Luxury Villa del Lago in Newport Coast, California, is going on the auction block because the owner doesn’t have a choice. The unfinished Italianate villa on 12.5 acres (5.1 hectares) in Newport Beach, once valued at $87 million, now it could be sold for a quarter of that price at an bankruptcy auction on Apr. 26. The property is being marketed by the Irvine, California-based company at the request of debtors after an unsuccessful listing at $37 million.
Located at 1 Pelican Hill Road, the mansion with the views of the Pacific Ocean and Santa Ana Mountains, includes a 16,600-square foot, three-storey main house in the final stages of construction, with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and 17-car garage. Luxury property also boasts a man made lake with terraced waterfalls, a tennis court, a one-bedroom gate house and an unfinished horse stable and riding areas. There’s also a vineyard and a wine cave and more luxurious amenities.
When you also consider that the home must be sold, and there is no opening bid, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for bidders, Robert Friedman, Auction.com’s chairman said in a released statment. The vast size of the property and the elegance of the improvements are attributes that are rarely found in the luxury market, especially in Southern California.
This empty, never-sold, mega-mansion, a gaudy symbol of the runaway extravagance that gripped the top end of the U.S. real estate market before the housing crash of 2008, is the largest property being handled by the auction site and have confirmed that the property has attracted buyer interest from far and wide. It will be interesting to see at what price the estate is finally sold in the auction. [Auction]
