Jeff Bezos reportedly just bought the most expensive home ever sold in California — after spending nearly a year touring some of the priciest mega-mansions in the state

Casa Encantada Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos reportedly just spent $165 million on a new Beverly Hills mansion, shattering the previous record for the most expensive home ever sold in California.
Bezos had been touring mega-mansions with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez since last March, The New York Post's Josh Kosman and Jennifer Gould Keil reported.
The centibillionaire Amazon CEO toured and eventually passed on a 26-room Bel Air mansion that later broke sales records when it sold to Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan for about $150 million in December, The Post reported.
Bezos already owns two mansions in Beverly Hills, in addition to a 29,000-square-foot Seattle estate, a Texas ranch, and a Washington DC mansion.
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Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez may have bought a home of their very own, according to new reports.

Bezos is the new owner of a 13,000-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion, The Wall Street Journal's Katy McLaughlin and Katherine Clarke reported. The home, which was originally designed for Warner Bros. Studios executive Jack Warner in the 1930s, features two guest houses, a tennis court, a swimming pool, and a nine-hole golf course, according to Architectural Digest. Bezos reportedly paid film producer David Geffen $165 million for the estate, which would make it the most expensive home ever sold in California.

Bezos and Sanchez's house-hunting was a hot topic among high-end Los Angeles real-estate brokers, The New York Post's Josh Kosman and Jennifer Gould Keil reported February 2.

LA's iconic Chartwell Estate — best known for being featured in the opening credits of "The Beverly Hillbillies" — was among the properties Bezos and Sanchez reportedly toured. The 26-room mansion features a 75-foot swimming pool, a five-bedroom guest house, a tennis court, a 12,000-bottle wine cellar, manicured gardens, a secret underground tunnel, and panoramic views of downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.

That property has since been purchased by fellow billionaire Lachlan Murdoch, the son of NewsCorp founder Rupert Murdoch, Business Insider reported in December. Murdoch paid approximately $150 million for the estate, making it the most expensive home ever sold in Los Angeles, The LA Times reported.

chartwell estate los angeles

A representative of Hilton & Hyland, the brokerage firm that represented the Chartwell Estate before the sale, did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Bezos's tour.

Bezos and his girlfriend are also rumored to have toured "Casa Encantada," a 40,000-square-foot estate in Bel-Air, The Post reported. That mansion features a guest house, a pool house, a basketball court, a tennis court, greenhouses, a rose garden, and koi ponds, all with restored 1930s finishings, Business Insider reported. Casa Encantada has an asking price of $225 million, making it the most expensive property currently on the market in the United States, according to The Times.

A representative of Casa Encantada did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Bezos' interest in the property.

Casa Hilton Hyland

House-hunting is hard — even if you're Jeff Bezos

Bezos was reportedly in the market for a new Los Angeles home for nearly a year. Last March, Bezos and Sanchez secretly toured a different Bel Air mansion, Page Six reported. Asking $88 million, that property features a rooftop deck, infinity pool, and panoramic views, according to a listing from Hilton & Hyland.

Despite having more money than any other person on Earth, Bezos apparently had limited options when it came to home-buying. There were less than ten properties for sale in the Los Angeles area that met the Amazon CEO's "needs," Los Angeles-based luxury real-estate broker Drew Gitlin of Berkshire Hathaway told The Post prior to Bezos's reported purchase of Geffen's home. Gitlin did not specify what Bezos's needs are, however.

Even if the Amazon CEO had struck out in Beverly Hills, he still has two other homes in Los Angeles where he and Sanchez could stay when they're in the city, Business Insider reported. Bezos's expansive real-estate portfolio also includes two homes in Medina, Washington; a 30,000-acre ranch in Texas; three adjacent New York City apartments worth about $80 million combined ; and a Washington DC mansion, although it's unclear how these properties were divided in his 2019 divorce.

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