Scalpel: Surgeon-turned-developer slices asking on Bel Air spec manse

Amid a widespread decline in Los Angeles’ high-end residential housing market, a celebrity surgeon-turned-spec developer is ready to sell his massive Bel Air mansion project at a big price cut.

Raj Kanodia told CNBC that he will consider offers starting at just over $120 million on his 34,000-square-foot glass-box style home. Kanodia listed the property a year ago for $180 million.

He’s also willing to rent it out for $1.5 million a month.

“In Las Vegas terms it’s called ‘all in,’” he told CNBC. “I’m all in times a million.”

The house hit the market as median sales prices topped out and deals soon slowed for high-end homes. Sales have remained sluggish in the last several months in L.A.

When Kanodia listed the house last July, developer Bruce Makowsky had recently cut the price on his spec mansion next door, from $250 million to $188 million. That put the properties in direct competition for top sale in L.A.

Kanodia and Makowsky are just two of a number of spec developers left holding onto high-end homes built during the bubble in that exclusive market. Makowsky has since dropped his price again, to $150 million.

Kanodia recently took out a loan secured by the home with Bank of Internet — now called Axos Bank — although he said he has enough equity in the house to pay off any loan, according to CNBC. He reportedly spent $50 million to develop the 1.2-acre estate.

Kanodia said he’ll live in the house himself and sell his home next door if he can’t find a buyer.

“If the bubble bursts… I will accept whatever is there,” he said. [CNBC] — Dennis Lynch