.6 million ($2 million, €1.9 million or درهم7.3 million) of artwork (including three Damien Hirst paintings), 170 bottles of Cirstal champagne and a full-time house manager, whose salary has been pre-paid for two years.
The creation of a developer named Nile Niami, the house also has “electric toilets that do everything for you” – Just what every billionaire truly needs.
Horrific £27.6 million apartment in Trump International Tower is struggling to sell; in this case its not the links to the POTUS that is the cause, it’s simply revoltingly decorated
“Don’t let the opulence distract you”, suggest the many agents marketing what could be quite possibly the gaudiest apartment at One Central Park West – AKA ‘Trump International Hotel and Tower’ – in New York. If they’d been honest, they’d have said something completely different and that would be: “This place is truly horrific”.
Originally priced at £32 million ($40 million, €37.6 million or درهم146.9 million) when first placed on the market in May 2016, apartment #47BC within the 44-floor tower has recently been reduced to £27.6 million ($34.5 million, €32.4 million or درهم126.7 million). The 6,360 square foot, 6 bedroom gold-leafed, marble-floored monstrosity admittedly enjoys “extraordinary views” of Central Park but comes with bathrooms so over-the-top that even Liberace would have blushed.
Trump International Tower itself was originally built between 1968 and 1970 and converted to a mix of hotel and residential space by Donald Trump between 1995 and 1997. The 583-foot tall, Thomas E. Stanley designed building featured in the 2011 comedy crime film Tower Heist and has a 30-foot wide silver globe to the front of it.
Knight Frank and Douglas Elliman are amongst the tribe of agents attempting to sell what they describe as a “Central Park West sprawling gem”. It was last sold in 2008 to an anonymous entity named Daisho Development USA, Inc. They paid $26 million (the equivalent of £23.4 million, $29.3 million, €27.5 million or درهم107.6 million today) for the vast 14-room space.
Quaint medieval thatched cottage for sale; it is one of the oldest in Wiltshire
One of the oldest building structures in Wiltshire, The Old Cottage at Ogbourne St. Andrew, dates to medieval times and is now for sale for £630,000 ($786,000, €743,000 or درهم2.9 million).
Grade II listed and built from banded sarsen and flint with a thatched roof, this quirky 1,787 square foot cottage most definitely wouldn’t look out of place on a chocolate box or in an episode of Midsomer Murders. It includes 3 reception rooms, a breakfast kitchen, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and stands with 0.34 acres of gardens.
Featuring such things as an inglenook fireplace complete with a bread oven and beamed ceilings, The Old Cottage has been in the ownership of the same family for 40 years. It is for sale through Hamptons International and though currently without allocated parking, has the potential to create space.
Belvedere, CA home of late tech billionaire and author of ‘Sex and the Single Zillionaire’ Thomas Perkins for sale; he entertained amongst others Sophia Loren and Rupert Murdoch there
Thomas Perkins (1932 – 2016) had it all. Born in New York, this Harvard University and MIT graduate made his fortune in Silicon Valley, California when he co-founded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1972 and invested in amongst others Amazon, AOL, Compaq, Google, Macromedia, Netscape and Segway. He was said to be worth £6.4 billion ($8 billion, €7.4 billion or درهم29.4 billion), was briefly married to famed author Danielle Steel between 1998 and 2002 and wrote a novel of his own, Sex and the Single Zillionaire, in 2006.
Aside from an £8 million ($10 million, €9.3 million or درهم36.6 million) country house in East Sussex, England named Plumpton Place and ‘The Maltese Falcon’ – his 289-foot long, £104.3 million ($130 million, €120.9 million or درهم477.5 million) sailing yacht – Perkins owned a French style residence on Belvedere Island in Marin County, California. He purchased it with his Norwegian first wife, Gerd Thune-Ellefsen, in 1972 and continued to live there after her death in 1994.
Danielle Steel and Tom Perkins remained friends even after their divorceSteel even hosted a party for Perkins’s novel at her Pacific Heights, San Francisco mansion when it launched in 2006The tech billionaire’s yacht, The Maltese Falcon, was the largest sailing yacht in the world when it was launched in 1990Perkins at his English country home, Plumpton Place in East SussexThe exterior of Perkins’s Belvedere home, 345 Golden Gate Avenue, appears modestBut what is to be found within includes this spectacular ‘Grand Salon’
Extending to 8.885 square foot in total, the house – which was put up for sale last June by Perkins’s children – was built to the designs of architects Julia Morgan and George Kelham in 1928 and features 16th century linenfold wood-paneled walls in a room described as a ‘Grand Salon’. Here, Perkins entertained European royalty, his fellow News Corp board member Rupert Murdoch and the Italian actress Sophia Loren and given the room’s outlook to the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay, these luminaries cannot have failed to have been impressed.
Known simply as 345 Golden Gate Avenue, Perkins’s former home is for sale through Sotheby’s International Realty for £13.2 million ($16.5 million, €15.3 million or درهم60.6 million). It includes a formal dining room seating 18, 6 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, a guest apartment, an outdoor swimming pool and stands on a plot of 0.85 acres.
Prior to his death, in 2014, Perkins attracted controversy when he penned an article for The Wall Street Journal. At the time, he wrote:
“Writing from the epicentre [sic] of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its ‘one per cent’, namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one per cent, namely the rich”.
He later apologised for making comparisons to Nazi Germany but subsequently added: “In the Nazi era it was racial demonization, now it’s class demonization”.
5,000 acre Irish estate where “anything can happen” for sale for £24.1 million; its current owner would prefer a buyer who’ll allow him to use it for three months a year
Michael Jackson hid out at Luggala in County Wicklow, Ireland in 2006 for three months after being cleared of child molestation charges and other guests at this magical estate have included Francis Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Bono, John Paul Getty II, Mel Gibson, John Hurt, Mick Jagger, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Paul McCartney and Anita Pallenberg.
Encompassing a plot of some 5,000 acres, Luggala (meaning: “a hollow in a ridge”) is also known as ‘Fancy Mountain’ and has been used in films including Zardoz, Braveheart and Excalibur. It is located 28 miles south-west of Dublin, was described by the singer Marianne Faithfull as “the most beautiful place in the world” and the main house there has gradually morphed into what has been called “the most decorative honeypot in Ireland”.
Architecturally significant, Luggala Lodge (also known as Luggala Castle), was built in 1787 and is lauded as having “that special brand of 18th century Gothick that rejoices in little battlements, crochets, trefoil and quatrefoil windows and ogee mantelpieces, Indeed, quite like the Gothick of pastry cooks and Rockingham china”. It “boasts all the appurtenances of a grand castle but on a miniature scale” and though standing on a modest footprint, extends to some 7,438 square foot in total.
In 1937, the estate was bought by the Hon. Ernest Guinness (1876 – 1949) and given to his daughter, Oonagh, on her marriage to Lord Oranmore and Browne – a peer with the rare distinction of managing to sit in the House of Lords without ever saying a single thing. It subsequently became a place where “nobody could stay away: Dublin intelligentsia, literati, painters, actors, scholars, hangers-on, toffs, punters, poets and social hang-gliders” and was even immortalised in poetry by Seamus Heaney.
Current owner of Luggala, the decidedly eccentric the Hon. Dr. Garech Browne (born 1939)Luggala Lodge, Roundwood, Leinster, County Wicklow, IrelandLuggala Lodge after a fire in 1956Oonagh Guinness, Oonagh, Lady Oranmore and Browne (1910 – 1995)
On Oonagh, Lady Oranmore and Browne’s death in 1970, the estate passed into the “custody” of her son, the Hon. Dr. Garech Browne. He has spent considerable sums restoring the house and made it a “cultural hub for Irish music, art and literature”. A co-founder of the record label Claddagh Records and instrumental in the formation of the traditional Irish folk group, The Chieftans, Browne and his Indian princess wife, Purna Devi of Morvi, added an indoor swimming pool to Luggala Lodge as well as a Gothic library for his collection of 8,000 books.
Now for sale due to 77-year old Garlech Browne and his wife primarily choosing to be based in Singapore, it has been suggested that the Irish State should purchase the estate. Thus far no offer has been forthcoming and this week Jennifer O’Connell of The Irish Times even penned an article that suggested: “Opening the national chequebook is not the way to secure [Luggala’s] future”.
‘Catwoman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein puts her Trump World Tower apartment on the market after recent court appearance for “clawing” her boyfriend’s face
“No showings before 12pm” shouts the listing on realtor Douglas Elliman’s homepage and given how the owner of the property they’re currently selling no doubt looks of a morning, one need not wonder why. Welcome to the 8-bedroom, £10.36 million ($12.95 million, €12.08 million or درهم47.56 million) home of billionaire divorcee Jocelyn Wildenstein (AKA ‘Catwoman’ or ‘Bride of Wildenstein’).
Situated towards the top of the 72 floor, 376 apartment Trump World Tower residential skyscraper at 845 United Nations Paza in Midtown Manhattan, Wildenstein reportedly bought and combined the three apartments offered for $6 million in 2001 (the equivalent of £6.51 million, ($8.14 million, €7.59 million or درهم29.90 million today). She is said to have “spent millions more on lavish renovations and an opulent Art Deco interior” to create a look that featured “shark-skin gaming tables, chairs made from ostrich leather and zebra-skin couches” but now, the 5,160-square foot space is being marketed as “ready to be created to the buyer’s specifications”.
Feline-like Wildenstein, a seriously wealthy woman thanks to her 1999 divorce from art dealer Alec Wildenstein, was arrested on 6th December for digging her finger nails into the face of her now ex-boyfriend, fashion designer Lloyd Klein, during a “cat fight” in the apartment. She is reportedly selling up as “she just doesn’t feel comfortable there after what happened”.
Jocelyn Wildenstein and Lloyd Klein in happier times
The entrance to The Trump World Tower
Lloyd Klein in the gaudy apartment that is now for sale
Jocelyn Wildenstein poses with a cat
A dining area illustrates Mrs Wildenstein’s curious taste in decor
Mrs Wildenstein is said to be a collector of all manner of curiosities
The current floor plan of the apartment offered
The original floor plan of the apartment offered
The proposed floor plan of the apartment offered
Jocelyn Wildenstein’s face
Lloyd Klein’s face after he was “clawed” by Jocelyn Wildenstein
Not connected with the LGBT community in any way, but in fact named after a man named John Gays, “Gays” at Holyport, near Maidenhead in Berkshire dates to around 1456 and is currently for sale for £5.95 million ($7.36 million, €6.88 million or درهم27.05 million).
Gays or John Gays House, Langworthy Lane, Holyport, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 2HN, England, United Kingdom
Also referred to as “John Gays House” and offered to the market by Christie’s Real Estate, this 12,482 square foot “bijou old world residence” stands in 20.75 acres and is predominantly built of red brick elevations with attractive sash fenestration, under a tile roof. It is Grade II listed, dates to the Tudor period and also includes later Queen Anne, Georgian, Victorian and 20th century additions.
Less than 30 miles from central London, Gays has been owned by a Swiss family for 20 years according to Country Life and includes 6 reception rooms, a conservatory, a master bedroom suite with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and 2 dressing rooms, 6 further bedrooms and 5 further bathrooms. In addition, the property also comes with a 2-bedroom lodge cottage, a 2-bedroom staff cottage, an indoor swimming pool, wine store and 4-car garage.
Aside from a large lawned garden with an irrigation system, a lake adjoins the house and there is also an orchard with apple and pear trees. A stable block, a manège and paddocks stand beyond whilst a 1-kilometre long sand and rubber chip horse exercise track circles it. The Duke of York, it transpires, borrowed these facilities in the late 1990s for his own horses.
Vast New York triplex with three bullet-proof panic rooms at The Heritage at Trump Place reduced in price by 47%; Is the Trump connection a factor?
In 2012, a Saudi royal placed a fifth, sixth and seventh triplex he “rarely uses” on the market for £61.7 million ($75 million, €71 million or درهم275.5 million). It didn’t sell and now it’s back for sale for just £32.9 million ($40 million, €37.9 million or درهم147 million) through Elizabeth Mercedes Berk of Mercedes/Berk.
Featuring three bullet-proof panic rooms and extending to a total of 10,500 square foot over three levels, #6A at 240 Riverside Boulevard – alternatively known as The Heritage at Trump Place – is a combination of six units in what is described as “one of New York’s finest full-service condominiums”. It is currently configured to provide 3 bedrooms but comes with plans to turn it into a 5-bedroom home.
Enjoying 120 foot of “contiguous, unobstructed park and Hudson River views”, the Upper West Side property – which is within a building that was completed in 2005 – features three private terraces, a restaurant quality kitchen with a sushi bar, a billiards room, a hair salon, a ventilated cigar room, a six-person Jacuzzi and a saltwater aquarium. Two adjacent units that currently provide staff accommodation can be included in the sale for an additional sum.
The current owner, Prince Nawaf bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, is 82 years old and said to be confined to a wheelchair. He was Director General of Saudi Intelligence from 2001 to 2005 and is described as “a close ally of the late King Abdullah”.
One has to ask: “With Donald Trump’s name associated with the building, will panic set in and will the price drop further?” We’re guessing the answer is “yes”.
Two studio flats near Harrods for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people
A typical London Underground carriage provides about 464 square foot of space. In Knightsbridge and just seconds from Harrods, a property offering just over half that area has just come on sale on a short lease for £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million).
The 258 square foot raised ground floor ‘cupboard-like’ property in Jefferson House at 11 Basil Street is offered at a price that equates to £1,765 per square foot ($2,170, €2,050 or درهم7,965 per square foot) consists of a single room decorated with Austin Powers-esque wallpaper, a kitchen with, the selling agents boast, the luxury of “an electric hob” and a shower room. Carter Jonas point out that the lease on the studio is extendable but neglect to detail what that will cost.
For pint-sized people with a larger budget, Beauchamp Estates have also just launched a slightly larger third floor studio to the west of Harrods in Beaufort Gardens, SW3.
Priced at a much more punchy £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) or £3,061 per square foot ($3,760, €3,570 or درهم13,815 per square foot), the 539 square foot flat is within a redeveloped building of nine properties and features an open plan sitting, dining and kitchen area with a corridor to a separate sleeping area. It has a full-sized bathroom and lift access.
Pictures and plans of the Basil Street studio:
Pictures and plans of the Beaufort Gardens studio:
East Sussex country house for sale; it comes complete with an enormous rectangular moat allegedly dug by an eccentric parson in the 1700s
One generally associates moats with castles and manor houses – such as the one we featured last month – but an old rectory currently for sale for £5 million ($6.3 million or €5.9 million or درهم23.2 million) in East Sussex comes with an especially impressive ground water-fed, rectangular example complete with three timber footbridges.
Chailey Moat, Chailey Green, East Sussex, United Kingdom, BN8 4DA
This fireplace is one of the most stunning and historic features internally
It is situated within this reading room
Another view of the main house shows the size of the moat
Previously marketed for £3.5 million ($4.4 million or €4.1 million or درهم16.2 million) in 2007 but not sold at that time, Grade II listed Chailey Moat at Chailey Green, near Haywards Heath in East Sussex dates to around 1540 and was previously known as ‘The Parsonage’. It blends Tudor, Carolean, Elizabethan and Georgian elements and is centred on an original timber framed medieval structure hidden by later additions. The south-eastern façade is described by selling agents Savills as “most striking” and amongst other unusual features are a Venetian window on the first floor and a brick fireplace in a reading room with an intricately carved overmantel that allegedly came from part of a Charles I bedstead.
Aside from a 6,146 square foot main house with 5 reception rooms and upto 8 bedrooms over three floors, there is a 398 square foot 1 bedroom cottage and a 4 bedroomed, 17th century barn conversion that extends to 807 square foot and also provides a substantial games room.
Gardens and grounds extend to 43.76 acres and aside from the moat – which was allegedly singlehandedly dug by the Reverend Richard Porter, rector from 1713 to 1753 – there is also a enclosed tennis court, an outdoor swimming pool, a stream fed lake, a productive orchard and rolling pastureland.
Chailey Moat is offered by Savills and was described by Country Life’s Penny Churchill as a “mansion of peace” in June this year. In October, the medieval property’s current owner, businessman Andrew Colin, described its idyllic setting to The Times. “It’s like sitting in the middle of a nature reserve”, he said.
The dining hall
The drawing room
The staircase dates from the 18th century
The kitchen has a four-oven AGA
This barn conversion provides ideal staff or guest accommodation and beyond it is a full-sized tennis court
A lake is situated within the grounds
Whilst extensive lawned gardens extend out across the moat
Another view of the gardens
A floor plan of the main house
Floor plans of the barn conversion, cottage and outbuildings
