One of the most famous (and most expensive) homes in Los Angeles is The Manor. Built in 1991 for late TV mogul Aaron Spelling and his wife Candy, the 123 room, 55,000-square-foot mansion sits on 4.7 acres and carries an annual property tax bill of $1.12 million. Nicknamed Candyland while the Spelling family occupied it, the Holmby Hills estate has room for everything – and it should, since it is larger than the White House. The home comes with 14 bedrooms and 27 bathrooms as well as a flower-cutting room, an aquarium, a nightclub, and a French wine and cheese room complete with sidewalk-café style tables and chairs. Oh, by the way, this is where Tori Spelling grew up, so we can kind of forgive her for the money management troubles that have plagued her adult years. Something tells us that when you grow up in a home like this, learning how to budget and balance your checkbook aren't big priorities.
Aaron Spelling died in 2006. Candy Spelling sold The Manor to Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone in 2011 for $85 million in all cash. Ecclestone turned around and sold it in 2019 for $119.75 million, making it the priciest ever home sale in Los Angeles County. It bested the previous record of $110 million set by the sale of Peter Morton's Malibu beach house in 2018. The Manor was the fourth sale of $100 million or more in Los Angeles and the third in the tony Holmby Hills neighborhood. The Playboy mansion sold for $100 million in 2016 as did a nearby spec mega-mansion.
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The Manor is the largest home in Los Angeles and one of the largest in the United States. It sits on the ground of Bing Crosby's former home. Construction on the estate began in 1988 and concluded in 1991 at a cost of $12 million. The two-story home has a basement as well as an intermediate level for closets between the second story and the attic. It has a screening room, a gym, three rooms for wrapping presents, a humidity-controlled room for storing silver, a barbershop, four two-car garages, a tennis court, and a pool. The parking lot can hold 100 cars and there are 16 additional carports. A staff of 30 ran the place when the Spellings were its inhabitants. Ecclestone turned Candy Spelling's room for her doll collection into a hair salon and massage parlor.
Ecclestone put the mega-mansion on the market for the first time as a pocket listing in 2014 at $150 million. She put it on the market for real in 2016, at $200 million. She later dropped the price to $160 million. The $119.75 sale price is the most expensive in California's history, just edging out a mansion in Silicon Valley's Woodside that sold in 2013 for $117.5 million. The national record still belongs to Ken Griffin's $238 million New York penthouse overlooking Central Park.
