The rise of the $100M spec trophy home

Developers and investors are looking to build increasingly lavish homes on spec. Many of these homes, which are built with master suites larger than most homes and spas and entertainment spaces comparable with those in hotels, are also attempting to break new price records.

For example, in Hillsboro Beach, Fla., a yet-to-be-built 30,000-square-foot estate with subterranean parking for 20 cars is seeking $45 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. That is nearly triple the cost of the most expensive sale in the town to date, a property nearby that sold for $17 million last year.

Another home, listed for $36 million in Golden Beach, Fla., north of Miami, has a 5,000-square-foot spa and five kitchens.

And in Los Angeles, a $55 million spec home with expansive city views includes an air-conditioned “auto gallery” with a spinning turntable and room for 15 cars.

“Everybody wants new,” Carmen D’Angelo, the listing agent for the Hillsboro Beach home, told the Journal. “If I had five or six more of these, I’d sell six more.”

Real estate agents say the surge reflects a luxury housing market that is at an all-time high, fed in part by overseas buyers and house hunters looking to invest in trophy properties.

“These are people who are going to buy these homes to park money,” said Jeff Hyland, of Beverly Hills-based Hilton & Hyland.

One of his agents is working with a developer who is building a 90,000-square-foot spec home. Hyland has another developer working on six two-acre lots, each of which will feature a 40,000-square-foot spec home. When they are completed in about three years, the 40,000-square-foot homes will be priced around $100 million. [WSJ] – TRD