At $245M, Bel Air estate touting itself as priciest listing in U.S.

Property tries public market after a year as pocket listing asking $350M

Perenchio with former Bel Air Chartwell estate (Credit: Hilton & Hyland)
Perenchio with former Bel Air Chartwell estate (Credit: Hilton & Hyland)

The title for most expensive home listing in the United States now belongs to a 10-acre estate in Bel Air.

For more than a year, the owners of the former estate of Univision billionaire Jerrold Perenchio shopped the property as a pocket listing for $350 million. With no takers, now the French Neoclassical mansion known as Chartwell is available on the Multiple Listing Service for $245 million, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Chartwell is one of eight homes with nine-figure price tags in the Los Angeles area. If it sells for anywhere near its asking price, it would easily dwarf the price record for Los Angeles County, which was set at $110 million in April when Peter Morton sold his home in Malibu.

The previous not-so-secret pocket listing of $350 million was not taken all that seriously by L.A.’s high-end real estate community. Sellers in the area are known for overpricing high-end properties by as much as 50 percent, only to slash prices later, as Stephen Kotler, Douglas Elliman’s CEO for the Western Region, recently told The Real Deal.

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Some will recognize Chartwell’s main residence from the opening credits of “The Beverly Hillbillies” sitcom. The 25,000-square-foot mansion was built in 1933 by Sumner Spaulding. It includes scaled formal rooms, a ballroom, and a 12,000-bottle wine cellar. It also has a guest house designed by Wallace Neff, a 75-foot swimming pool, a tennis court and covered parking area for 40 cars.

Perenchio, the former CEO of Univision, bought the property and three contiguous parcels in 1986. He expanded the estate with designer Henri Samuel and architect Pierre Barb.

Since his passing in 2017, Perenchio’s estate has listed and sold a number of properties. A separate Bel Air home of his hit the market in September for $21.5 million, and the city of Malibu purchased nearly 30 acres from his portfolio for $42.5 million in April. [LAT] – Gregory Cornfield