$100 million dollar sale in California,Tahoe is next!
April 1, 2011
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Google EarthThe $100 million sale of a Los Altos Hills, Calif., home shows how some luxury properties are insulated from the U.S. housing slump.
A Russian billionaire investor paid $100 million for a French chateau-style mansion in Silicon Valley, marking the highest known price paid for a single-family home in the U.S.
The purchase of the 25,500-square-foot home in Los Altos Hills, Calif., underscores the strength of some luxury properties in an otherwise depressed housing market.
Very Willing Buyers
Some past sales of high-end residential properties in the U.S.
In 2008, an investment company linked to Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev paid $95 million for an estate owned by Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Fla.
Former Global Crossing chairman Gary Winnick in around 2000 acquired a Los Angeles estate in the Bel Air neighborhood in a deal worth more than $90 million.
Housing tycoon Dwight Schar bought an 11-acre oceanfront compound in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2004 and 2005 for $85.6 million, from financier Ron Perelman.
Builder Mohamed Hadid sold a Bel Air estate in 2010 for $50 million. The 48,000-square-foot house, known as Le Belvedere, has 11 bedrooms, 19 fireplaces and a swan pond.
In 2006, private-equity figure J. Christopher Flowers paid $53 million for a Manhattan townhouse on East 75th Street.
In 2007, developer Harry Macklowe paid $51.6 million to piece together a roughly 13,000-square-foot-condominium on the seventh floor of Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel.
In 2007, Edgar Bronfman, Jr. sold a Manhattan townhouse on East 64th Street to Russian oil magnate Len Blavatnik for $50 million.
In 2006, music executive Tommy Mottola paid $47 million cash for Crystal Island Ranch, a 900-plus-acre ranch near Aspen, Colo.
Hollywood mogul Peter Guber in 2004 sold his 650-acre Mandalay Ranch for $46 million to mortgage-company executive Roland Arnall and his wife, Dawn.
Juliet Chung and Josh Barbanel
The buyer, Yuri Milner, 49, who heads Digital Sky Technologies and whose investments include Facebook Inc., Groupon Inc. and Zynga Inc., had no immediate plans to move into the home, said a spokesman.
Mr. Milner is the stocky founder of DST, a Moscow-based fund that’s made a splash in Silicon Valley via its investments. Its first in the U.S. was a $200 million check for Facebook in 2009. His primary residence is in Moscow, where he lives with his wife and two children.
The sky seemed to be the limit for Mr. Milner’s new house, a symmetrical limestone mansion with San Francisco Bay views that was inspired by 18th-century French chateaux.
The home has indoor and outdoor pools, a ballroom and a wine cellar. The grounds include a tennis court and inside are chandeliers and a frieze around a skylight in the entryway, among other details.
“There wasn’t a real budget,” said one of the architects, William Hablinski.
Mr. Milner’s deal for the home offers a stark contrast to the national real-estate market. Housing data show that prices continue to fall, and economists have forecast further declines between 5% and 10% for much of this year. While the high end has not been immune to deep discounting and distress sales, industry watchers say it has been relatively insulated, Luxury buyers often pay cash, allowing them to bypass tighter lending restrictions.
Video: Other Million Dollar Homes
Former technology research executive Gideon Gartner is offering his five-bedroom penthouse on the Upper West Side for $29.5 million. The lavish apartment combines three units and offers panoramic views of New York City.
Sales of homes over the $1 million mark rose nearly 4% in February year over year, according to the National Association of Realtors. That compares to a nearly 8% decline in sales volume for homes priced between $100,000 and $250,000.
“The crummy real estate market is not in the high end. It’s only in the lower end and the middle,” said Cristina Condon, a real-estate agent at Sotheby’s International in Palm Beach, Fla., who was not connected to the Silicon Valley transaction.
On Wednesday, Ms. Condon closed on the highest sale in Palm Beach County since 2008, a $26.4 million oceanfront home.
The sale of the Los Altos Hills home was previously reported by the website TechCrunch. Design plans for the house began in 2001 and the home was completed around 2009, according to Mr. Hablinski, who worked on the project with his then-partner Richard Manion.
Mr. Milner bought the home through a limited-liability company; the home wasn’t on the market, according to people familiar with the deal.
Mr. Milner, who studied theoretical physics in Moscow and attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, began his career in Moscow in the 1990s. By 1999, he had focused on the Internet after dabbling in everything from private equity to a macaroni-and-cheese factory.
The sellers are Fred Chan and his wife, Annie, who declined to comment through a representative. According to published reports, Mr. Chan founded Fremont-based ESS Technology, which designs and markets audio and video products for consumer markets, according to the company website.
They have been involved with condominium developments in Hawaii and have an educational foundation, according to published reports.
Big Buys
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David O. Marlow
Builder Mohamed Hadid sold a Bel-Air estate in 2010 for $50 million. The 48,000-square-foot house, known as Le Belvedere, has 11 bedrooms, 19 fireplaces and a swan pond.
See other major transactions.
The Chans are helping to finance the house, having accepted a $50 million note on the house, according to Loren Goldman of First American Title, who reviewed documents related to the deal. The Chans planned to use the estate as their primary home and traveled to Asia and Europe to acquire specific items for the house, Mr. Hablinski says.
2010 Incline Village real estate in review
December 28, 2010
Incline Village Life
Incline Village 2010 in review
HOMES
113 homes have closed in Incline/Crystal Bay so far in 2010 with bets, that we will hit 116 homes sold before year end. 18 of these homes sold were above $2million dollars, with a significant attraction to newer construction and Lake views.46/113 were above the million dollar mark.
Currently there are 175 homes on the market and 8 under contract ranging from $550,000 to $2.4m.5 of these homes under contract is “short sales”, including our luxury listing at www.822ellen.com.
The least expensive home is $290,000 and is truly a fixer upper at best.
There are 10 other homes which are just under $500,000 scattered through a variety of neighborhoods in Incline.
On the other end of the spectrum there have been 4 sales on the Incline Lakefront this year,3 of which were in a gated 4 parcel setting on the West end of Lakeshore. These were all substantial parcels, rocky shore line, and shared pier. The most expensive parcel closed for $11.8 million, on 3.6 acres with a modest house. The 4th sale was our 1169 Lakeshore property closing for $11.3million, on the eastern end of Lakeshore, around onto Highway 28.
We have not seen any real deals on the Incline Lakefront this year as the supply is limited, and most of the homes on the market are priced for the amenities ,such as pier, permitted buoys ,lake frontage, dwellings, and most importantly one of a kind locations .Currently there is an excellent choice of properties to choose from, including www.250northlake.com priced recently at $4,950,000.which is located amidst huge boulders and a path to the water’s edge. The views are like being on a ship, more than stunning.
www.hiddencovelaketahoe.com is nestled into a long, deep .90 acre parcel on the eastern end of lakeshore. The home has a true Tahoe great room with exterior decks overlooking a level landscaped backyard and the properties on private sandy cove.
www.villalaketahoe.com is a classic beautiful remodeled lodge style retreat with extensive lakefront deck, and main level living for the majority of the home. The property next door is also available for sale, www.1665pineconecircle.com .This is a great opportunity to purchase one or both, combined would offer over 1 acre pier and four permitted buoys. What is great is that these two properties could also be purchased with the neighboring parcels to the East, known as Sierra Star, and our adjacent listing at www.1143lakeshore.com .These locations do not come up very often with a contiguous opportunity, so again, a great opportunity.
Our www.stonegatelaketahoe.com is the ultimate combination of newer exquisite construction, Michael Smith Designs Interiors, with all the bells and whistles, plus sandy beach, pier and buoys. This home took several years to complete and is decorated to the 10’s.If time is important to you, the work is done, just write the check and enjoy for your life time, a true estate home.
And the land that takes it all is www.ospreylaketahoe.com this 8 acre estate setting is more than a lakefront, featuring one of the most unique settings of gently sloping landscape, natural creeks, mature trees, and one of the largest sandy beaches in Incline. The house, guest house and conference library are of museum quality, and offer a variety of lifestyle options for work and play.
As far as deals go on the Incline Lakefront ,we have 2 bank owned lots on the Western most side of incline , www.449lakeshore.com and www.451lakeshore.com ,combined totaling over 3 acres, and over 1000’ of frontage on the Lake. The terrain is on the steep side, but we also have the house at www.453lakshore.com for sale at $5,850,000, which is contiguous to both of these parcels.
Condos
153 active listings and 7 in escrow
114 sales, with 6 sales over $1m, and 1 of those over $2m in the Crystal Tower on the Incline Lakefront.
There have, and still are some real deals in the condo segment with some developments price rollbacks 25-30+% off the highs of 2006.
Freestanding condos (planned unit developments)
46 active listings in this category with 4 under contract.
28 sales this year, including 3 homes in The Glen development. (The gated enclave on highway 28, across from the 15th fairway of the IV Champ Golf Course)Newer homes with minimal maintenance.
There have been super values in this category for those buyer’s wanting the space of a home, but not the maintenance.
Incline Village and Lake Tahoe,Nevada. What is selling?
October 20, 2010
Incline Village, Nevada, contiguous lakefront parcels offered
October 6, 2010
U.K. and USA
May 19, 2010
FROM OUR STRATEGIC PARTNER IN LONDON, MAYFAIR INTERNATIONAL REALTY:
Please find attached Nick’s latest Market Comment following the General Election and an illustration to accompany it. So many of you have company, or individual, blogs or news sections on websites and it’s great to add a little piece from your London office. We love seeing the creative ways you have of using these. You may even like to send it to your local press or magazines “from your London Office”. Even add it to Twitter or your company Facebook page as we do on ours.
Feel free to use the attached for your own blogs.
Enjoy!
Nick and Annette
Director
Mayfair Office/Mayfair International Realty – Cashel House – 15 Thayer Street – London – W1U 3JT
Direct Line : 020 7467 5332
Mobile : 07740 679715
Office : 0870 112 7099
Fax : 020 7467 5339
Skype: annette.reeve1
Email: annette@mayfairoffice.co.uk
Time to Move
Now that the UK General Election is over Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty considers the real estate market that Britain’s new government inherits.
Well now we know. The UK general election didn’t pan out as anyone thought. No party received an overall majority. So we find ourselves in an unfamiliar country. The Conservatives could have set up an unstable minority government. Or two parties could have banded together and form a majority coalition government – rare in the UK. But after a great deal of fascinating horse-trading this is just what happened. The Conservatives have been joined by the Liberal Democrats who managed, having effectively come third in the election, to get their feet under the cabinet table for the first time in seventy years. Their leader, Nick Clegg, becomes Deputy Prime Minister while David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, becomes Prime Minister – at 43 the youngest in the UK for 198 years. Having come second, outgoing Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his Labour government are consigned to the pages of history.
British politics is adversarial and brutal. No sooner does a Prime Minister lose an election than he or she loses their home at 10 Downing Street. There is no gentle period of incumbency here. One minute you are sitting pretty in one of the best-known addresses in the world and the next you are retreating miserably out of the back door while the new PM enters triumphantly through the front.
But it seems that it’s not just the Camerons and the Browns who are moving home. Lots of other people in the UK have decided that it is time for a change also. This new coalition government inherits many challenges of an economic and social kind, but the UK real estate market they inherit isn’t in too bad a shape, despite the recession. Recent activity in the property market is at levels not seen for several years, and now the election is well and truly out of the way there should be even more decisiveness in the market.
After considerable falls, prices in prime London areas and in other large metropolitan areas around the UK have surged back to 2007 levels and – in some key locations – have exceeded even those. Most other areas have seen prices rise but not to such a generous extent.
First time buyers in the UK have recently been given a good tax break here to help stimulate this sector and this will have a positive knock-on effect further up the market. As mortgage lenders become more accommodating to borrowers, and more competitive with each other, more people will enter the real estate market, and this goes for overseas homes including the US.
With ever more of the UK population reaching retirement age, the demand for homes in the US is set once again to rise. But as the UK and the US move into a period of faster recovery there will, no doubt, be a residual level of caution from buyers. Fiercely competitive pricing will reward bold sellers on both sides of the Atlantic. More rigid and optimistic sellers may find themselves neither bounding out of the front door nor sloping out of the back. They will be somewhere rather nasty in between called Limbo.
Annette Reeve MNAEA CIPS
