Inside Kim Kardashian’s Real Estate Mini-Empire
You may love Kim Kardashian. You may hate Kim Kardashian. But whatever your feelings about her celebrity, and how she earned it, you have to admit she’s been successful at hijacking public attention and converting that attention into cold, hard cash. And like any savvy businesswoman, she’s been converting that cash into real property, and in some of Los Angeles’ most exclusive neighborhoods.
“Like most high-net-worth individuals, the Kardashians are on the lookout for hard assets,” said Aaron Woodman, the Los Angeles operations manager with the Corona del Mar, CA-based Boutique Real Estate Group. “Real estate in California and New York is a great place to invest right now. The areas in California which the family members have chosen—Bel Air, The Oaks, Hidden Hills, and Westwood—all offer privacy, high return on investment, and great amenities close by.”
In just the past two years, Kardashian has been involved in a string of real estate deals, buying, renovating (or partly renovating), and selling homes at all different price points across the luxury spectrum.
Let’s start in 2013, when Kardashian sold her five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion for just shy of $5 million. She had originally purchased the Mediterranean-style villa for $4.8 million in 2010. The 90210 pad boasted four bathrooms, a media room, and a spa. Considering that she reportedly threw all of her furniture into the deal as well, we’d call that a bargain. (Sort of.)
After selling her Beverly Hills beauty, the buxom starlet then joined forces with rapper Kanye West and spent $10.75 million on what E! dubbed their “dream home” in Bel Air, CA.
The 9,000-square-foot Tuscan-Mediterranean estate sits on three-quarters of an acre. It features five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a wet bar in the great room, and an elevator. The stunning home also boasts impressive views over the canyons of Bel Air, an 800-square-foot pavilion with a built-in barbecue center, and a bullet-shaped, dark-bottomed swimming pool.
In other words, not nearly enough “dream home” for the likes of Kimye! After the purchase closed, the couple began gutting the property to turn it into a 14,000-square-foot house with its own gym, movie theater, bowling alley, basketball court, $750,000 glam room, and indoor pool.
The power couple soon grew frustrated with delayed renovations, however, and became concerned the Bel Air property didn’t offer enough land. Last year they started house hunting again.
After a quick peek at available homes, they swiftly snapped up a $21.25 million farmhouse-style mansion—which E! once again dubbed their “dream home”—in the guard-gated Hidden Hills community, just five minutes from family matriarch Kris Jenner‘s house.
In addition to being close to Jenner, the enormous home stands on the site of Lisa Marie Presley’s former compound. It features a 16,000-square-foot main house with eight bedrooms, eight fireplaces, eight full bathrooms, and two half-bathrooms, not to mention formal living and dining rooms, a paneled library, a family room, a home theater, and a three-island eat-in kitchen. (No “glam room” as far as we can tell, though.)
Outside, the fully landscaped grounds include not just one but two swimming pools, two spas, two built-in barbecue setups, a pool house, two small vineyards, three fountains, and a 1,050-square-foot entertainment pavilion.
Kardashian and West planned to move in to the luxury abode—marketed as “the jewel of Hidden Hills” and located at 24895 Long Valley Road, if you’re thinking of visiting—sometime in January 2015.
After they closed on the Hidden Hills compound, they put the unfinished Bel Air dream home on the market—for $11 million, just a hair above what they initially paid for it.
“They don’t get emotionally attached to their properties,” Woodman said. “At that price point, that decision made sense, as most buyers would have demolished the renovations they had just completed anyway.”
Even this home, however, failed to fully satisfy the couple’s dreams. Kardashian and West reportedly paid $2,925,000 for a four-bedroom ranch house on Eldorado Meadow Road, nestled on 1.49 acres adjacent to their other newly purchased Hidden Hills home.
“Purchasing the property next to their Hidden Hills home was smart, as you can’t put a price on privacy when you are a celebrity,” Woodman said.
Why snap up neighboring homes? Speculation is that the home will be demolished and the land will be incorporated into the couple’s sprawling compound. Another sound real estate strategy from a family that knows a little something about empire building.
Iggulden Caroline (2015 January, 26) Inside Kim Kardashian’s Real Estate Mini-Empire Retrieved on February 3, 2015 from Realtor.com