Malibu Tuscan mega villa: Take a look inside

A Tuscan-style mega-villa atop Malibu has just been put on the market with a price tag of $44.5 million.

Known as Malibu Rocky Oaks, the residence sits on 37 acres at an elevation of 2,000 feet in the Santa Monica Mountains. At that altitude, in certain weather conditions, the house often sits above the clouds.

“If you have a God complex, this is the house for you,” listing agent Shawn Elliott of Nest Seekers International told CNBC on a recent tour of the property.

The property also includes a 10-hectare vineyard with more than 10,000 grape vines growing on the property’s sun-soaked hillside.

“To me, it’s like the eighth wonder of the world,” Elliott said.

But Elliott, the latest in a long list of brokers to try to sell the property, admits it’s not easy to price it. In fact, before Elliott came on board, public records show the home had been on and off the market for a wide range of prices for about 14 years. In 2009, it was first sold for $65 million, the home’s all-time high. By 2013, the asking price had dropped to $36 million, the lowest list price ever.

The re-listed listing came back on the market last August with an asking price of $49.5 million. But it was taken off the market again after just five months with no takers. It’s making its debut again this week, almost exactly a year later, with a new price tag and a broker looking to finally get the number and close the deal.

“We’re doing a $5 million price cut because I really think that’s going to be the number that’s going to attract buyers,” Elliott said.

At 9,000 square feet, the home’s new asking price puts the price per square foot just under $5,000, or about three and a half times the average price per square foot in Malibu’s second quarter, which is just under $1,500, but still good. According to the Elliman Report, the median price for waterfront properties in the city is about $7,500 per square foot.

With 9,000 square feet of living space and its own vineyard that currently produces 15,000 bottles of wine a year, real estate listings for the high-elevation 37-acre property are hard to come by, Elliott said.

“It brings in about $300,000 a year,” Elliott told CNBC.

Its size alone is extremely high in Malibu, where the average home sold in the second quarter was just 3,200 square feet and the average sales price was more than $4.4 million, down nearly 2% from last year.

Even more expensive waterfront properties that have sold recently pale in comparison, with an average size of just over 3,000 square feet and a median price of $10.5 million — up 13.9% from last year, according to the Elliman Report.

Public records show the property was purchased in 2005 by entrepreneur and real estate investor Howard Leight for $3.5 million. Construction was completed in 2009 on a massive Tuscan mansion designed by architect Bob Easton. Leith made his fortune in the hearing protection industry and sold his eponymous company for $125 million.

The more recent history of the French limestone-clad villa has been featured in reality television and movies. The Kardashians visited in 2014 for an episode of their show on E!, the reality show “The Bachelorette” was filmed there in 2013, and the prime real estate was featured in “The Hangover Part III” the same year. .”

Today, Leight’s son, Howard Leight Jr., is the face of the villa-vineyard combo and its Instagram account. The facility is currently rented out for nights and events. Elliott told CNBC that in high season, the price is $15,000 a night, or $105,000 a week, but the property is also for sale on Airbnb, where prices can drop below $2,500 a night depending on the dates.

Here’s a look around the Malibu Rocky Oaks Estate.

The dining room opens to open stone terraces on two sides, and arches in the stone wall lead to the great room.

The main suite includes vaulted ceilings and two balconies, plus a covered terrace.

The master suite’s third interior balcony overlooks the great room with 35-foot ceilings and walnut paneling.

The villa consists of three levels with five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

The commercial grade kitchen includes stainless steel appliances, stone countertops and hardwood floors with a bay window that opens to the dining room.

Vineyards can be seen on the hillside just below the infinity pool. The most popular varieties of the vineyard’s 10 grapes are cabernet, merlot, syrah and chardonnay.