The record for the most expensive single-family home sold in the history of California belongs to music royalty: Jay-Z and Beyoncé, The couple, who sport a combined net worth of $2.5 billion, purchased the beachfront property last month for $200 million. A "minimalist masterpiece," the sprawling home is the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando. He designed the home at the commission of famed art collector/soap opera heir William Bell. Bell purchased the property in 2003 for $14.5 million.
It was essentially designed as a residential showcase for Bell's art collection, but it's something of a work of art itself, sprawling across nearly 40,000 square feet of interior space, and a listing on the Morley Construction Company website boasts about its unspecified "water feature" and a swimming pool.
The property is also distinguished by its floor-to-ceiling glass walls and numerous open spaces, all to better enjoy the Paradise Cove coastline.
Unfortunately, images of the home have continued to be scarce, even after it got a lot of extra attention from Jay-Z and Beyoncé's purchase earlier this year. However! The X17Online YouTube channel has posted a pretty cool helicopter video of the house for your enjoyment:
You can see the home's numerous patios, its outdoor cabana, and the expansive lawn that connects directly to the beach. And Jay-Z and Beyoncé are also reported to have snapped up an adjacent property for some additional privacy and security, probably not an unwise move given that people are now taking videos of their house from a helicopter.
One of the reasons that interior images of the house are so hard to find is that it was never publicly listed for sale. Instead, the premium property was listed only as a "pocket listing" for qualifying deep-pocketed buyers. Interestingly, it was reportedly listed in that form with an initial asking price of $295 million. So even though it's the most ever paid for a single private residence in California, the $200 million that Jay-Z and Beyoncé paid for the home was actually something of a bargain!
