Step inside the incredible homes of the world’s billionaires
Gallery View|Expand ViewDiscover how the uber-rich really live
Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo ; StreetEasyWith money no object, the mega-wealthy can splash out on just about any property that takes their fancy, be it a palatial mansion or even an entire tropical island. Yet some actually have very humble tastes indeed. Ranging from the magnificent to the surprisingly modest, take a sneaky peak around the homes of the most loaded people on the planet, from Rihanna and Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.Carlos Slim
Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo
Meet Carlos Slim, Mexico’s wealthiest man, and formerly the richest man in the world. With a reported net worth of $81.2 billion (£67.6bn), Slim and his family own América Móvil, Latin America’s biggest mobile telecom firm. Over the course of a nearly six-decade career, Slim has developed a reputation as a business magnate, investor and philanthropist, and has amassed an impressive property portfolio to boot.
Carlos Slim
StreetEasy
One of Slim’s most impressive homes is this stately Manhattan townhouse, which he recently relisted for $80 million (£66.6m). Slim had previously listed the building for the same price back in 2015, a record-breaking asking price for the city at the time, the New York Post reports. Even today the property has the highest list price of any townhouse for sale in the area, and if it manages to secure a buyer, will break the record for the most expensive townhouse ever sold in the Big Apple.
Carlos Slim
StreetEasy
Slim purchased the townhouse from the late Russian oil titan Tamir Sapir in 2010 for $44 million (£36.7m). However, with its location on Fifth Avenue in the luxurious Upper East Side and its Gilded Age glamour, the home’s eight-figure asking price is not hard to understand. Built between 1899 and 1901, the red-brick and limestone townhouse boasts 20,000-square-feet across five stories, with spectacular views of Central Park on one side, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which stands directly across the street, on the other.
Carlos Slim
StreetEasy
The home is full of spectacular original detailing, including marble fireplaces, parquet floors, ornate plaster-moulded ceilings and an impressive grand staircase, which climbs up all five stories. The home offers eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, with 25 rooms in total. The palatially proportioned entertaining rooms on the first and second floors just cry out to host large events and are highly reminiscent of the days of balls and banquets for which they were originally built.
Carlos Slim
StreetEasy
Known as the Benjamin N. Duke House, the home was designed by the firm of Welch, Smith & Provot in the Italian Renaissance Palazzo style and is one of the last of the luxurious mansions that line Fifth Avenue to remain privately owned, the listing notes. Indeed, the listing goes on to suggest that while the house is suitable for private ownership, it is also ideally suited to be turned into a gallery, store, museum, or foundation given its enormous size and prime location.
Rihanna
Tommaso Boddi / Stringer ; Getty
Very few singers can call themselves billionaires—but Rihanna certainly can. The Super Bowl halftime show star is now a fully-fledged business mogul, thanks to her hugely successful beauty brand, Fenty. In August 2021, Forbes declared Barbados-𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 Rihanna America’s youngest self-made female billionaire and estimated her fortune to be in the region of $1.7 billion (£1.4b). Fans of the singer will already know that she has an amazing property portfolio. Let’s take a look at her newest purchase.
Rihanna
The Agency
In early 2021—not long after things got serious with rapper A$AP Rocky, with whom she now shares a son and another on the way—Rihanna snapped up this sprawling five-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion in the exclusive 90210 zip code of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. The Umbrella singer put down $13.8 million (£11.5m) for the spread and we can totally understand why…
Rihanna
The Agency
The 5,900-square-foot residence is surrounded by other celebrity homes and was built in 1938. Formerly owned by Mary Sheldon, daughter of legendary novelist and screenwriter Sidney Sheldon, the pad was later bought by tech entrepreneur Daniel Starr, who demolished and rebuilt the home, resulting in the real estate gem we see today. The ultra-contemporary farmhouse blends modern and traditional design elements to dazzling effect.
Rihanna
The Agency
Throughout the home you’ll find plenty of open-plan spaces for socialising, including an intimate lounge area, a luxurious wet bar and a designer kitchen. The master bedroom comes complete with huge walk-in closets and a stunning ensuite bathroom with a garden-view bathtub and enviable walk-in shower. The room leads out to a sun-trap terrace – the perfect spot for stargazing.
Rihanna
The Agency
Many of the interior spaces flow out to the garden, where an alfresco courtyard, a four-car garage, a firepit, swimming pool and spa amenities can be found. In the summer of 2021, the star put the property up for rent, asking a cool $80,000 (£67k) a month. Rihanna now likely lives in a Tudor-style home located right next door. She bought the neighbouring historic home in April 2021 for $10 million (£8.3m) and we can’t wait to see what she does with the place!
Ron Burkle
Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images for Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
The son of a grocer, Ron Burkle started working at the age of 13, showing incredible entrepreneurial drive while still in his early teens. In 1986, he founded The Yucaipa Companies, a private equity and venture capital firm, accruing his fortune buying and selling supermarket chains across America. Today, he’s thought to be worth $3.2 billion (£2.7b) and has snapped up an impressive array of celebrity-worthy homes.
Ron Burkle
The Agency
In 2016, Burkle bought Bob Hope’s iconic spaceship house in Palm Springs for $13 million (£10.8m). The futuristic home was designed by architect John Lautner and is considered one of the coolest homes in the USA. A huge fan of Bob Hope, Burkle later snapped up another of the late comedian’s properties, this lavish Toluca Lake estate. This time, Burkle paid $15 million (£12.5m), which is a bit of a bargain considering the place was originally listed for $27.5 million (£22.9m).
Ron Burkle
The Agency
The stunning spread, which was completed in 1939, is nestled on more than five acres of land and offers a sprawling interior overflowing with unique architectural details. There are 10 bedrooms, 12 white Carrera marble bathrooms, an oak library, an open-plan living room, a banquet-worthy dining room and a high-end kitchen, not to mention a saltwater pool, a one-hole golf course designed by Hope himself, a home theatre, gym and infrared sauna. Yet this isn’t the only incredible home that Burkle has bought over the years…
Ron Burkle
Hilton & Hyland
Burkle was lucky enough to buy one of the most celebrated pieces of architecture in America, Ennis House. The pad was made famous by its starring role in the iconic movie Blade Runner, but was also used as the set of Meereen Palace in the hit TV series Game of Thrones. Designed by celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Ennis House was completed in 1924 and was inspired by the Mayan temples of Mexico and Central America. Burkle bought the place in 2011, for $4.5 million (£3.8m).
Ron Burkle
Hilton & Hyland
The home is formed from 27,000 interlocking concrete blocks, which can be seen both inside and out, while free-flowing rooms and 27 intricate leaded windows allow for unobstructed skyline views. Inside, the 10,000-square-foot home has three bedrooms, four bathrooms, a formal dining room, a living room and a kitchen. Following an earthquake, Burkle is said to have spent nearly $17 million (£14.3m) restoring the residence, before off-loading it in 2018 for $18 million (£15.5m).
Jeff Bezos
Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
Jeff Bezos has a slew of extravagant properties at his disposal. The Amazon founder and recent space tourist, who is now worth in excess of $115.4 billion (£96.1bn), has been busily buying up lavish properties following his 2019 divorce, expanding a real estate folio which already includes a sprawling compound in Medina, Washington and an imposing mansion in America’s capital.
Jeff Bezos
Courtesy Pembrooke & Ives
Not long after his divorce from MacKenzie Scott was finalised, the centibillionaire dropped around $80 million (£67m) on an incredible triplex penthouse and two apartments below it in Manhattan’s 212 Fifth Avenue, an elegant 24-storey neo-Gothic skyscraper built in 1912, overlooking Madison Square Park.
Jeff Bezos
Courtesy Pembrooke & Ives
The handiwork of top interior design studio Pembrooke & Ives, the sensational five-bedroom, five-bathroom penthouse spans 10,000 square feet and offers 5,000 square feet of outside space. Finished to the highest spec imaginable, the triplex wows with everything from state-of-the-art smart home tech to copious Carrera marble and a chef’s kitchen packed with Gaggenau appliances.
Jeff Bezos
Courtesy Pembrooke & Ives
The multilevel rooftop terraces and garden area really are something else, with a pool, an observatory and lush landscaping. Bezos followed up his big purchase by snapping up an additional unit in 2021 for $16 million (£13.5m), no doubt with plans to create one almighty combined unit that’ll be the envy of the Big Apple.
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Hyland / Hilton & Hyland
Earlier in 2020, the world’s richest person parted with a record $165 million (£139m) to acquire the fabled Warner Estate in Beverly Hills. Formerly owned by billionaire music industry mogul David Geffen, the majestic compound boasts an eight-bedroom Georgian-style manse and two guesthouses. Several months later, Bezos reportedly bought an adjacent property for $10 million (£8.4m); clearly one enviable home just isn’t enough!
Elon Musk
Win McNamee / Getty Images
Like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk is a major space enthusiast – in 2020, the Tesla tycoon revealed plans to offload all of his homes, together with most of his worldly possessions, to help fund a colony on Mars. True to his word, the eccentric billionaire has more or less completed his epic downsizing mission, adding to his bumper net worth of $193.3 billion (£161bn). So, where did he live and where does he live now?
Elon Musk
Realtor
After selling a luxe 16,000-square-foot mansion in Bel Air for $29 million (£24m), a characterful five-bedroom residence once owned by actor Gene Wilder for $9.5 million (£7.9m), and a four-home package deal for $62.5 million (£52.6m), it was time for Musk to rid himself of the last of his seven homes—this historic estate in the affluent San Francisco Bay Area community of Hillsborough.
Elon Musk
Realtor
Put on the market for a whopping $30 million (£25.2m), the stately home dates back to the early 20th century and has seven bedrooms and nine-and-a-half bathrooms. It sprawls 16,000 square feet and impresses with exquisite interiors, including a grand ballroom and banquet dining room. It’s also surrounded by 47 acres of land, which come complete with a pool, formal gardens, private hiking trails, canyons and even a reservoir. So, where did Musk move to?
Elon Musk
Boxabl
Well, after shedding his property empire, Musk announced on Twitter that he had moved into a tiny home that cost him just $50,000 (£42k)—which is less than the Tesla Model S! Designed by startup Boxabl, the residence spans just 375 square feet and boasts a compact floor plan that is nowhere near big enough for hosting important business meetings. The small prefab property is said to be installed at the billionaire’s SpaceX Starbase launch site in the southern Texan town of Boca Chica.
Elon Musk
Boxabl
The interior is divided into four compact quarters: a full-sized kitchen with a wraparound breakfast bar, a cosy lounge, a snug bedroom zone and a stylish but streamlined bathroom. However, in December 2021, The Wall Street Journal revealed that Musk doesn’t actually live in the tiny home. In fact, he’s rumoured to reside in a lavish Austin mansion, owned by fellow billionaire and PayPal co-founder Ken Howery.
Warren Buffett
Steven Branscombe / Getty for Paramount Pictures
Staying with non-materialistic centibillionaires, investing guru Warren Buffett is renowned for his frugal ways. Despite amassing a fortune of more than $97 billion (£82bn), the Berkshire Hathaway head honcho has simple tastes, which extend to his choice of home. In fact, Buffett is said to live in the same relatively modest house he bought back in 1958 for only $31,500 (£27k).
Warren Buffett
Paul Harris / Getty
Situated in a nice but pretty ordinary middle-class neighbourhood in Omaha, Nebraska, the five-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom residence totals just 6,570 square feet. Buffett has described the grey stucco property, now said to be worth a million dollars, as the third-best investment he ever made, after his two wedding rings.
Warren Buffett
Villa Real Estate
While the so-called Oracle of Omaha currently owns just the one home, he was formerly in possession of a prime oceanfront villa in the gated community of Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach, California. Another bargain real estate purchase, Buffett bagged the property back in 1972 for just $150,000 (£126k).
Warren Buffett
Villa Real Estate
Together with his family, the unassuming billionaire spent many happy summer vacations in the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom Art Deco retreat. In keeping with his modest tastes, the house was very simply decorated, with none of the bling and other extravagances you might expect to encounter in a billionaire’s pad.
Warren Buffett
Villa Real Estate
The property sold in October 2018 for $7.5 million (£6.3m), a good $3.5 million (£2.9m) below the initial asking price of $11 million (£9.3m). That said, the super-shrewd investor still managed to get an excellent return on his investment, since he bought the Pacific-facing home for the equivalent of $975,000 (£820k) in today’s money.
Donald Trump
Marie Uzcategui / Getty
Although Donald Trump owns a ridiculously opulent penthouse in his eponymous Manhattan tower, the real estate mogul turned former American president made Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach his primary residence in September 2019. Bar the summer, which he spends at his Bedminster, New Jersey property to escape the oppressive Florida heat, the controversial businessman, worth $3.2 billion (£2.7bn), calls the sensational estate his home for most of the year.
Donald Trump
Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty
Donald Trump acquired the landmark Spanish-Moorish-style beach palace in 1985 for the knockdown price of $8 million (£6.7m), a fraction of its value today. He carried out an acclaimed renovation, adding a 20,000-square-foot Louis XIV-style ballroom and increasing the estate’s room count from 118 to 126.
Donald Trump
Davidoff Studios / Getty
The ballroom is said to have been decorated with a staggering $7 million (£5.9m) worth of gold leaf, echoing the sumptuous living room, which features a ceiling based on the glorious ‘Thousand Wing Ceiling’ in Venice’s Accademia. Rumour has it America’s entire supplies of gold leaf were exhausted gilding the remarkable space back in the early 1920s.
Donald Trump
Davidoff Studios / Getty
As much of the estate functions as an ultra-exclusive member’s club, the ex-president, his wife Melania and their son Barron relocated to the lavishly appointed owner’s suite after they left the White House at the start of 2021. It comprises the so-called Versailles master bedroom, an additional bedroom, the Pine Hall and the Louis XV hall, living rooms, bathrooms and offices.
Donald Trump
Courtesy CJ Walker / Mar-a-Lago Club
Melania reportedly oversaw a revamp of the suite in readiness for the family’s move there, and though zero images of the redecorated property have been released, this photo from the early 1990s of the Versailles master bedroom is very much in keeping with the signature Trump aesthetic, which is anything but modest and understated.
John Caudwell
Brad Barket / Getty for Happy Hearts Fund
Entrepreneur and philanthropist John Caudwell, who joined the billionaire’s club in 2006 after selling his Caudwell Group for almost almost $1.74 billion (£1.46bn), purchased two of London’s finest properties, Ancaster House and the adjacent 8 Chesterfield Gardens, in London’s upmarket Mayfair district in 2012 for the princely sum of $104 million (£87m).
John Caudwell
Courtesy MSMR / Caudwell Collection
The deep-pocketed tycoon then sunk a hefty $77 million (£65m) into a mega-deluxe refurb, combining the two properties to create Mayfair House, the UK’s most valuable private residence. An army of around 300 worked on the expensive home renovation, which saw 78 miles of cables and 650 electrical sockets installed, while 20,000 sheets of gold leaf were used to decorate the interior.
John Caudwell
Courtesy Channel 4
Superlatives abound in the astonishingly luxurious gigamansion. Spanning 43,000 feet, the eight-storey, 15-bedroom home is more than twice the size of the Royal Albert Hall. The ballroom, which exudes regal grandeur, is the largest privately-owned space of its kind in London and can comfortably fit 120 people.
John Caudwell
Courtesy Channel 4
The Thai-themed dining room is one of many highlights. A breathtaking space, it features a meandering river filled with tropical fish and a delightful faux cherry tree. There’s also a gym, spa, home cinema, library and an Art Deco-inspired lift in the unparalleled property. And the jaw-dropping features don’t stop there.
John Caudwell
Courtesy Channel 4
The subterranean swimming pool, for instance, features a “volcano” wall and ceiling, complete with a realistic lava effect. Caudwell, who has vowed to give away 70% of his fortune to good causes, doesn’t actually live in the sprawling mansion, however. Mayfair House is instead used to hold events for his charity, Caudwell Children.
Tyler Perry
Chris Pizzello-Pool / Getty
Tyler Perry certainly doesn’t do things by halves when it comes to real estate. Worth a cool $1 billion (£840m), the actor, director, producer and screenwriter loaned a palatial property in Beverly Hills to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during the spring of 2020, and is currently building a humongous 35,000-square-foot megamansion near his movie studio compound outside of Atlanta.
Tyler Perry
Chase Mizell and VSI Group
Before he embarked on the unparalleled new-build, the media mogul called this breathtaking Versailles-inspired estate in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighbourhood home. The man behind the Madea film franchise bought the property in 2007 for $9 million (£7.5m) and pumped millions of dollars into making it into a French Provincial-style pad .
Tyler Perry
Chase Mizell and VSI Group
Rocking all the trappings of the quintessential billionaire’s home (and then some), the flashy seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom property sits on 17 acres of exquisitely landscaped grounds bordering the Chattahoochee River, and wows from the get-go with its splendid entrance foyer complete with Corinthian columns, marble flooring and an elaborate double staircase.
Tyler Perry
Chase Mizell and VSI Group
The manse’s many highlights include the high-ceilinged reception rooms and underground ballroom, a spa and fully equipped gym, home cinema and wine cellar, not to mention an incredible 70,000-gallon infinity pool with a bar, indoor resistance pool, illuminated tennis courts and a separate guesthouse to boot.
Tyler Perry
Chase Mizell and VSI Group
Perry sold the beguiling estate in 2016 to businessman and evangelist David Turner for $17.5 million (£14.7m), pocketing a substantial return on his investment. But the moneyed minister ended up offloading it at a loss: the mansion was acquired in 2021 by TV host Steve Harvey for a bargain $15 million (£12.6m).
Kim Kardashian
Marc Piasecki / WireImage / Getty
Declared a bona fide billionaire by Forbes in spring 2021, Kim Kardashian has finalised her divorce from Kanye West and is set to keep the Hidden Hills family home that the couple bought for $19.8 million (£16.7m) in 2014, according to Zillow. Kanye is said to own the mansion itself, while Kim reportedly has the deeds to the land surrounding it.
Kim Kardashian
Trulia
While the 15,000-square-foot property looks like your typical cookie-cutter billionaire’s manse from the outside, the interior is anything but. Before their split, the couple went all out revamping the property, ploughing $20 million (£16.8m) into a starkly minimalist makeover, which Kanye spearheaded.
Kim Kardashian
@kimkardashian / Instagram
Kanye called on revered interior designer Axel Vervoordt to overhaul the property, opting for an austere, all-white aesthetic based on Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy, which focuses on “wisdom in natural simplicity”, though the rapper has described it as a “futuristic Belgian monastery”. The pristine, pared-down vibe extends throughout the entire house, bar the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren’s bedrooms and playroom.
Kim Kardashian
@kimkardashian / Instagram
More artistic statement than mere interior design, the living spaces are dramatic and sparsely decorated. There’s no denying the overall effect of all that flawless white is super-impressive, and a refreshing, calming contrast to the OTT bling favoured by billionaires like Donald Trump.
Kim Kardashian
@kimkardashian / Instagram
Standout features of the property, which is said to be worth in the region of $60 million (£50m), include the cavernous hallways, living rooms with marshmallow-like sofas, the master bathroom and its $30,000 (£25k) basinless sink, two fabulous pools and a vineyard. Kim is likely to also get a neighbouring property the couple own, and possibly the two acres of land in the Coachella Valley that they purchased in 2020 for $6.3 million (£5.3m).
Richard Branson
Cindy Ord / Getty
The ultimate piece of real estate for the billionaires of the world has got to be a private island hideaway and Richard Branson, who has a fortune of $3.5 billion (£2.9bn), owns not just one, but two of the most alluring. The Virgin boss, a recent space tourist like Jeff Bezos, bought his first, the blissful Necker in the British Virgin Islands, back in 1979 for a mere $180,000 (£150k), 97% under its original asking price.
Richard Branson
Virgin Limited Edition
As a condition of the sale, the business magnate pledged to construct a resort on the 74-acre island and got the ball rolling by building an 11-bedroom Balinese-style home perched on a hilltop, which he called the Great House. Over the years, the island has welcomed a plethora of VIPs, from Princess Diana and Prince Harry to Barack Obama, Kate Winslet and Kate Moss, who held her 40th 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day bash there.
Richard Branson
Virgin Limited Edition
Branson made a permanent move to the island in 2006, leading to accusations that he did so to dodge tax, though the billionaire Virgin founder denies this. His dream home may be a haven of tranquillity, but it nonetheless has seen its fair share of disasters. In August 2011, the property was gutted by a devastating fire, before being flattened by Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
Richard Branson
Virgin Limited Edition
Following both disasters, the Great House was rebuilt at a significant cost and kitted out with luxurious Balinese-inspired furnishings. Shown here is the gorgeous indoor-outdoor entertainment room. The perfect place to kick back, it features comfy sofas, a snooker table, grand piano and more.
Richard Branson
Virgin Limited Edition
The bedrooms are equally ravishing. In addition to the Great House, the island features several Balinese-style cottages, numerous pools, hot tubs and tennis courts. Branson followed up his purchase of Necker by buying nearby Moskito Island in 2007 for $11.9 million (£10m) and has spent a fortune transforming the beautiful 125-acre Caribbean idyll into a swish eco-resort.
Mark Zuckerberg
Aurelien Meunier/Getty
In spite of his humongous net worth, which recently hit $63.6 billion (£53bn), Mark Zuckerberg isn’t big on overly fancy real estate, a virtue he shares with fellow centibillionaires Warren Buffett and Elon Musk. The Facebook founder’s primary residence is fairly humble, though this isn’t reflected in the price he paid for it.
Mark Zuckerberg
Realtor.com
The tech tycoon acquired the 5,617-square-foot five-bedroom, five-bathroom Palo Alto home in California in 2011 for $7 million (£5.9m). Property clearly doesn’t come cheap in the Silicon Valley. A comfortable family home rather than some elaborate McMansion, the property is sedate, but it does have some nice features, including a sizeable pool in the backyard.
Mark Zuckerberg
Courtesy Facebook
As you can see from this photo of Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in their kitchen, the décor is modest and homely. Though his social media company’s record on protecting the privacy of its users has made headlines, Zuckerberg has gone all out protecting his, buying up four surrounding homes for $30 million (£25m).
Mark Zuckerberg
Realtor.com
Ever keen on securing his precious privacy, the Facebook boss went on to surreptitiously snap up a compound facing California’s Lake Tahoe, putting down $22 million (£18.5m) for a waterfront manse in December 2018 and $37 million (£31m) the following month for the even bigger property next door. Both transactions were executed via a secretive LLC.
Mark Zuckerberg
Realtor.com
The smaller of the properties, which is called the Carousel Estate, has eight bedrooms and nine-and-a-half bathrooms as well as 3.5 acres of grounds, while the larger Brushwood Estate sits on six acres and boasts six bedrooms and six bathrooms. On top of the compounds in Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe, Zuckerberg owns properties in Hawaii and San Francisco, which are collectively worth some $320 million (£269m).
Bill Gates
Getty /Getty for All In WA
Microsoft founder and mega-philanthropist Bill Gates, who has a net worth of more than $104.8 billion (£87.3bn), also has a substantial real estate portfolio, which is shared with his wife Melinda. Following the couple’s shock announcement that they are seeking a divorce, the various homes are in the process of being divvied up. Gates’ principal property, the colossal waterfront Xanadu 2.0 estate in Medina, Washington, is staggeringly impressive.
Bill Gates
Realtor.com
Yet the breathtaking beach house that he and Melinda acquired in 2021 tops it in beauty and fabulousness. The couple splurged $43 million (£36m) on the six-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom oceanfront property in Del Mar, a charming seaside town not far from San Diego in southern California.
Bill Gates
Realtor.com
The pair purchased the incredible megamansion from businesswoman, animal welfare activist and philanthropist Madeleine Pickens, the ex-wife of the multimillionaire T. Boone Pickens, who sold it at a $5 million (£4.2m) loss. Constructed in 1999 by architect Ken Ronchetti, the contemporary beach mansion has got it going on.
Bill Gates
Realtor.com
Along with plenty of luxe living space, the dream home features a phenomenal glass-tiled pool, a 10-person hot tub, a tennis court and 120 feet of private beach, making it a wonderful place to relax and unwind. There are two guesthouses on the property, as well as a wellness spa and home cinema.
Bill Gates
Realtor.com
The whole shebang is finished to an exceptionally high standard with only the finest woods, limestone and other high-end materials used in its construction. Exactly who will get to keep the property is anyone’s guess at present, but there’s definitely a lot to play for in terms of real estate in the ultra high-profile divorce battle, with everything from equestrian estates to expansive ranches up for grabs.
Eric Wu
@ericwu01 / Twitter
In May 2019, self-made billionaire Eric Wu told CNBC Make It that he bought his first home when he was just 19 years old. He spent his college scholarship money buying homes and by the time he graduated in 2005, he owned 25 properties. Later, Wu cofounded Opendoor, an online platform that buys and sells residential real estate, and when the company went public on the stock exchange, he quickly became a billionaire. Now worth $1.01 billion (£840m), Wu has one seriously amazing home.
Eric Wu
The Agency
With so much experience buying and selling homes, it’s no surprise that Wu’s private estate is totally jaw-dropping. The billionaire businessman bought the Orum Residence in spring 2022, paying a staggering $32.3 million (£27.2m) for the privilege. Built in 2018, the all-glass house was designed by renowned Californian-based architect Zoltan Pali, and exudes classic LA glamour.
Eric Wu
The Agency
Nestled high in the Bel Air hills, on 1.55 acres of private land, the property is thought to have been inspired by an airplane propeller, thanks to its three distinct wings that jut out from a single central point. Before Wu bought the place, it had languished on the market for over three years and had an initial price tag of $56 million (£47.1m), which means Wu bagged himself quite the bargain. For his money, he gained 18,850 square feet of inside space, including nine bedrooms and 15 bathrooms.
Eric Wu
The Agency
The pad reportedly took four years to complete, but it seems like the effort was well worth it. Every room is bursting with high-end fixtures and finishes, not to mention truly awe-inspiring views across the Los Angeles skyline. As if plucked from the set of Selling Sunset, the home includes a floating zig-zag staircase, motorised sliding doors that can be controlled via touchpads and a breathtaking master suite, which comes complete with a luxurious bathroom.
Eric Wu
The Agency
Of course, the home’s billionaire backyard is every bit as amazing as you’d expect. There’s a large swimming pool lit by LEDs, an outdoor kitchen and dining space, numerous wraparound patios, two fire pits and a lawn for hosting VIP soirees. Other plus points include the home’s cedar sauna, massage room, 1,000-bottle wine cellar and movie theatre with Dolby Sound. If only we were rich…
