Bel Air estate to ask a record-shattering $500M

A Los Angeles-based developer is throwing market comps out the window with a spec home that will ask $500 million — more than triple the current $147 million record for a U.S. home sale.

The cocksure man behind the project is Nile Niami, a developer and movie producer, Bloomberg News reported. Niami has already started pouring concrete on the project, which will include a 74,000-square-foot main house with a 5,000-square-foot master bedroom, a 30-car garage, a “Monaco-style casino,” and a total of four pools.

Rendering of Bel Air mansion (credit: McLean Design)

Rendering of Bel Air mansion (credit: McLean Design)

The lawn will be about 20,000 square feet, of which Niami said, “There a lot of things in the house that will help to preserve water. But those are things that correspond with luxury houses, and I can’t tell you that it’s a green and energy-efficient house.”

Jonathan Miller of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel said, “My first reaction is laughter. But we’re in this perpetual state of surprise as new thresholds are broken.”

The record for priciest U.S. home purchase is still held by hedge funder Barry Rosenstein, who picked up an East Hampton estate for $147 million last year. [Bloomberg News] — Tess Hofmann