Homes Of The Rich & Famous Celebs

A man’s home may be his castle, but some homes are more palatial than others, no? We look at the homes of the rich and famous.

Don’t bother paying for the much-touted “Celebrity Tour” of Los Angeles.

All you get is a bus ride to the homes of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, North Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Hills, and Bel-Air, where you try and peer in on the privileged lifestyle of the rich and famous from out in the streets.

I paid US$35 and was shown many securely guarded gates, with 12-ft walls able to withstand any battery ram from the press and the curious. We were not even allowed to stop and pose in front of the homes of Cher and Liz Taylor, even though the roads are really public property.

As for Bel-Air, it is a gated community, and all I saw was a signboard proclaiming this. It’s true what they say about the rich being different. Not only do they look better than those unable to nip, tuck and cut, they have different requirements. They need more space than the average household since they have to hang their Old Masters, display sculptures, show off antiques statues, and roll out Persian carpets.

Movie and record mogul David Geffen has 100 rooms in his Beverly Hills mansion. Paul Allen of Microsoft can dock his 416-ft super-yacht Octopus right in front of his waterfront property on Mercier Island, Washington. And we can be sure Warren Buffet, the billionaire investor has plenty of space in his home in Omaha, Nebraska, which is not known for scarcity of land to begin with.

Remarkably, for a man who pledged RM120bil to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Buffet lives in a mere 6,000 sq ft home.

Michael Dell, founder of the computer company, lives in a 33,000 sq ft pad near the Texas University dormitory where he started his fledgling company. This is equivalent to 33 normal condos. But Bill Gates’ monstrosity in Medina, Washington beggars belief – at a staggering 66,000 sq ft, it is one of the biggest private homes ever built. Its dining room alone is 1,000 sq ft, the size of a regular home.

Donald Trump’s Maison de L’Amitie estate, at a mere 62,000 sq ft, is smaller than Bill Gates’ home, but it has a 20,000 sq ft ballroom! This property is for sale at RM425mil, now that Trump prefers to live in his RM426mil palace in Palm Beach, Florida.