Kanye West’s Malibu mansion saga has finally come to an end. Well, there’s still a pending lawsuit, but other than that, the ordeal has reached a conclusion. If you don’t keep up with West’s real-estate portfolio or only got halfway through the 10,000-word New Yorker article about the situation, I will catch you up.
Back in 2021, West bought a Tadao Ando–designed home in Malibu. Ando is one of the world’s most revered architects, and a home designed by him is considered as much of an art piece as it is a place to lay your head. West shelled out $57.3 million for the house (basically nothing compared to the $190 million Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid for their Ando home a few miles away) and promptly started gutting it without any permits.
West never finished the project, and in December of last year, he listed the concrete husk of the mansion for $53 million. The house had been stripped of its windows and doors as well as its plumbing and electrical system, and it had been exposed to the elements for years. Because that was apparently unappealing to the kinds of people who are spendings tens of millions on Malibu beach homes, the price dropped to $39 million in April.
In a funny twist to this story, West’s house was listed by the Oppenheim Group of Selling Sunset fame. Specifically, Jason Oppenheim (the more camera-friendly twin) was handling the sale, presumably in between mediating a personal spat between his employees. In the New Yorker article about the house, Oppenheim “did not rule out” the possibility of the house appearing on the Netflix reality show — exciting!
On the Oppenheim Group website, the company used pre-West photos of the house and some clever copywriting to pretend like it wasn’t trying to sell you a house that had been nearly destroyed. While “work is needed to either restore or reimagine the interiors,” this “architectural tour de force” is “an exceedingly rare” achievement that should be seen “as a masterful work of art, rather than just a residence.” Where was this light touch when Davina was trying to sell that $75 million house?
In the end, even the slickest real-estate lingo can’t elide the fact that the house would need a complete redo. TMZ reports that the property was finally purchased for $21 million by Belwood Investments, a “real estate crowdsourcing firm” that allows regular people to invest money into real-estate flips without having to pay for the whole thing. In a statement, Belwood CEO Bo Belmont said he planned to restore the house completely. “This is not just a phenomenal real-estate investment,” he said. “It is an opportunity to revitalize and preserve an architectural gem by the renowned Tadao Ando, ensuring it remains a jewel of Malibu.” The whole thing seems cursed to me, but I wish them the best of luck!
