From French chateaus to Manhattan high rises, the world’s billionaires’ bulging real estate portfolios house some truly impressive properties. But how many homes do these mega-rich people actually own? The answer might surprise you! From Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison's spectacular collection to the unexpectedly humble offerings of another retail mogul, click or scroll to take a closer look...
*Prices in US dollars and British pounds
As Oracle co-founder and CEO, Larry Ellison has been called the "nation's most avid trophy-home buyer" by the Wall Street Journal, and while it is difficult to confirm the exact number of homes the billionaire currently owns, the figure is believed to be around 36 properties. With a net worth of a whopping $129.5 billion (£104.8bn) according to Forbes, Ellison certainly has the funds to splash out on flashy homes.
The tech tycoon also owns an $86 million (£65m) historic villa in Kyoto, Japan, three stunning homes in Lake Tahoe, California worth tens of millions of dollars and a private golf club complete with a 16-bedroom mansion in Rancho Mirage, California. Ellison himself admits that he has zero time or inclination to live in each and every one of his many homes. The property-loving billionaire seemingly collects statement homes Forbes estimates his combined real estate portfolio to be worth around $1 billion.
Elsewhere in California, Ellison also owns a 23-acre Woodside estate, into which he reportedly invested $200 million (£161.9m) to have the home remodelled to resemble Kyoto's 16th-century Katsura Imperial Villa (pictured). Ellison also owns roughly two dozen properties in Malibu, including at least 10 on a stretch of Carbon Beach known as Billionaire's Beach. According to Insider, his total spending on properties in Malibu is estimated between $200 million (£161.9m) to $250 million (£202.3m).
In 2010, Ellison acquired the Gilded Age Beechwood Villa in Rhode Island (pictured) for $10.5 million (£8.5m). He then invested more than $100 million to renovate the former Astor residence into an art museum for his personal collection of 18th and 19th-century European art. Ellison reportedly owns two other properties which he has converted into museums. He told CNBC in 2012: "I'm going to start these art museums that are basically converted homes. I have one for modern art, and I have one for 19th-century European art, and one for French impressionism."
Ellison went on to purchase the four neighbouring properties surrounding Beechwood on Newport’s ritzy Bellevue Avenue. His most recent acquisition, the five-bedroom mansion known as Seacliff he bought in February of 2019 for $11 million (£8.9m), brought his compiled Newport estate up to nine acres in total.
He’s also submitted a 30-year proposal costing $340 million (£275.2m) to the Land Use Commission in Hawaii, where he owns 98% of the island called Lanai. This would potentially see 200 acres turned into an industrial park, with extra housing built to bring the population up to 6,000 people from its current population of just over 3,000 and new amenities developed such as a university, film studios and a tennis academy. When the pandemic hit, Ellison made Lanai his full-time home, and he still spends the majority of his time there.
In 2012, Ellison paid a reported $300 million (£242.8m) to acquire 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, including 90,000 acres of land and a Four Seasons resort. Ellison went on to refurbish the resort while investing in clean energy sources, and supposedly intends to use the island as an environmental experiment. Currently, the island remains largely undeveloped, with no traffic lights or shopping malls.
Meanwhile, this property in the ultra-exclusive neighbourhood of Seminole Landing in North Palm Beach, Florida, is one the tech tycoon has been trying to offload for some time. Ellison originally bought the magnificent Tuscan-style mansion, the third largest beachfront parcel in Palm Beach County, back in 2020 for $80 million (£64.7m), but despite its grandeur, announced his plans to demolish the home in 2021. It seems these plans are yet to come to fruition.
But even if he does ultimately demolish his Florida home, Ellison will still be left with a truly extraordinary property portfolio, which includes, in addition to those already mentioned, several hotels, two tennis clubs, a resort on the shores of Lake Tahoe and even a historic garden villa in Kyoto, Japan. Talk about a range of residences!
As a founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has built up an impressive net worth of $148.3 billion (£118bn) according to Forbes, making him the third wealthiest person in the world after Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. With commercial holdings scattered all over the world, Jeff is also no stranger to the property market. Let’s take a look at some of his pricey pads.
Bezos owns four homes alone in the coveted celebrity Beverly Hills enclave, and it seems he’s creating a massive compound for himself. He acquired his first property in the area, an 11,891-square-foot, seven-bed, seven-bath mansion (pictured), back in 2007 for $24.5 million (£19.8m). In July 2019, he went on to buy the four-bed contemporary home next door for $12.9 million (£10.4m). Then, in 2020, Bezos snapped up two more Beverly Hills homes for a whopping $165 million (£133.5m) and $10 million (£8.1m) respectively.
In his home state of Washington, meanwhile, Bezos owns two properties, the first of which is a beautiful two-house estate that sits not far from Bill Gates’s Xanadu 2.0 mansion. In 1998, Bezos splashed out $10 million (£8.1m) for the 5.3-acre Medina estate, which consists of a roomy six-bedroom house and an even larger 20,605-square-foot property. And as if two homes weren’t enough, Bezos also bought the house next door for $53 million (£42.9m) in 2005.
A year later, over on the East Coast, the e-commerce billionaire bought three swanky apartments in Manhattan's Art Deco Century Tower from former Sony boss and Mariah Carey's ex Tommy Mottola for $7.7 million (£6.2m).
A decade later, Bezos decided to expand his New York City real estate holdings, dropping $80 million (£64.7m) on three apartments in an upscale 5th Avenue building overlooking Madison Square Park. At the time, The Wall Street Journal reported that the purchase was one of the most expensive real estate transactions in New York City for the year.
Over the course of the next two years, Bezos went on to acquire both a $16 million (£13m) and a $23 million (£18.6m) unit in the same historic building, making five apartments in total. The apartments have a combined 20,000 square feet of living space and include a three-floor, 10,000-square-foot penthouse with a grand ballroom, 12 bedrooms, and numerous terraces.
At the time it was suspected that the space would function as a home base for Bezos and his then-wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Scott, but the pair divorced in April of 2021. The entire mega-mansion complex is housed on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron district and boasts a fitness centre, golf simulator, games room and movie screening room.
A bit further down the east coast, Bezos also owns a former textile museum-turned 27,000-square-foot-mansion in Washington DC, which he purchased in 2012 for $23 million (£18.6m). The impressive colonial-style brick building dates to 1912, and holds a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2020, Bezos purchased the home across the street for the far more modest sum of $5 million (£4.1m). At the time, it was suspected that the home was bought for privacy reasons, as it directly overlooks the previous buy. That same year, he still had room in the budget to purchase his impressive $165 million (£133.5) Georgian-style manor in Beverly Hills (pictured).
Jeff Bezos and media personality Lauren Sanchez have been an ‘item’ since 2019 – shortly after Bezos publicly announced his divorce from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie – and after several years of courtship announced their engagement in May of this year. The pair have been making their temporary home in a Malibu compound owned by the Kardashians’ financial manager, Lester Knispel, while construction on their new love nest is still underway.
The couple’s new home will be a mega-mansion located in Beverly Hills on the 10-acre estate previously owned by ex-Warner Bros. president Jack Warner. With an estimated value of $175 million (£137.8m), the couple’s new digs will ultimately take the form of an 8,000-square-foot, three-storey main home, as well as a separate guest home, gym, pergola, and security headquarters.
Former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg has many claims to fame, having expanded beyond the bounds of his political career to dabble in the fields of business, philanthropy and even literature. With a net worth of $94.5 billion (£76.5bn), Bloomberg has long boasted an impressive international property portfolio and appears to have a penchant for collecting homes with prestigious pasts.
As the city’s former mayor, Bloomberg of course holds some impressive Manhattan properties. When he left office in 2013, his primary residence was a Beaux-Arts mansion on East 79th Street, just steps away from Central Park, which he reportedly purchased in 1986 for $3.5 million (£2.8m), and then sank $1.7 million (£1.4m) into renovating. And while the five-storey townhouse already offered 7,500 square feet of space, Bloomberg also bought up condos in the building next door in order to create a double-width mansion.
Bloomberg also owns a $3.8 million (£3.1m) condo in a Trump building just a few blocks down at 610 Park Avenue, but when he feels he needs a respite from the city, he just has to head out to Long Island, where he owns this spectacular Hamptons estate. Known as Ballyshear, the 22,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion set Bloomberg back a cool $20 million (£16.2m) when he purchased it in 2011, Vanity Fair reports.
A so-called "perennial figure in London society", Bloomberg also owns two homes in London, the first of which is a flat in the salubrious Cadogan Square, and the second a far more opulent $25 million (£20.2m) mansion in Chelsea once owned by the Victorian novelist George Eliot. Bloomberg bought the latter seven-bedroom property in 2015, at a time when there was some speculation that he might be considering running for mayor of London.
In more temperate climes, Bloomberg also owns a spectacular mansion in Bermuda, where he regularly spent weekends during his tenure as mayor. He reportedly originally bought the estate back in 1998, only to replace the extant building with an even larger $10 million (£8.1m) mega-mansion and pool. The property includes its own private beach, clustered around a sapphire blue cove (pictured), and Bloomberg remains a frequent visitor and prominent member of the local community.
For the ski season, Bloomberg can be found retreating to his family vacation properties in Vail, Colorado (pictured), where he owns a four-bedroom condo in the exclusive Mountain Haus ski resort. If warmer temperatures are preferred, he can also jet down to his 12-acre estate in the equally exclusive community of Wellington, Florida, which includes a seven-bed mansion and a 12-stall horse barn for his daughter, an avid equestrian, for whom he has also purchased three properties in the horse-riding heart of Westchester, New York.
At just 39 years old, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg boasts a net worth of $97.2 billion (£77.2bn). Zuckerberg created Facebook, now under the parent company Meta, at the tender age of 19 while still a student at Harvard University. 20 years later, the young billionaire has developed a reputation as an internet pioneer, business magnate and philanthropist, and has accumulated a substantial property portfolio to boot.
Zuckerberg’s home base, where he lives with his wife, Priscilla Chan, and their three children, is this 5,617-square-foot, five-bed, five-bath home in Palo Alto, California. Perched on 0.4 acres, the home offers plenty of outdoor entertaining space, including a saltwater pool, a spa, a barbeque area, a sunroom, an entertainment pavilion and both front and back porches. The couple have also bought the four neighbouring houses, creating a super-compound that, according to the Daily Mail, has riled the local community.
In 2011, the year before his marriage, Zuckerberg dropped $7 million (£5.7m) on the colonial revival house, which is the oldest home in Palo Alto, with parts of the wood frame structure dating to the 1860s. Inside, the home has traditional features such as hardwood floors and a fireplace, as well as some less conventional add-ons, including a “Facebook Canon” which launches grey T-shirts and an AI assistant with the voice of Morgan Freeman, according to Architectural Digest, which Zuckerberg built himself.
In addition to his Palo Alto main residence, Zuckerberg owns nine more properties across San Francisco, Lake Tahoe and Hawaii. He seems to have a particular penchant for the latter location, where, at last tally, he currently owns 1,400 acres of land for which he has cumulatively paid over $200 million (£161.9m). Some of these land purchases have sparked controversy, with locals allegedly complaining that Zuckerberg was blocking public beach access and buying out patches of land that had belonged to generations of tenant farmers.
In 2014, he spent $116 million (£93.9m) on 707 acres including most of Pila’a beach and Kahu’aina Plantation, an acquisition which included a 6,100-square-foot house, a 16-car garage, offices and security headquarters. His next Hawaiian purchase was an additional 89 acres for $45.3 million (£36.7m) in 2017, followed by 600 more in March of 2021 for $53 million (£42.9m). What Zuckerberg could possibly want with so much Hawaiian land is anyone’s guess, but he certainly appears well on his way to establishing his own tropical paradise.
Bill Gates, widely hailed as the father of the internet, spearheaded the so-called ‘microcomputer revolution’ of the 1970s and 80s when he co-founded the software company Microsoft alongside his childhood best friend, Paul Allen. With a net worth of $111 billion (£89bn), the 67-year-old tech tycoon is the 7th wealthiest person in the world, as well as a prestigious philanthropist through his organisation, the Gates Foundation.
Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda, with whom he still co-chairs the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, gave away more than $7 billion (£5.6bn) in grants in 2022. Though he certainly follows a philosophy of giving, Gates isn’t above living well himself. Currently, it’s unclear how many properties he actually owns, or how these properties were divvied up in the couple’s divorce, which they announced via Twitter in May of 2021. But the pair certainly put together an impressive portfolio over their years together, starting with their main residence, Xanadu 2.0, in Medina, Washington.
The custom-built mansion overlooks Lake Washington and is said to derive its name from the fictional mansion in the iconic film Citizen Kane. The Pacific Lodge-inspired property boasts a whopping 66,000 square feet of living space which includes seven bedrooms, two dozen bathrooms (yes, you read that correctly), six kitchens, a 2,200-square-foot ballroom and meeting space, plus a 20-seat Art Deco-style theatre. Throw in a trampoline room, a 60-foot pool with an underwater sound system and a massive library with a hidden bar behind a bookcase, and you have grown-up Disneyland!
Of course, the home also comes equipped with state-of-the-art technology straight out of a sci-fi novel. According to RobbReport, occupants and guests wear pins with pre-set preferences for lighting, temperature and audio-visual systems. These pins communicate with sensors throughout the house such that as one moves from room to room, the lights and climate systems will alter themselves automatically to correlate with preset preferences – and your music choice will follow you, too!
In addition to Xanadu 2.0, which took many years and a reported $63 million (£51m) to complete, and today has an estimated worth of closer to $130 million (£105.2m), Gates owns several other homes. One favourite escape includes the 492-acre ranch in Wyoming that he purchased for a reported $8.9 million (£7.2m) back in 2009, and which once belonged to legendary hunter Buffalo Bill.
The Microsoft boss-turned-philanthropist can also make a beeline for his equestrian estate in Wellington, Florida (pictured) that he bought in 2009 for $8.7 million ($6.6m), or head to his 228-acre horse ranch near San Diego, California, which set him back a cool $18 million (£14m) in 2014.
In 2020, as Covid lockdowns set in, the Gateses splashed out $43 million (£34.8m) on an oceanfront compound along one of the most exclusive streets in the affluent California community of Del Mar. The property, designed by renowned local architect Ken Ronchetti, is a 5,800-square-foot, single-level home complete with six bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, plus a pair of guest houses out back.
The posh property included plenty of luxury features to keep the couple entertained throughout lockdown, including a home theatre, a glass-tiled swimming pool, a 10-person hot tub, a health and fitness suite and a spectacular terrace overlooking the beach. The home sits a mere six miles from the Gates’ Rancho Santa Fe property in San Diego.
It's time to meet the world’s wealthiest man. While his name may be less familiar than some of the other titans of industry whose property portfolios we’ve toured, Bernard Arnault is a giant in the world of luxury brands. As the founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury goods company, Arnault is worth a whopping $223.6 billion (£177.3bn). And, fittingly, his homes are just as luxurious as the brands he manages.
Arnault’s main residence is a spectacular Parisian mansion in the 8th Arrondissement along the left bank of the Sein. While not much is known about the home, it's reportedly worth over $200 million (£161.7m) and dates to the 18th century. Its limestone exterior features intricate carvings, as well as a solid bronze front door flanked by two lion sculptures. Inside, the home spans over 7,000 square feet and reportedly includes 12 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a library, a dining room and a ballroom.
The chateau boasts 34 opulent rooms, no doubt filled with Arnault’s prestigious art collection, as well as a balcony overlooking the surrounding countryside and mountains. In addition to his French residences, Arnault also reportedly owns five decadent homes in Beverly Hills with a combined value of $125 million (£101.1m), and the 133-acre Indigo Island in the Bahamas, which he purchased for £35 million ($28.3m).
Known as the 'Oracle of Omaha', Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time, according to Forbes. The 92-year-old boasts a net worth of $117.1 billion (£92.8bn), which he has built through his management of the firm Berkshire Hathaway, which owns dozens of big-name companies including Geico, Duracell, and Dairy Queen. But in spite of his vast riches, the world’s fifth-wealthiest man still chooses to live a remarkably simple lifestyle…
Believe it or not, Buffett still lives in the same modest house he bought in 1958 for just $31,500 (£5.5k), or about $329,505 in today’s dollars, which means he’s called the same five-bed in Omaha, Nebraska home for 65 years. The home itself is just 6,570 square feet, and dates to 1921, although some additions appear to have been made to the stucco structure. Today, its estimated value is fixed at $1.2 million (£970k), according to Zillow’s estimate.
To be fair to Buffett, the house does offer an unbeatable location with regards to convenience – just a five-minute drive from Berkshire Hathaway’s corporate headquarters. Buffett has repeatedly referred to the home as his “third-best investment” and insists that he "couldn’t imagine having a better house". In a 2009 BBC interview, he stated in reference to his home: "I’m happy there. I’d move if I thought I’d be happier someplace else."
Before he found his forever home, Buffett owned another property even more modest than the one he currently occupies. However, it was in this quaint three-bed English Tudor-style house that Buffett launched his business empire. The 3,400-square-foot home, which served as the makeshift office for Buffett’s first solo investment fund, Buffett Associates, hit the market in April of 2022 for $799,000 (£645.90). Maybe some of Buffett’s business karma will rub off on the lucky new owner!
Founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla owner and CEO of X (formerly Twitter), founder of the Boring Company, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation, Elon Musk’s CV speaks for itself. With a net worth of $198.8 billion (£160.9m), he is the world’s second-wealthiest person. However, when it comes to property, Musk is somewhat unusual…
Back in 2020, Musk made the surprising vow to sell nearly all of his physical possessions, including his entire property portfolio. By March of 2022, he had honoured his pledge to 'own no house' and it was reported that he had finally sold all seven of his homes. Currently, he is believed to be residing in a rental property in Boca Chica, Texas, near his aerospace company, worth a reported $50,000 (£40.5k). But let’s take a look back at some of the properties that Musk owned before he offloaded them.
One of Musk’s more impressive abodes was this 16,251-square-foot Bel Air Mansion, which he bought back in 2012 for $17 million (£13m) after renting the property for two years and living there with two of his sons. The entire estate occupies a lush 1.7 acres, encircled by rolling hills and picturesque views, and boasts six bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, as well as numerous entertaining spaces, including a two-storey library and a home theatre.
Another of Musk’s prestigious properties, now sold, was this charming 2,756-square-foot ranch which once belonged to Gene Wilder. Musk reportedly used the house as a private school for his children until October of 2020, at which point he parted with the five-bed, four-bath for $7 million (£5.7m) to an LLC managed by the screenwriter and producer Elizabeth Hunter, who is married to Wilder's nephew, ensuring that the home's legacy lives on.
Elon Musk also appears to be building a mysterious glass structure in Austin. Known as Project 42, the 'secret' plans have been described within the company as a house for Musk. Renderings of the building show different styles of glass structure: one a twisted hexagon perched on the waterfront, and another a large glass cube, similar to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York, pictured here. Tesla employees are said to have been discretely working on the development for over a year, though the project's financing has recently been placed under scrutiny by the US government. An order for millions of dollars worth of specialised glass sparked an internal investigation by Tesla lawyers and board members earlier in the summer. While the outcome is unknown, Manhattan federal prosecutors have now launched a probe into whether the company's funds were misused, The Washington Post reported at the end of August.
Musk has also been notoriously building his own town just outside of Austin, Texas, where the majority of his business interests are concentrated. Snailbrook, as the town is known, is situated along the banks of the Colorado River, conveniently located near both the Boring Co. and SpaceX facilities, and would theoretically provide purpose-built housing for Musk’s employees. Overseeing his own incorporated town would allow Musk to create his own regulations and dodge bureaucratic red tape. Ironically, it's possible that Elon Musk may end up owning more homes than all the others combined.
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