• e-mail

Global luxury home sales cooled off in 2016 for the second consecutive year but at the top end of the scale there was a record number of homes selling for more than $100 million.

A report released Wednesday by Christie's International Real Estate shows that sales of homes priced at $1 million or more edged up about one per cent worldwide last year.

That represents a sharp slowdown from 2015, when luxury home sales climbed 8 per cent, and from 2014, when sales vaulted 16 per cent.

Yet at the top end of things, a number of American properties were selling at a scale not witnessed before with a ranch in Texas selling for $724 million and an estate in the Hamptons on Long Island for a cool $110 million.

Even Los Angeles managed to notch up it's first-ever $100m plus sale with the infamous Playboy Mansion selling for $105 million dollars - one hundred times the price Hugh Heffner paid for it in the 1970s. 

The Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, pictured, was among the priciest homes to sell in 2016 as a record number of homes sold for more than $100 million

The home was originally purchased in 1971 by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner for $1.05m. It sold for hunrded times that

Hong Kong is home to some of the priciest real estate in the world with China and the UK not far behind. The table is from Christies Global Luxury Real Estate Market Report 2017

In Texas, Beal Bank founder Andrew Beal shelled out $100million (£82million) for a 28,000-square foot mansion in Dallas.

The Crespi Hicks Estate, which sits on 25 acres, has seven bedrooms and numerous bathrooms as well as 14-foot-high ceilings.

It was once owned by Tom Hicks, the prominent Dallas businessman.

In Los Angeles, Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores paid $100million for a 30,000-square-foot property in exclusive Holmby Hills.

The house at 301 North Carolwood Drive was once home to the estate of Barbra Streisand, according to Curbed Los Angeles.

The home, which is across the street from Frank Sinatra's former pad, consists of 10 bedrooms and 20 full baths spanning 38,000 square feet.

The property comes equipped with an entertainment pad. It boasts of a lounge, theater complex, wine room, and separate valet entrance.

As if that weren’t enough, it has a 5,300-square-foot master suite with a private covered patio.

There’s even a fireside lounge, a lap pool, a number of sports courts, and a hiking trail.

Hugh Hefner originally asked for $200million for his prized Playboy Mansion, but he had to settle for a measly $100million.

The buyer, Daren Metropoulous, 33, is the co-owner of Twinkies maker Hostess.

Metropoulous bought it with the intention of merging its 5 acres with his own home, thus restoring it to the original 7.3-acre property as envisioned by the developer in the 1920s.

The Playboy Mansion, which Hefner has called home since 1971, has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a wine cellar, home theater, gym, tennis court, and swimming pool. 

The properties at 93, 101 and 97 Lily Pond Lane include a 4,500-square-foot home, built in 1914 in the traditional Hamptons shingled style sold for $110,000,000

Despite the sluggish sales growth, Christie's says luxury home prices continued to rise last year, increasing about 2 per cent from a year earlier. And for the first time, 11 homes sold for more than $100 million each. 

The priciest sale, a mansion located in The Peak neighborhood in Hong Kong, fetched more than $270 million.

The Playboy Mansion was also among the priciest homes to sell last year, bringing in $105 million. The home, which is located on a 5-acre estate in Los Angeles where countless celebrity-laden parties have raged, was originally bought in 1971 by Hugh Hefner for $1.05 million.

'The surprise in 2016 is the number of $100 million-plus homes sold,' said Dan Conn, Christie's chief executive. 'You saw the $100-million mark be crossed for the first time in China, which you would not have predicted, certainly before 1978.'

The luxury brokerage based its report on an analysis of sales data and other factors for homes that sold for $1 million or more in 101 markets worldwide.

Private luxury home sales were not included in the analysis.

Twenty-four of the markets in the report posted a sharp drop in sales last year, while another 19 posted solid gains. Sales were essentially flat in the rest.

Even as the global economy strengthened and stock markets climbed to new highs, sales were likely held back as wealthy buyers and sellers opted to take wait-and-see approach to the geopolitical uncertainty that shaped much of 2016, including Britain's vote to leave the European Union, new restrictions on Chinese capital outflows, the U.S. presidential election and Russian sanctions.

'If you look at some of the markets where there was uncertainty, it had an impact,' Conn said. 'People could afford to wait in the U.K. because there was uncertainty and prices have softened over the last couple of years.'

A luxury residential home in the exclusive Peak district of Hong Kong (seen above) sold for $270million (£221million) in 2016

Luxury home sales sank 67 per cent in the U.K. from a year earlier, while sales slipped 4 per cent in the U.S. and slid 29 per cent in markets in the Asia-Pacific region. In contrast, sales climbed 20 per cent in Europe and 44 per cent in Canada.

Another sign that luxury home sales cooled last year: Homes took longer to sell than in 2015. Luxury homes spent an average of 220 days on the market before they sold, Christie's said. That's up 13 percent from 195 days in 2015.

Growth in new luxury condos and other high-end properties took out some of the urgency among buyers in markets like Miami.

Too much inventory and sluggish sales wasn't a problem in Hong Kong, which topped Christie's index of top luxury property markets with sales that included four homes that sold for more than $100 million each. The city now has the most homes for sale at $20 million or higher.

London, which had always held the top spot, slipped to second, followed by New York, Los Angeles and Singapore.

Taohuayuan in China, a luxury home in Suzhou, which has 32 bedrooms and bathrooms and sold for $154million

Sales prices rose in more than half of the markets in Christie's report. Toronto posted the biggest gain, 20 per cent. Prices were flat in 26 per cent of the markets. Another 21 per cent of the markets posted declines in prices.

Toronto led a separate gauge of the hottest luxury markets, or those where the pace of sales was strongest, reflecting heightened demand. Its luxury home sales were nearly double what they were in 2015.

Low inventory and price increases spurred urgency among buyers. Luxury homes in Toronto took an average of 17 days to sell last year, down from 28 days the year before. That was the fastest sales pace of any market.

Rounding out the top five hottest luxury markets are Victoria, British Columbia; San Francisco; Austin, Texas; and, Charleston, South Carolina.

In Texas, Beal Bank founder Andrew Beal shelled out $100million for a 28,000-square foot mansion (above) in Dallas

The Crespi Hicks Estate, which sits on 25 acres, has seven bedrooms and numerous bathrooms as well as 14-foot-high ceilings

The Crespi Hicks estate was once owned by Tom Hicks, the prominent Dallas businessman and former owner of local sports teams like the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars as well as English Premier League side Liverpool FC

Going by the price per square foot, Monaco was the most expensive market in 2016, with luxury homes there fetching an average of $5,420 per square foot, Christie's said. 

That was followed by Hong Kong, London, Cote d'Azur and New York, with a price per square foot of $2,000.

Fewer buyers used cash to buy luxury homes last year, reversing a trend in recent years, Christie's said.

Some 36 per cent of luxury properties were bought with cash last year, down from 44 per cent in 2015. Low interest rates, rising prices have made traditional financing more attractive for buyers.

For now, it appears that 2016's slowdown in luxury home sales is not carrying over into this year.

Two homes in Hong Kong's The Peak neighborhood have already sold this year, one for $360 million and another for $139 million. And in Manhattan, the number of contracts signed for properties above $5 million were up sharply in the first two months of the year.

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores paid $100million  for Mon Reve, a 30,000-square-foot property in exclusive Holmby Hills

The house at 301 North Carolwood Drive (above) was once home to the estate of singer Barbra Streisand 

The home, which is across the street from Frank Sinatra's former pad, consists of 10 bedrooms and 20 full baths spanning 38,000 square feet.

The property comes equipped with an entertainment pad. It boasts of a lounge, theater complex, wine room, and separate valet entrance 

As if that weren’t enough, it has a 5,300-square-foot master suite with a private covered patio