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      ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Creator Flips Spare L.A. Home Back Up for Sale at $9.2 Million

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      Though it’s been barely a year since Dan Houser and Krystyna Jakubiak doled out $8.5 million for a traditional New England-inspired home in Los Angeles, the English video game mogul and his longtime Russian voice actress wife are already looking to unload their place in an inland Pacific Palisades neighborhood with a nearly $700,000 jump in price, asking a speck under $9.2 million.

      Newly built in 2018—and purchased by the couple in spring 2023 at a substantial $1.5 million discount off its original ask—the wood-shingled structure sits atop an attached two-car garage and basement, and features six bedrooms and seven baths in 7,000 square feet of multi-level living space boasting blonde hardwood floors, high ceilings and wainscoted walls throughout.

      Especially standing out on the main level is a gourmet kitchen decked out with an expansive eat-in island, top-tier Miele, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, and an accompanying breakfast nook and butler’s pantry, plus a fireside family room displaying glass doors spilling out to a landscaped backyard enclosed with a hedge-topped stone wall, and hosting a pool and spa, built-in barbecue and custom fire-pit. Elsewhere are formal living and dining rooms, along with a bookshelf-lined library.

      A winding skylight-topped staircase heads upstairs, where the primary bedroom sports a sitting area nestled beside a fireplace, private balcony and walk-in closet, as well as an Ann Sacks-tiled bath equipped with dual vanities, a soaking tub and shower; and the basement level holds a movie theater, and an entertainment room flaunting a wet bar and temperature-controlled wine cellar.

      Houser is best known for co-founding Rockstar Games with his older brother Sam in 1998 and producing the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which has generated revenues of almost $10 billion worldwide and become the highest-grossing media title of all time. After officially stepping down from the company in 2020, the 50-year-old formed Absurd Ventures, which specializes in producing multimedia projects spread across video games, TV, film and comics; his estimated net worth is around $150 million.

      Houser and Jakubiak recently sold an elegant Brentwood mansion to Canadian Reuters heiress Taylor Thomson for $16 million. But the couple still owns a $12.5 million mansion in New York City’s posh Brooklyn Heights neighborhood that’s got the added cache of having once belonged to Truman Capote, a Santa Monica beach getaway that cost them $6 million in summer 2021 and another Pacific Palisades home they picked up unfinished back in summer 2021 for a whopping $31 million. More

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      Blackpink’s Lisa Picks Up a Chicly Revamped Beverly Hills Home for $4 Million

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      Back in late 2023, Disney actress-turned-pop star Sabrina Carpenter doled out $4.4 million for a Hollywood Hills house renovated by Taylor Hahn and Amanda Leigh of House of Rolison. Now the Los Angeles-based design/build duo has already wrapped up another deal on a similarly reimagined house in the 90210. First listed at $4.2 million, the roughly 3,400-square-foot Spanish Mediterranean-style home just sold for a speck under $4 million to 27-year-old K-pop sensation Lalisa “Lisa” Manoban of the girl group Blackpink.

      Records show the House of Rolison team bought this particular property for nearly $2.4 million almost a year ago, back in spring 2023, and then proceeded to breathe new life into the century-old home—giving it a fresh and contemporary flair, while still honoring its soul. Originally built way back in the early 1920s, the creamy stucco and stone structure now features four bedrooms and an equal amount of bathrooms spread across stylishly reimagined living space boasting stone walls and floors, custom-stained cedar ceilings and light fixtures imported from Italy. There’s also a brand-new terracotta roof.

      A windowed dining area boasts a flamboyant chandelier and large windows.

      Gavin Cater

      Main-level highlights include a fireside living room with French doors spilling out to a covered balcony and formal dining room topped by a vaulted ceiling, plus a sky-lit kitchen outfitted with oak cabinetry, marble countertops, brass fixtures, a quartzite island, an Ilve range and accompanying breakfast nook. There’s also a posh primary bedroom flaunting a spa-inspired bath equipped with dual vanities, a freestanding soaking tub and rainfall shower, as well as a lower-level space with the original stone floors, a river rock fireplace and separate entrance.

      A charming downstairs space with its own entrance is accented by stone floors, a wood-beam ceiling and river rock fireplace.

      Gavin Cater

      The house is sited on over an acre of greenery-encased land, amid a prime locale on a private flag lot set far back from the street, with the picturesque grounds hosting an al fresco dining terrace sporting a pizza oven and grassy lawn with plenty of room for a swimming pool should the new owner decide to take advantage of included plans. A two-car garage and driveway parking for up to three vehicles also can be found on the premises.

      Per Variety, the Thailand-born musician known simply to her fans as Lisa has been pursuing a solo career parallel to her work with Blackpink for the past several years. Her 2021 single Lalisa saw her become the first female artist to sell nearly 750,000 copies during the first week it was released in South Korea. Most recently, she inked a deal with RCA Records that will allow her to release new solo music and retain full ownership of all her recordings, and the Bulgari brand ambassador also is set to make her acting debut in the upcoming third season of the HBO series The White Lotus.

      The listing was shared by Brock Harris and Lori Harris of Brock & Lori Real Estate, and Farrah Brittany of The Agency; Amy Black of Redfin repped the buyer.

      Click here for more photos of Lisa’s Beverly Hills house.

      Gavin Cater More

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      A Chinese Billionaire Just Spent More Than $250 Million on Lavish Mansions Spanning Half the Globe

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      Three months ago, Asia-based real estate blog Mingtiandi reported on the sale of one of Hong Kong’s most extravagant homes, a nearly 12,000-square-foot hilltop mansion in the ultra-prestigious Peak neighborhood. The house, a limestone-faced and liberally embellished two-story structure with unobstructed views of the city skyline and Victoria Harbour, sold for HK$838 million, or roughly $107 million USD.

      The sale was notable not just because it ranks as one of Hong Kong’s biggest real estate deals over the past couple of years, but because it’s one of the few ultra-luxury Hong Kong homes that have sold to a Mainland Chinese buyer in recent years, amid an ongoing Hong Kong housing slump and a sluggish mainland economy. Per property records, the house was acquired by an entity controlled by a Shenzhen-based woman named Gu Fang.

      The palatial mansion sold for a discounted $107 million in early 2024, a rare bright spot in Hong Kong’s sluggish real estate market.

      Google Earth

      People familiar with the properties now tell Robb Report that the same woman, Gu, is also directly linked to the purchase of three of the most expensive U.S. homes that have sold in the past 18 months, two of them being high-profile estates with Hollywood celebrity ties. In October 2022, a mystery buyer paid $55 million for the Newport Coast mansion of reality TV personalities Dr. Terry and Heather Dubrow. Four months later, a mystery buyer dropped another $55 million on the wildly extravagant Beverly Hills mansion of actor Mark Wahlberg.

      Although the new owner’s name was not revealed at that time, it was widely reported that both the Dubrows’ home and Wahlberg’s estate were acquired by the same buyer, an anonymous Mainland Chinese billionaire now believed to be directly associated with Gu.

      In late 2022, Heather Dubrow’s 20,000-square-foot Newport Coast mansion sold for $55 million to an LLC linked to Gu Fang.

      Google Earth

      Gu, believed to be in her 50s, is the longtime wife of Xu Hang, one of China’s richest men and the co-founder of Mindray Medical, China’s largest medical device manufacturer.

      It’s perhaps not such a surprise that Xu and Gu would be on the hunt for ultra-luxury homes, despite China’s broader economic slowdown. The Covid-19 pandemic proved extraordinarily lucrative for Mindray; in 2020, the net worth of company cofounder Li Xiting—Singapore’s richest man—was reported to be increasing by a mind-bending $1 billion per month due to high worldwide demand for ventilators. As for Xu, Forbes says his personal net worth has likewise ballooned over the past few years, from $1.8 billion in 2018 to a peak of $19.5 billion in 2021. The Bloomberg Billionaire Index pegs his current wealth at $12.1 billion, making him Shenzhen’s richest man, while Forbes notes he is the world’s fourth-wealthiest man in the healthcare industry.

      Located in the Beverly Park gated community, Mark Wahlberg’s house sold in early 2023 for $55 million to an LLC linked to Gu Fang.

      Google Earth

      As it turns out, the Beverly Hills, Newport Coast and Hong Kong mansions are not the only extravagant homes in Xu’s portfolio. In early 2023, billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross sold his mansion-sized penthouse at the Time Warner Center in New York City for $40 million, a major discount off the unit’s original $75 million ask. The buyer, records show, was yet another LLC with links to Xu and Gu.

      A lavish penthouse at Manhattan’s Time Warner Center sold in early 2023 for $40 million to an LLC linked to Gu Fang.

      Getty Images

      Putting all four purchases together reveals Xu has spent $257 million—in cash—on luxury real estate since late 2022, though it’s also worth noting that the tycoon has scored major discounts on at least three of his four new properties. The Hong Kong manor, sold for $107 million, had been originally offered at a lofty $166 million. Similarly, the Wahlberg house and Manhattan penthouse were also acquired at substantial discounts—the Wahlberg property at a 37% discount off its $87.5 million list and the N.Y.C. place at 47% below the original ask.

      In all, Xu shaved off a combined $126 million from the asking prices three homes alone. The fourth property, the Dubrow estate, was never officially listed on the open market, though it had reportedly been marketed as a pocket listing with an asking price of more than $60 million. More

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      This Extravagant L.A. Mega-Mansion Is Heading to Auction Next Month

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      Back in 2005, well before his 2019 death, fashion icon Max Azria doled out $14.4 million for a historic Paul R. Williams-designed residence in the affluent Holmby Hills enclave of Los Angeles. The BCBG Max Azria founder and his wife Lubov then spent the next several years and many millions of dollars extensively renovating the property from top to bottom, before hoisting the place back up for sale with a nearly $70 million bump in price.

      Since it first hit the market nine years ago for a whopping $85 million, records show the estate has been on and off the market for as high as $88 million and as low as the current $55 million asking price; and it also was offered for rent along the way for as much as $400,000 per month and used as a filming site. Now, with the house remaining unsold, listing agents Rayni Williams and Branden Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates have opted to put the 60-room spread under the gavel via Concierge Auctions, with bids expected to start at up to $38 million.

      Married designers Lubov and Max Azria paid Sidney Sheldon $14.4 million for the Paul R. Williams-designed residence in 2005.

      Monica Schipper/Getty Images

      Originally commissioned by radio star Charles Correll in the late 1930s to the tune of $70,000—and subsequently occupied by Oscar-winning writer, producer and novelist Sidney Sheldon, who reportedly added 10,000 square feet to the premises—the sprawling compound is tucked away behind a lengthy gated driveway and spacious motorcourt with room for more than 20 vehicles. Multiple structures offer a total of 14 bedrooms and 25 baths spread across a whopping 30,000 square feet of recently updated living space.

      Glitzy amenities include an office overlooking skyline views and a 5,500-square-foot movie theater with its own concession stand, as well as nine fireplaces, a gold-domed library, wet bar-equipped game room, gym, wine cellar, catering kitchen and staff accommodations. There’s also a pool house-turned-wellness center outfitted with a sauna, steam shower and massage area.

      A parquet-clad living room is showcased by a decorative arched fireplace, music nook and French doors leading outside.

      Marc & Tiffany Angeles

      Other highlights include an elegant double-height entry foyer resting beneath a skylight and displaying a sweeping bridal staircase, plus a living room sporting parquet floors, a fireplace, music nook and wall of French doors spilling out to a terrace. A formal dining room is topped by a silver-leaf ceiling, a spacious gourmet kitchen has two islands and high-end stainless appliances, and an opulent primary suite is decked out with a fireside sitting area, private balcony, large showroom-style closet and luxe bath.

      Rounding it all out are the garden-laced grounds, which host an infinity-edge swimming pool flanked by a sundeck and grassy lawn, along with a fire-pit lounge area, glass-walled tennis court with an elevated viewing box, greenhouse for growing produce, koi pond and an al fresco tea room.

      Outdoor amenities include a tennis court with a viewing platform.

      Marc & Tiffany Angeles

      According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the upcoming auction, Azria’s widow hasn’t lived in the property for several years. Lubov has decided to sell because she now resides in L.A.’s Venice Beach neighborhood, where she operates an art gallery. “It’s literally just me. My youngest is 27,” she told WSJ. “I’m now into moving on with my life.”

      Private previews of the property are available upon request, with bidding for the  no-reserve auction set to run from May 9-23.

      Click here for more photos of the Azria estate.

      Marc & Tiffany Angeles More

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      Kanye West Is Now Facing an $18 Million Loss on His Tadao Ando-Designed Malibu House

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      Four months ago, Kanye West put his infamously wrecked Malibu house on the market, asking a steep $53 million. To nobody’s particular surprise, there were no takers. This week, the price tag was slashed all the way down to $39 million by the home’s listing agent, Selling Sunset star Jason Oppenheim.

      It’s worth noting that the current ask is a staggering $18 million less than what West himself paid for the place less than three years ago, back in September 2021. The music mogul-turned-Yeezy fashion designer shelled out $57.3 million—in cash—for the 4,000 square foot residence, which was completed circa 2013 and designed by famed Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

      But it remains unclear if West ever spent a night at the oceanfront home, which sits cheek-to-jowl between two other houses on surfer-friendly Malibu Road. Almost immediately after he bought it, West set about tearing the place apart, ripping out all the windows, doors and interior finishes. The formerly four-bedroom, five-bath house is now a vacant and uninhabitable concrete shell, with its rooms open and exposed to the unforgivingly corrosive sea air.

      Shortly after buying the house in 2021, West tore out all the furnishings and fixtures, leaving it a concrete shell.

      Backgrid

      Despite the big price reduction, buyers should be warned that the house will require many months and likely millions of dollars in renovation costs. And the current $39 million ask, while substantially improved, is a lofty figure. Other homes along this same stretch of sand typically top out around $20 million—and that’s for a brand-new or freshly rehabbed residence.

      Still, those other homes lack a Tadao Ando pedigree. West’s Brutalist white elephant remains one of only a handful of U.S. buildings designed by the 82-year-old, who’s been called “Hollywood’s favorite starchitect” and whose homes are “the hottest must-have[s] among the super wealthy.”

      Last year, Jay-Z and Beyoncé paid $190 million for a different—and substantially larger—Malibu estate designed by Ando, an amount that remains the most ever paid for a California home. Kim Kardashian is planning to built an extravagant Ando-designed vacation mansion near Palm Springs. In 2021, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield and his wife Jen Rubio dropped $40 million to buy a Tom Ford’s Ands-designed New Mexico ranch.

      West, who remains one of the world’s most successful record producers and one of the best-selling musicians of all time, seems to be shifting away from real estate ownership—when he’s not out traveling the globe with wife Bianca Censori, he frequently bunks up for months at a time in some of L.A.’s poshest hotels, including the oceanfront Nobu Ryokan. More

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      Former Google Cloud CFO Picks Up Midcentury L.A. House With Jetliner Views

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      Veteran finance and technology executive Steffan Tomlinson has found a new place to hang his hat, having picked up a midcentury-modern gem in the steep hills directly above L.A.’s bustling Sunset Strip. On and off the market since spring of last year, initially for $4.6 million, the home’s listing price was reduced three times before going to the current Stripe CFO for a smidge over $4 million.

      Property records reveal the seller was Katie Goldsmith, the daughter of retired City National Bank CEO Russell Goldsmith and his wife, TV producer Karen Mack, who purchased the place for almost the same exact price almost six years ago, back in summer 2018. The premises also were occupied at one time by the late singer-turned-stage and screen actor Richard Eastham, who is probably most known for starring on Broadway opposite Mary Martin in South Pacific and appearing in the 1950s TV western Tombstone Territory.

      Hidden away behind a privacy wall and tall hedges, amid a secluded dead-end street, Tomlinson’s newly acquired post-and-beam structure is nestled on less than a quarter-acre parcel of land offering picturesque ocean and city lights views. Built in 1956 and “upgraded with no expense spared” since then, per the listing, the single-level residence features three bedrooms and a matching number of bathrooms filtered across a little more than 2,600 square feet of treehouse-like living space rife with dark hardwood floors and vast expanses of glass.

      A wood deck off the main living area is ideal for al fresco lounging with its fire-pit and breathtaking skyline views.

      Jeremy Spann

      Highlights include a spacious living room resting beneath a high wood-paneled ceiling, and displaying a striking marble-clad linear fireplace, built-in bookshelves and walls of glass overlooking the eye-catching vistas. The dining area adjoins a galley-style kitchen, which is outfitted with sleek cabinetry, a subway tile backsplash, wine refrigerator, and top-tier KitchenAid and Sub-Zero appliances.

      There also are secluded sleeping wings on either side of the house—one with a pair of bedrooms that each have their own bath, and another holding a primary suite that comes complete with a floating-hearth fireplace, walk-in closet, and spa-inspired bath equipped with dual vanities, a soaking tub and large shower. Outdoors, the leafy grounds host an expansive glass-enclosed deck warmed by a fire-pit, as well as an attached two-car garage.

      Tomlinson, who worked at corporations such as Palo Alto Networks, Google Cloud and Confluent before joining Stripe last summer, also still maintains a 1950s Andrew Skurman-renovated home in the affluent Silicon Valley enclave of Atherton that he paid $12 million for back in spring 2017.

      The listing was held by Zach Goldsmith of The Agency; Tori Horowitz of Compass repped the buyer.

      Click here for more photos of Steffan Tomlinson’s house.

      Jeremy Spann More

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      Facebook’s Former CFO Drops a Record $52 Million for a Mansion on Malibu’s Point Dume

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      Three years ago, after many years of living in California‘s Silicon Valley, Gideon Yu traded his Atherton mansion for the bright lights of Los Angeles. The veteran technology executive and his longtime wife Susie dropped $9.5 million on a large house in the suburban neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, where the couple has quietly resided ever since.

      But with the heat of summer approaching, the Yus have done what countless other wealthy L.A. families before them already did—they’ve bought an expensive vacation home in the seaside town of Malibu. Records indicate the Yus were the buyers who recently shelled out $52 million—in cash—for a blufftop estate on Malibu’s Point Dume.

      Never on the market, the $52 million house recently underwent a major contemporary remodel.

      Google Earth

      That sale price ranks as the most ever paid for a single-family house on Point Dume, a neighborhood known for its many famous faces. Current residents include Bob Dylan, Sean Penn, Chris Martin, Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson; also in the area are high-profile businesspeople and political figures—Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Jordan’s King Abdullah, billionaire hedge fund manager Chase Coleman and Jeff Bezos, who rents a compound owned by Kenny G.

      Because Yu’s new house was never on the market, photos are scant and current details few. But the 0.76-acre property last sold in summer 2020 for $22 million to Stuart and Stephanie Liner, the married real estate developers who have bought and flipped dozens of other luxury estates in the Los Angeles area.

      At the time of the Liners’ acquisition, the blufftop compound was an extravagant fixer, supremely well-located but saddled with dated interiors and amenities. The couple subsequently embarked on a multi-year, multimillion-dollar remodel that transformed the 1980s modern-style structure into a chicly contemporary home that happens to feature unobstructed ocean views.

      The house sits behind gates and a full-size, lighted tennis court.

      James McClain

      Robb Report is not sure if these figures are still accurate, but tax records say the house offers five bedrooms and seven bathrooms in about 6,000 square feet of living space. There’s also a full-size tennis court and a backyard swimming pool overlooking the Malibu coastline. Naturally, the residence also transferred with a coveted key to Little Dume Beach, the semi-private and difficult-to-access beach that lies just below the cliffs of Point Dume.

      The clifftop property happens to sit right next door to Johnny Carson’s former compound, which was sold in 2019 for $40 million to billionaire Juul investor Riaz Valani. The previous Point Dume sales record was held by another blufftop mansion that transferred for $49 million in early 2022.

      Yu, 52, has held multiple high-level tech executive positions over his career, including at both Yahoo and YouTube. However, he’s perhaps best-known for serving as CFO of Facebook from July 2007 until March 2009. Despite Yu’s relatively short stint as CFO, unconfirmed reports say he may have left the social media giant with as much as $500 million in stock.

      Today, Yu is a private investor and a member of the ownership group that controls the San Francisco 49ers football team. In 2012, he became the first president of color in NFL history. More

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      A Baby Formula Billionaire Just Dropped $27 Million on This Massive Beverly Hills Estate

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      In a prime pocket of Beverly Hills, just a literal stone’s throw from the longtime 90210 estate of Taylor Swift, this grand Spanish-meets-Mediterranean-influenced house was on the market for nearly a year, originally listed with an asking price of $33 million. The exceedingly lavish spread just sold for nearly $27 million—or $26.8 million, to be exact. Despite the discount, the deal still ranks among the priciest real estate transfers recorded in Los Angeles so far this year.

      Records indicate the all-cash buyer is an entity tied to billionaire “Roger” Hua Liu, the vice chairman and CFO of Feihe International Inc. Headquartered in Beijing, Feihe is the largest and most famous supplier of infant formula milk in China, with approximately 20% of the country’s market share. Per Forbes, Liu’s personal net worth tops $1.4 billion.

      The 15,000-square-foot house was completed in 2000 and lies just a short walk from Taylor Swift’s home.

      Google Earth

      According to records, the sizable 90210 property last sold back in 2011 for $17.5 million. The buyer then was Russian oligarch Sergey Sarkisov, who amassed a fortune in Russia’s insurance industry and later dabbled in film production.

      If Sarkisov’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he also owned the smaller tennis court estate next door to this $27 million compound. Sarkisov’s smaller “spare” property was sold last year for $15 million, and the buyer was prominent Hollywood actress Mindy Kaling, who reportedly intends to radically redesign and refurbish the house.

      Set high above the street, the giant house is mostly obscured from public view by a sea of trees and hedges.

      Google Earth

      As for Liu’s larger house next door, photos are scant and details remain sparse. But tax records confirm the mansion was built circa 2000 and is sited on a knoll-top lot of nearly 1.5 acres. Spanning more than 15,000 square feet of living space, the house is large even for this affluent neighborhood, and includes some 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. Despite its size, the place is mostly invisible from the public roadway out front, carefully cloaked behind big gates, a very long driveway, and a forest-like canopy of mature trees and other shrubbery.

      In addition to the main house, there’s a backyard swimming pool and a full-size tennis court on the south side of the There’s also a detached guesthouse or staff building of some sort on the premises, which itself stands some two or even three stories tall. In addition to garaging for four cars, the property features off-street parking for up to 15 more vehicles. The entire property is ringed by a collection of specimen trees, and there are also rose gardens and several patches of grassy lawn. More