Minecraft creator asks $70 million for Beverly | Real Estate news

Markus Persson, the Swedish billionaire behind “Minecraft,” just listed his Beverly Hills mega-mansion for $70 million, one of the highest-priced properties listed in the county this 12 months.

In L.A.’s ailing luxurious market, it’s an bold price tag but also a revealing one, given that Persson paid the same price for the home in 2014. Back then, spec homes — houses constructed without a particular purchaser in thoughts — had been promoting like hotcakes.

But the market for such high-end properties has cooled. While the median L.A. home has more than doubled in worth over the last 12 years, Persson’s price tag represents a 0% increase.

If it sells for $70 million, it’ll be the priciest home sale in Beverly Hills this 12 months and the second-priciest in L.A. County behind Casa Encantada, a storied Bel-Air property that offered to former PayPal chief government Peter Thiel for $130 million at a foreclosures public sale in September.

Persson purchased the home from Bruce Makowsky, a developer identified for jam-packing properties with extravagant facilities; another of his listings got here with a $30-million fleet of unique autos including a Bugatti as properly as a sailboat and a helicopter used in the Nineteen Eighties motion collection “Airwolf.”

This property got here with a lot of bells and whistles as properly: a $200,000 sweet room, a 2,500-bottle wine cellar loaded with instances of Dom Perignon, and an artwork set up that includes a chrome machine gun.

Set on an acre overlooking L.A., the home spans 22,300 sq. toes with eight bedrooms, 15 loos, an elevator, a movie show and a swimming pool. Persson added a recording studio and non-public nightclub with a DJ sales space.

“What makes the ultra-luxury market so fascinating is that buyers at this level aren’t simply looking for a home,” itemizing agent Aaron Kirman said. “They’re looking for something that sets them apart and cannot easily be replicated.”

Kirman added that Persson is promoting the home because he no longer spends a lot time in L.A.

Persson reportedly beat out Jay-Z and Beyoncé when shopping for the property. The pair toured the home a number of occasions in 2014 before settling on an $88-million monolithic mansion in Bel-Air three years later.

Known as “Notch” in the gaming group, Persson based Mojang Studios in 2009, and the company launched “Minecraft” two years later. The sandbox-style sport has since grown into the bestselling video sport of all time. Three years later, he offered the company to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

Kirman and Katia De Los Reyes of Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California maintain the itemizing with Branden Williams and Rayni Williams of the Beverly Hills Estates.