Though he was very far from homeless, Xu Hang has a new spot to lay his billionaire head. Records reveal the formerly low-profile tycoon turned world-class trophy property collector was the buyer who recently forked over about $20.8 million for Rihanna’s glamorous Los Angeles penthouse.
Widely publicized over the last few years, the strikingly luxe condo needs no introduction to veteran real estate watchers. But we’ll give one anyway: spanning the entire 40th floor of The Century skyscraper in L.A.’s bustling Century City neighborhood, the nearly 9,300-square-foot penthouse is a true Hollywood mansion in the sky, sporting four bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms and a major-league celebrity pedigree.
Along with the rest of the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building, the penthouse was completed circa 2010. But the developer held onto the unit until 2017, when it was sold for exactly $20 million to “Friends” star Matthew Perry. The late actor, for his part, subsequently engaged the services of architect Scott Joyce and interior designer LM Pagano, who gave the slick bachelor pad an extensive customization.
Perry only owned the condo for about four years, flipping it in 2021 for $21.6 million to Nick Molnar, the billionaire Afterpay tech founder. Molnar owned the spread for an even shorter period, dumping it to Rihanna less than two years later at a $600,000 loss.
For her part, Rihanna reportedly never moved into the very expensive but little-loved condo. Barely nine months after she acquired it, the unit was back on the market, asking $25 million. In the end, the Barbados-born mogul settled for the aforementioned $20.8 million, or more than $200,000 less than she paid last year. And that loss figure doesn’t include realtor commissions, maintenance, property taxes, other closing costs or the effects of L.A.’s controversial mansion tax, which requires her to also cough up more than $1.1 million to the governmental powers that be.
Rihanna, 36, can certainly afford to lose nearly $1.5 million on the sale of her Century penthouse. Forbes says she’s worth $1.4 billion thanks to the success of her Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty cosmetics and lingerie brands, making her the world’s wealthiest female musician.
As for the home itself, it’s a decidedly bespoke and lavish affair—there’s a private elevator landing opening into the condo’s entrance gallery, and guests will be wowed by the living room’s curvaceous wall of floor-to-ceiling windows flaunting skyline views. Dark brown hardwood floors flow into the dining room, which is serviced by an all-white kitchen with marble countertops, dual islands and premium Sub-Zero, Wolf and Miele appliances.
Other amenities are not limited to a soundproof movie theater with velour couches and a master suite equipped with a curved bedroom, a private lounge, dual bespoke closets and dual Calacatta marble-swaddled bathrooms. But the condo’s most impressive features are likely its four separate outdoor terraces, which face four different directions—north, south, east and west—and sport panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina Island, Downtown L.A. skyscrapers, the San Gabriel mountains and even snowcapped Mount Baldy. Those unstoppable views are pretty much priceless, though the penthouse’s HOA dues of nearly $9,000 per month will have a sobering effect on all but the richest viewers.
The Century is frequently considered to be one of L.A.’s premier residential skyscrapers, and it unsurprisingly boasts a long roster of very wealthy residents. Some of those rich folks are also famous—current homeowners include Denzel Washington, Candy Spelling and Dr. Terry and Heather Dubrow. Even Rihanna still owns another multimillion-dollar condo on the building’s 27th floor, though her main residence is now a $14 million mansion in the mountains above Beverly Hills.
And it’s not such a surprise that Xu would be on the hunt for a trophy L.A. penthouse, the billionaire Mindray Medical cofounder has been on a worldwide real estate spending spree over the past two years.
Since late 2022, Xu and his wife Gu Fang have spent nearly $280 million buying up wildly extravagant homes, including Mark Wahlberg’s $55 million Beverly Park estate, Heather Dubrow’s $55 million Newport Coast mansion and billionaire Stephen Ross’s $40 million N.Y.C. penthouse. And earlier this year, Xu coughed up about $107 million USD for a hilltop mansion in Hong Kong, where he remains based.
Xu, 57, saw his net worth skyrocket during the Covid-19 pandemic, increasing from less than $2 billion in 2018 to a peak of nearly $20 billion in 2021 due to high global demand for ventilators. The Bloomberg Billionaire Index pegs his current wealth at $12.1 billion, and Forbes ranks him as the world’s fourth-wealthiest man in the healthcare industry.
