Hefner’s iconic Los Angeles mansion on sale
LOS ANGELES: The famous Los Angeles mansion of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the Playboy empire, is being put up for sale for $200 million (R3.3bn), Playboy Enterprises said, one of the highest asking prices for a private residence in the US.
The Gothic Tudor-style mansion, which has an area of nearly 1 858 square metres and boasts 29 rooms, sits amid more than 2 hectares in Holmby Hills, west of the city.
In addition to amenities such as a tennis court and a free-form swimming pool, the estate is home to the infamous Playboy grotto, which over the years served as the setting for some of Hefner’s most lavish, hedonistic parties.
The mansion, in which Hefner still lives, also has a zoo licence, the company said in a statement announcing the sale.
“The Playboy Mansion has been a creative centre for Hef as his residence and workplace for the past 40 years, as it will continue to be if the property is sold,” the statement added.
Representatives did not say why the company had decided to sell the property, built in 1927 and bought by Playboy in 1971 for a reported $1.1 million, a figure property agents said was the largest real estate transaction in Los Angeles history at that time.
The principal agents for the listing are Drew Fenton and Gary Gold of Hilton & Hyland, and The Agency’s Mauricio Umansky, the husband of actress Kyle Richards of reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.