Mega mansion flop: hyped LA home sells for less than half its $500m asking price

theguardian.com:

A Bel Air mega mansion marketed as “America’s most expensive residence” sold in an bankruptcy auction on Thursday with a winning bid of $126m, a fraction of its reported original asking price of half a billion dollars.

The 21-bedroom home – described as “twice as big as the White House” – has been derided as much as praised, making its sale a hotly anticipated event. The elite team of realtorsbehind the auctiontouted it as the ultimate dream estate but others called it a “giant white elephant” and “one of the ugliest homes I’ve ever seen”. The New York Post labeled it “the latest example of a hyped Los Angeles mega mansion that failed to perform”, and suggested its failure to meet the listing price meant that the city’s “cheeseball” taste in real estate might be starting to improve.

With a final sale price of roughly $141m, which included the winning bid plus commissions and fees, the property did not even bring in half of its listing price of $295m.

Developers and real estate agents had dubbed the property “The One”, and said a residence of its scale would never be built again in Los Angeles.The 100,000 sq foot hilltop mansion built over the last decade is surrounded on three sides by a large moat and has 360 degree views of Los Angeles, the mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. Its amenities include 42 full bathrooms and 7 half bathrooms, a nightclub, a private running track, a 40-seat movie screening room, a juice bar, a cigar lounge, a “philanthropy pavilion”, a 30-plus car garage with two car-display turntables, a 10,000-bottle wine cellar, and five pools and other “water features”, including a private pool to accompany the master bedroom. There is also a bowling alley, with four lanes.

Despite its hefty price tag, the