Snapchat billionaire Evan Spiegel has finally closed the deal for his new Los Angeles home after a long two-year wait.
According to Dirt, Spiegel paid US$120 million for the Holmby Hills estate that is directly across the road from the Playboy mansion.
The reason for the delay in settlement was that the property is currently undergoing a multi-year rebuild and certain construction phases had to be completed before Spiegel would take official ownership.
Backed up by a US$50 million mortgage, the sale is one of the largest on record for California, just behind Marc Andreessen’s US$177 million Malibu home and Jeff Bezos’ $165 million Beverly Hills estate.
Interestingly, the Snapchat CEO also paid US$25 million for a smaller block of land next door to the US$120 million main property, so the total estate actually cost him US$145 million.
Spiegel purchased the property from British billionaire Ian Livingstone, who initially bought the two-parcel estate in two separate transactions in 2014 and 2017, for US$72 million.
Livingstone subsequently combined both properties and set about rebuilding the entire place, with construction costs estimated to be in the tens of millions.
While Spiegel paid top dollar for the luxury estate, his fortunes have taken a turn for the worse, with some disappointing earnings and a tech-slump seeing Snap shares fall sharply, with his net worth dropping US$7.4 billion to US$2.6 billion according to Forbes.
