Los Angeles home to hit the market for record $642 million

One of the biggest homes in United States history is rising on a Los Angeles hilltop and the developer hopes to sell it for a record $US500 million ($642 million).

Nile Niami, a film producer and speculative residential developer, is pouring concrete in the Bel Air neighbourhood for a compound with a 6900-square-metre main residence and three smaller homes, city records show.

The project, which will take at least 20 more months to complete, will exceed 9000 square metres, including a 464-square-metre main bedroom, a 30-car garage and a “Monaco-style” casino.

The home will also feature four pools, a nightclub and home cinema.

“The house will have almost every amenity available in the world,” he wrote in an email. “The asking price will be $US500 million.”

Estates with views of the Los Angeles basin draw a global cast of financiers, technology tycoons and celebrities who collect trophy homes like works of art.

Around the world, five properties sold for $US100 million or more last year, and at least 20 others have nine-figure asking prices, Christie’s International Real Estate reported last month.

The priciest home ever sold was a $US221 million London penthouse purchased in 2011, according to the Christie’s report.

The world’s most expensive properties currently on the market include a $US425 million estate in France’s Cote d’Azur, a $US400 million penthouse in Monaco and a $US365 million London manor.

Whether Niami can get more than double the previous record for his mansion remains to be seen.

“I’m sceptical,” Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel, said.

“My first reaction is laughter. But we’re in this perpetual state of surprise as new thresholds are broken.”

The current highest US asking price is $US195 million for Palazzo di Amore, a Beverly Hills, California, estate being offered by billionaire real estate entrepreneur Jeff Greene.

The record purchase was the $US147 million that Barry Rosenstein, managing partner at hedge fund Jana Partners, paid last year for an estate in East Hampton, New York.

Niami’s project, on a 1.6-hectare hilltop lot, will have 360-degree views of the Pacific Ocean, Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Plans called for removal of almost 430,600 cubic metres of earth, the equivalent of a football field covered by six metres of dirt.

“It’s a jaw-dropping property,” Billy Rose, president of Beverly Hills-based brokerage Agency, said.

Rose isn’t affiliated with Niami.

“What he’s looking to build will be the everything house on the premier site in LA.”

Bloomberg