Although the transaction actually went down very quietly at the end of last year, we’re only just now getting around to sharing that ubiquitous showbiz power couple Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles Carter paid a discounted $17 million to acquire the lot immediately next door to their $88 million, ultra-contemporary main residence in L.A.’s tony Bel Air neighborhood.
The semi-flat property, which adds about another acre of land to the Carters’ already nearly 2-acre estate, does not currently have a house on it. Instead, the place is little more than a hedged and gated parking area, ideal for servicing large events and at-home galas at the Carter palace.
The seller of the property was Hong Kong billionaire Karen Lo, who has had previous dealings with the Carters and owns several other large estates in the L.A. area. Lo paid $19.7 million for the place in 2018; at that time, the spread included an ivy-covered, vaguely Tuscan-flavored 1920s mansion with about 8,000 square feet of living space.
Lo, the heiress to a major Asia-based beverage empire founded by her grandfather, almost immediately demolished that house and left the lot vacant. But we do know that for the last five or six years, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have been using Lo’s property as extra parking for staff vehicles and their fleet of black Escalades and such. We assume the couple has been paying Lo some sort of hefty lease or usage fees for utilizing her land for this purpose.
In any case, the Carters now preside over a nearly 3-acre Bel Air compound that cost them a total of $105 million. And they have many other homes, too—chief among them a $190 million Malibu estate, a $26 million Hamptons retreat, a New York City penthouse and a historic mansion in New Orleans’ Garden District (below).
As for Lo, she lives primarily in Hong Kong. But when in town, she makes do with a $70 million compound tucked away in a guard-gated Malibu community. She also still owns a handful of other currently vacant properties in the Bel Air and Holmby Hills neighborhoods.
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