Larry Ellison, Ken Griffin and Other Rich Buyers Kept the Luxury Market ‘Separated From Reality’ in 2022
Rising interest rates and recession jitters didn’t stop a number of deep pocketed-buyers from making deals
7 min
The luxury real-estate market may have returned to earth slightly in 2022 following a whirlwind pandemic-induced free-for-all in 2021. Still, some of the country’s richest buyers managed to log big-ticket deals.
There were at least seven deals closed for $100 million or more in 2022, down from the eight closed the prior year, according to data from appraisal firm Miller Samuel and The Wall Street Journal’s reporting. In total, there were 44 sales across the U.S. closed for $50 million or more. While that’s down from 48 in 2021, it’s still the second highest total on record and a significant uptick from the 23 recorded in pre pandemic 2019, according to Miller Samuel’s Jonathan Miller.
The flurry of major transactions, despite a general normalisation of the broader market, rising interest rates and recession jitters, shows that, at the very highest end, the ultra luxury market “is separated from reality,” Mr. Miller said. “It has nothing to do with the normal housing market.”
Read on for a closer look at some of the year’s biggest deals, which were concentrated in three states, New York, California and Florida.
1. The Gemini estate in Manalapan, Fla.
Buyer: Oracle‘s Larry Ellison
Seller: Netscape’s Jim Clark
Sold: $173 million
Listed: Off-market deal
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is known for his expensive taste in real estate, the tech billionaire owns a swath of homes in trophy property markets like Malibu, Lake Tahoe, in Silicon Valley and on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. It was no surprise then that Mr. Ellison topped the list of 2022’s largest residential deals with his record-setting $173 million June purchase of an oceanfront estate near Palm Beach. The deal is the largest ever closed in the state of Florida.
The deal was also evidence of how the Palm Beach ultra luxury market continued to escalate in value, even as pandemic restrictions began to wind down. Mr. Ellison purchased the property from another billionaire, internet entrepreneur and Netscape co-founder Jim Clark, who purchased it for $94.2 million in 2021.
Known as Gemini, the roughly 16-acre property was long owned by the Ziff publishing family. It is on a barrier island in Manalapan and has about 1,200 feet of ocean frontage and around 1,300 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway. There are several structures, including a 62,200-square-foot main residence and a seven-bedroom guesthouse. The structures are connected via tunnels that run underneath a road that cuts through the estate.
Lawrence Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates brokered the deal.
2. The One estate in Los Angeles
Buyer: Fashion Nova’s Richard Saghian
Seller: DeveloperNile Niami
Sold: $126 million
Listed: Auctioned off with no reserve; outstanding debts on the property totalled $190 million
The $126 million sale of a Bel-Air estate known as The One in March marked the end of a nearly decade-long saga that had captivated the Los Angeles real-estate community. Once slated to list for an asking price of $500 million, the property eventually sold at a no-reserve auction conducted by the company now known as Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions. (The price including the auction premium was $141 million.)
The property was the brainchild of embattled real-estate developer Nile Niami, who ran afoul of his lenders on the project amid cost overruns and eventually put the property into bankruptcy in October 2021. Outstanding debts on the property totalled around $190 million at the time of the auction, records show. The buyer was Richard Saghian, the chief executive of fast-fashion giant Fashion Nova.
The enormous property spans around 105,000 square feet with 20 bedrooms, a 30-car garage, a bowling alley, five swimming pools and a beauty salon.
Rayni and Branden Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates and Aaron Kirman of Compass represented the seller, while the Williamses also represented Mr. Saghian alongside Stuart Vetterick of Hilton & Hyland.
3. A Holmby Hills assemblage in Los Angeles
Buyer: Snap’s Evan Spiegel
Seller: Developer Ian Livingstone
Sold: $119.868 million
Listed: Off-market deal
In July, a company tied to Evan Spiegel, the co-founder and CEO of Snap, closed on the $119.868 million purchase of a Holmby Hills estate in Los Angeles, according to property records and people familiar with the situation.
The property, which sits behind iron gates at the end of a long drive, includes a European villa-style main house with an Olympic-size indoor pool, a spa and massage rooms, as well as an outdoor pool with a waterfall, according to a listing description on the website of listing agents Stephen Resnick and Jonathan Nash, who were formerly of Hilton & Hyland but have since moved to Carolwood Estates. Inside, there is a two-story entry foyer with fireplaces on each end, a step-down living room, a formal dining room and a library and screening room, according to the listing. The seller was a company tied to British developer Ian Livingstone, who tapped developer Max J. Fowles-Pazdro to oversee the project, according to records and a person familiar with the property. Drew Fenton, then of Hilton & Hyland but now with Carolwood, represented the buyer.
Property records show that Mr. Spiegel’s company paid an additional $25 million for the site next door in 2021. Neither Mr. Spiegel nor Mr. Livingstone could be reached for comment.
4. A compound in Watermill, N.Y.
Buyer: Developer Michael Karp
Seller: Apparel executive Arthur Rabin and his son, apparel executive Jason Rabin
Sold: $118.5 million
Listed: Off-market deal
In January, a large estate comprising two separate homes in Watermill traded for $118.5 million in an off-market transaction, marking the biggest Hamptons deal of the year, records show.
The sellers were Arthur Rabin and his son Jason Rabin, records show. Jason Rabin is the CEO of the apparel company Centric Brands. His father was the founder of Wear Me Apparel, which was purchased by Hong Kong-based global consumer goods exporter Li & Fung Limited in 2009. The buyer is Philadelphia real-estate developer Michael Karp, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Information on the property is scarce since it was never formally listed, but aerial images show that it includes two large residences as well as two pools and multiple sports courts. A few months after the sale, Mr. Karp put a piece of the property back on the market for $72 million; that piece includes a 17,000-square-foot house with 21 bedrooms, according to the listing.
Hedgerow Exclusive Properties brokered the deal. Neither the Rabins nor Mr. Karp responded to requests for comment.
5. A historic estate in Coconut Grove, Fla.
Buyer: Citadel’s Ken Griffin
Seller: Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht
Sold: $106.875 million
Listed: $150 million
If Larry Ellison is among the country’s most active acquirers of trophy homes, one of his primary rivals is hedge-fund billionaire and Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who owns some of the most expensive homes in the world. He added an estate in Miami’s Coconut Grove area to that lineup in September, when he purchased an estate for $106.875 million, a Miami-area record. The seller was businesswoman and philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, who put the property on the market for $150 million in January.
The waterfront estate includes two separate homes, totalling 12 bedrooms and about 25,000 square feet. The main residence was built around 2000 by Ms. Arsht, and has a great room for entertaining as well as a formal dining room with seating for up to 20 guests. The second property dates to 1913, when it was constructed for three-time presidential candidate and onetime U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. Since purchasing, Mr. Griffin has proposed a potential relocation of the older home on the property to another location, where the public would have access to it for the first time, according to his spokesman.
Ms. Arsht was represented by Ashley Cusack of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. Mr. Griffin was represented by Jill Hertzberg of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker Realty.
6. A Penthouse in Manhattan
Buyer: Julia Koch
Seller: Estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen
Sold: $101 million
Listed: Off-market deal
In July, the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sold a pair of apartments for $101 million in an off-market deal at a boutique building in Manhattan’s Lenox Hill neighbourhood. The buyer was Julia Koch, the widow of late Koch Industries billionaire David Koch, according to people familiar with the situation.
The sale included the building’s penthouse as well as a second unit on a lower floor. Records show Mr. Allen purchased the penthouse unit for $25 million in 2011, though it wasn’t clear what he had paid for the second unit.
Betsy Messerschmitt of the Corcoran Group represented Mr. Allen’s estate in the deal. Leighton Candler of Corcoran represented Ms. Koch.
7. A Blufftop Property in Malibu, Calif.
Buyer: Media mogul Byron Allen
Seller: Self-storage billionaire Tammy Hughes Gustavson
Sold: $100 million
Listed: $127.5 million
In October, a roughly 11,000-square-foot compound in Malibu’s tony Paradise Cove enclave sold for $100 million to billionaire media mogul Byron Allen, the latest in a line of major real-estate buys by the entrepreneur. The seller was self-storage billionaire Tammy Hughes Gustavson, who put the property on the market for $127.5 million in May.
The Malibu estate, formerly owned by Ms. Gustavson’s late father, B. Wayne Hughes, includes a large four-bedroom residence as well as two guesthouses. There is also a screening room, a dining room and a winding path leading to the beach.
Ms. Gustavson was represented by Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Realty. Mr. Allen was represented by Terence Hill of BT Equities, an in-house broker with Mr. Allen’s family office.
8. A trio of homes on Golden Beach in Fla.
Buyer: InterSystems’ Phillip Ragon
Seller: Multiple sellers, including fashion photographer Bruce Weber and his wife Nan Bush
Sold: $93 million
Listed: Off-market deal
In June, Phillip Ragon, founder of the technology company InterSystems, paid $93 million for three separate homes on Florida’s Golden Beach, near Miami. The deal set a record for Golden Beach.
Together, the three properties spanned about 1.7 acres with about 275 feet of ocean frontage. Mr. Ragon plans to tear down all three homes and build a new trophy residence on the site, according to people familiar with the situation. The sellers of the homes included fashion photographer Bruce Weber and his wife and collaborator, Nan Bush, records show.
The agents who worked on the deal include Danny Hertzberg and Jon Mann of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker Realty as well as Eloy Carmenate and Mick Duchon of the Corcoran Group.
9. A Malibu estate with minigolf
Buyer: Movie producer Edward H. Hamm, Jr.
Seller: British videogame designer Jonathan Burton and his ex-wife, Helen Musk
Sold: $91 million
Listed: $125 million
A 6.6-acre estate in Malibu’s Paradise Cove enclave sold for $91 million in December, rounding out a year of big-ticket sales in Malibu. The sellers were British video game designer Jonathan Burton and his ex-wife, Helen Musk, who bought the property for $36.5 million in 2012. The estate has direct beach access with roughly 340 feet of ocean frontage and about 17,000 square feet of living space comprising a main house and a separate guest quarters. The property also includes a tennis court, a swimming pool and a 9-hole miniature golf course. The buyer is film producer Edward H. Hamm, Jr., who is known for films like “Get Out.”
The house first came on the market for $125 million in February but the price was later lowered to $110 million.
Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency and Lisa Laughlin of Sotheby’s International Realty had the listing. The buyer was represented by Paul Lester and Aileen Comora of the Agency.
10. An oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach
Buyer: Could not be determined
Seller: A partnership that included financier Scot French and real-estate agent Lawrence Moens
Sold: $85.977 million
Listed: $115 million
An oceanfront property in Palm Beach sold for $85.977 million in June, records show. It was listed briefly early in the year for $115 million but wasn’t on the market at the time of the sale, according to the local multiple listings service.
The seller was a partnership that included financier Scot French, managing director of HPS Investment Partners, and real-estate agent Lawrence Moens. The partnership paid just over $64 million for the house the prior year, according to a person familiar with the situation. The identity of the buyer couldn’t be determined.
Sitting on just over an acre of land, the estate has roughly 18,000 square feet of living space, including covered outdoor areas, according to the MLS. The seller had the interior completely redesigned by a prominent Los Angeles interior designer following their purchase, according to the person familiar with the situation.
Mr. Moens of Lawrence A. Moens Associates represented the seller. Dana Koch and Paulette Koch of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
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Ahead of the Games, a breakdown of the city’s most desirable places to live
7 min
PARIS —Paris has long been a byword for luxurious living. The traditional components of the upscale home, from parquet floors to elaborate moldings, have their origins here. Yet settling down in just the right address in this low-rise, high-density city may be the greatest luxury of all.
Tradition reigns supreme in Paris real estate, where certain conditions seem set in stone—the western half of the city, on either side of the Seine, has long been more expensive than the east. But in the fashion world’s capital, parts of the housing market are also subject to shifting fads. In the trendy, hilly northeast, a roving cool factor can send prices in this year’s hip neighborhood rising, while last year’s might seem like a sudden bargain.
This week, with the opening of the Olympic Games and the eyes of the world turned toward Paris, The Wall Street Journal looks at the most expensive and desirable areas in the City of Light.
The Most Expensive Arrondissement: the 6th
Known for historic architecture, elegant apartment houses and bohemian street cred, the 6th Arrondissement is Paris’s answer to Manhattan’s West Village. Like its New York counterpart, the 6th’s starving-artist days are long behind it. But the charm that first wooed notable residents like Gertrude Stein and Jean-Paul Sartre is still largely intact, attracting high-minded tourists and deep-pocketed homeowners who can afford its once-edgy, now serene atmosphere.
Le Breton George V Notaires, a Paris notary with an international clientele, says the 6th consistently holds the title of most expensive arrondissement among Paris’s 20 administrative districts, and 2023 was no exception. Last year, average home prices reached $1,428 a square foot—almost 30% higher than the Paris average of $1,100 a square foot.
According to Meilleurs Agents, the Paris real estate appraisal company, the 6th is also home to three of the city’s five most expensive streets. Rue de Furstemberg, a secluded loop between Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Seine, comes in on top, with average prices of $2,454 a square foot as of March 2024.
For more than two decades, Kyle Branum, a 51-year-old attorney, and Kimberly Branum, a 60-year-old retired CEO, have been regular visitors to Paris, opting for apartment rentals and ultimately an ownership interest in an apartment in the city’s 7th Arrondissement, a sedate Left Bank district known for its discreet atmosphere and plutocratic residents.
“The 7th was the only place we stayed,” says Kimberly, “but we spent most of our time in the 6th.”
In 2022, inspired by the strength of the dollar, the Branums decided to fulfil a longstanding dream of buying in Paris. Working with Paris Property Group, they opted for a 1,465-square-foot, three-bedroom in a building dating to the 17th century on a side street in the 6th Arrondissement. They paid $2.7 million for the unit and then spent just over $1 million on the renovation, working with Franco-American visual artist Monte Laster, who also does interiors.
The couple, who live in Santa Barbara, Calif., plan to spend about three months a year in Paris, hosting children and grandchildren, and cooking after forays to local food markets. Their new kitchen, which includes a French stove from luxury appliance brand Lacanche, is Kimberly’s favourite room, she says.
Another American, investor Ashley Maddox, 49, is also considering relocating.
In 2012, the longtime Paris resident bought a dingy, overstuffed 1,765-square-foot apartment in the 6th and started from scratch. She paid $2.5 million and undertook a gut renovation and building improvements for about $800,000. A centrepiece of the home now is the one-time salon, which was turned into an open-plan kitchen and dining area where Maddox and her three children tend to hang out, American-style. Just outside her door are some of the city’s best-known bakeries and cheesemongers, and she is a short walk from the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Left Bank’s premier green space.
“A lot of the majesty of the city is accessible from here,” she says. “It’s so central, it’s bananas.” Now that two of her children are going away to school, she has listed the four-bedroom apartment with Varenne for $5 million.
The Most Expensive Neighbourhoods: Notre-Dame and Invalides
Garrow Kedigian is moving up in the world of Parisian real estate by heading south of the Seine.
During the pandemic, the Canada-born, New York-based interior designer reassessed his life, he says, and decided “I’m not going to wait any longer to have a pied-à-terre in Paris.”
He originally selected a 1,130-square-foot one-bedroom in the trendy 9th Arrondissement, an up-and-coming Right Bank district just below Montmartre. But he soon realised it was too small for his extended stays, not to mention hosting guests from out of town.
After paying about $1.6 million in 2022 and then investing about $55,000 in new decor, he put the unit up for sale in early 2024 and went house-shopping a second time. He ended up in the Invalides quarter of the 7th Arrondissement in the shadow of one Paris’s signature monuments, the golden-domed Hôtel des Invalides, which dates to the 17th century and is fronted by a grand esplanade.
His new neighbourhood vies for Paris’s most expensive with the Notre-Dame quarter in the 4th Arrondissement, centred on a few islands in the Seine behind its namesake cathedral. According to Le Breton, home prices in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood were $1,818 a square foot in 2023, followed by $1,568 a square foot in Invalides.
After breaking even on his Right Bank one-bedroom, Kedigian paid $2.4 million for his new 1,450-square-foot two-bedroom in a late 19th-century building. It has southern exposures, rounded living-room windows and “gorgeous floors,” he says. Kedigian, who bought the new flat through Junot Fine Properties/Knight Frank, plans to spend up to $435,000 on a renovation that will involve restoring the original 12-foot ceiling height in many of the rooms, as well as rescuing the ceilings’ elaborate stucco detailing. He expects to finish in 2025.
Over in the Notre-Dame neighbourhood, Belles demeures de France/Christie’s recently sold a 2,370-square-foot, four-bedroom home for close to the asking price of about $8.6 million, or about $3,630 a square foot. Listing agent Marie-Hélène Lundgreen says this places the unit near the very top of Paris luxury real estate, where prime homes typically sell between $2,530 and $4,040 a square foot.
The Most Expensive Suburb: Neuilly-sur-Seine
The Boulevard Périphérique, the 22-mile ring road that surrounds Paris and its 20 arrondissements, was once a line in the sand for Parisians, who regarded the French capital’s numerous suburbs as something to drive through on their way to and from vacation. The past few decades have seen waves of gentrification beyond the city’s borders, upgrading humble or industrial districts to the north and east into prime residential areas. And it has turned Neuilly-sur-Seine, just northwest of the city, into a luxury compound of first resort.
In 2023, Neuilly’s average home price of $1,092 a square foot made the leafy, stately community Paris’s most expensive suburb.
Longtime residents, Alain and Michèle Bigio, decided this year is the right time to list their 7,730-square-foot, four-bedroom townhouse on a gated Neuilly street.
The couple, now in their mid 70s, completed the home in 1990, two years after they purchased a small parcel of garden from the owners next door for an undisclosed amount. Having relocated from a white-marble château outside Paris, the couple echoed their previous home by using white- and cream-coloured stone in the new four-story build. The Bigios, who will relocate just back over the border in the 16th Arrondissement, have listed the property with Emile Garcin Propriétés for $14.7 million.
The couple raised two adult children here and undertook upgrades in their empty-nester years—most recently, an indoor pool in the basement and a new elevator.
The cool, pale interiors give way to dark and sardonic images in the former staff’s quarters in the basement where Alain works on his hobby—surreal and satirical paintings, whose risqué content means that his wife prefers they stay downstairs. “I’m not a painter,” he says. “But I paint.”
The Trendiest Arrondissement: the 9th
French interior designer Julie Hamon is theatre royalty. Her grandfather was playwright Jean Anouilh, a giant of 20th-century French literature, and her sister is actress Gwendoline Hamon. The 52-year-old, who divides her time between Paris and the U.K., still remembers when the city’s 9th Arrondissement, where she and her husband bought their 1,885-square-foot duplex in 2017, was a place to have fun rather than put down roots. Now, the 9th is the place to do both.
The 9th, a largely 19th-century district, is Paris at its most urban. But what it lacks in parks and other green spaces, it makes up with nightlife and a bustling street life. Among Paris’s gentrifying districts, which have been transformed since 2000 from near-slums to the brink of luxury, the 9th has emerged as the clear winner. According to Le Breton, average 2023 home prices here were $1,062 a square foot, while its nearest competitors for the cool crown, the 10th and the 11th, have yet to break $1,011 a square foot.
A co-principal in the Bobo Design Studio, Hamon—whose gut renovation includes a dramatic skylight, a home cinema and air conditioning—still seems surprised at how far her arrondissement has come. “The 9th used to be well known for all the theatres, nightclubs and strip clubs,” she says. “But it was never a place where you wanted to live—now it’s the place to be.”
With their youngest child about to go to college, she and her husband, 52-year-old entrepreneur Guillaume Clignet, decided to list their Paris home for $3.45 million and live in London full-time. Propriétés Parisiennes/Sotheby’s is handling the listing, which has just gone into contract after about six months on the market.
The 9th’s music venues were a draw for 44-year-old American musician and piano dealer, Ronen Segev, who divides his time between Miami and a 1,725-square-foot, two-bedroom in the lower reaches of the arrondissement. Aided by Paris Property Group, Segev purchased the apartment at auction during the pandemic, sight unseen, for $1.69 million. He spent $270,000 on a renovation, knocking down a wall to make a larger salon suitable for home concerts.
During the Olympics, Segev is renting out the space for about $22,850 a week to attendees of the Games. Otherwise, he prefers longer-term sublets to visiting musicians for $32,700 a month.
Most Exclusive Address: Avenue Junot
Hidden in the hilly expanses of the 18th Arrondissement lies a legendary street that, for those in the know, is the city’s most exclusive address. Avenue Junot, a bucolic tree-lined lane, is a fairy-tale version of the city, separate from the gritty bustle that surrounds it.
Homes here rarely come up for sale, and, when they do, they tend to be off-market, or sold before they can be listed. Martine Kuperfis—whose Paris-based Junot Group real-estate company is named for the street—says the most expensive units here are penthouses with views over the whole of the city.
In 2021, her agency sold a 3,230-square-foot triplex apartment, with a 1,400-square-foot terrace, for $8.5 million. At about $2,630 a square foot, that is three times the current average price in the whole of the 18th.
Among its current Junot listings is a 1930s 1,220-square-foot townhouse on the avenue’s cobblestone extension, with an asking price of $2.8 million.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
