Hana Ranch on the island of Maui

Hana Ranch on the island of Maui, HI is on sale for $55 million


Image: Sotheby's Realty

4,500 acres

Hana Ranch is a working cattle ranch that stretches from the mountains to the beach.

It's located near the town of Hana, known as an isolated getaway for royalty and celebrities. Unfortunately, if you buy this ranch, you'll also need to build yourself a house.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/farmland-great-for-investors-2011-11#hana-ranch-on-the-island-of-maui-hi-is-on-sale-for-55-million-4#ixzz1e9Hp5hlh

Situated in the majestic tropical setting of eastern Maui, this working cattle ranch is comprised of approximately 4500 acres. Rising on a gentle slope from its oceanfront pastures to an elevation of 2200 feet, the Ranch adjoins Hamoa Beach, described by James Michener as "the most perfect crescent of beach in the Pacific". Hana Ranch, with nearly two miles of oceanfront property, is located in one of the last places in Hawaii untouched by the stresses of urbanization and over-development. Evocative of yesterday's Hawaii, Hana is famous for its scenic location and idyllic isolation, combined with a rural atmosphere and small town friendliness. It is internationally known for privacy and seclusion, serving as a hideaway for royalty and celebrities over many decades.

Inside Laxmi Mittal's Luxury Homes

(Top: Taj Mittal, the billionaire's abode; Left: No. 9 Palace Greens; Right: No. 6 Palace Greens)
Image Courtesy Daily Mail and Huffington Post

Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, recently announced his plans to build a �30 million (approx Rs. 220 crore) eco-friendly mansion in Surrey, on the outskirts of London. The modern home is touted to be so �green� that the entire 340-acre estate will be carbon negative, as reported by Hindustan Times.

It will cost Mittal - Europe�s richest man - millions to make the 10-bedroom mansion, with indoor/outdoor swimming pools, a basement art gallery and croquet lawn an environmentally sound home that will be heated by giant biomass fuel boilers and solar panels.

But this is not the only Mittal home that�s made news. His real estate portfolio consists of several note-worthy properties:

Scotland�s Most Expensive Home

In January, this year, we told you Mittal was building a luxury home in Scotland. Mittal has knocked down a �4 million property to build his new home, valued at around �15 million (approx Rs. 109 crore), making it Scotland�s most expensive home. The Mittal mansion is coming up in one of the most elite neighbourhoods, right near the Gleneagles golf course in Perthshire County. This luxury villa has six bedrooms and two kitchens. The wallpaper and furniture are from Ralph Lauren�s home collection. The wooden flooring and tiles have been flown in from Germany and a super luxe bathroom is estimated to be worth �80,000 (approx Rs. 58 lakh).

Billionaire Home

Mittal bought his first super luxury house on Billionaire�s Row, aka Kensington Palace Gardens, for �57million (approx Rs.400 crore) in 2004 from Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone. Known as the Taj Mittal, it is said to be the world�s most expensive private home today, with a valuation of �250 million. The mansion is made using marble imported from the quarry that supplied to the Taj Mahal. It has 12 bedrooms, a Turkish bath, a massive ballroom, a rare bejewelled swimming pool, an oak-panelled picture gallery, and parking for 20 cars.

Britain�s Most Expensive Home

In 2008, Mittal went and bought a lavishly furnished property, No 6 Palace Greens, which also had a significant art collection, for �117million (approx Rs. 800 crore), making it the most expensive property purchase in Britain at the time. This four-storey house has five bedroom suites and an extensive servants� quarter. It was built from red brick and Portland stone in the early 1900s, and measures 13,000 sqft � which he gifted to his son Aditya Mittal.


Property No 3 on Billionaire Row

Few months after buying Britain�s most expensive home, Mittal spent another �70 million (approx Rs. 500 crore) on No 9 Palace Greens, which was formerly the Filipino embassy, for his daughter Vanisha Mittal.


A Mansion in Delhi

In 2005, Mittal bought a colonial bungalow, No 22, Aurangzeb Road, for $7.5 million (approx Rs. 31 crore) in one of New Delhi�s most exclusive neighbourhoods, that is also home to other millionaires likes the Birlas, as well as embassies.

The billionaire also reportedly has homes in Indonesia and Trinidad, bringing the total count to eight

http://luxpresso.com/news-lifestyle/inside-laxmi-mittals-luxury-homes/3323

Modern Austin Home is Hip to be Square

As the host city for the music and film festival South by Southwest and the ever-popular music show Austin City Limits, the Texas capital is one of the top meccas for cultural hipness in the U.S.

When it comes to creative architectural design, Austin is no slouch in that department, either, as demonstrated by this one-of-a-kind modern house in the trendy SoCo (South of Congress) neighborhood listed on the Austin real estate market for $875,000.

Designed by Austin team Spaller Glover Design Build in 2011, this home was created to be a piece of art.

�The company has a reputation for hip, cool and groovy,� explained listing agent Kenny Hilbig. �They�ve done other projects in the area that are phenomenal.�

The square-shaped home features an all-white masonry exterior punctuated by custom-built, round windows. The effect of the round windows in the box-like dwelling only serves to emphasize the geometric dimensions of the building, juxtaposing not only the square shape of the house, but the rectangular shape of the exterior tiles.

Not only are circular windows difficult to build, but they�re expensive and hard to weatherize, said Hilberg. �But they managed to do all those things and build a really quality product.�

An enormous glass door opens into the front of the home where the chevron-patterned white oak flooring leads to a great room where a sitting area features a removable platform.

A top-of-the-line kitchen has Carerra marble countertops and backsplash as well as high-end appliances.

The master bath is lined with onyx tile and focused around a custom circular glass-tiled soaking tub with a shower head above. Hilberg says that there is room for a shower curtain for those nervous about the concept.

First listed in September, the home has had a recent slash in price � from $929,000 to $875,000 � a 5.8 percent reduction.

With a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-loan, this modern home could be yours for a $4,898 monthly payment, according to data from Zillow�s Mortgage Marketplace

Billy Joel�s West Village Townhouse

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JULY 6, 2010

One of the first celebrity houses I featured when I started this blog was Billy Joel�s beach house in the Hamptons. He was a newlywed at the time, having just married 23-year old Katie Lee, and insisted in interviews that he would have fallen for her even if she were 30 years older than he was. (Really? Because it�s hard to imagine he�d find her as attractive as an 85-year old�)

But I digress. Here�s a photo of the great room in their beach house that I showed you then:

He and Katie had just gone on Oprah to discuss their marriage and his trip to rehab (April 2008). On that show, Katie gave us a tour of their fab West Village townhouse in New York, decorated by Nate Berkus.

Now that the couple has split, the townhouse is on the market for $12.9 million.

Katie showed off her favorite meatloaf recipe for Oprah viewers in the dining room:

Here�s how the dining room looks in the listing today:

Because cooking is Katie�s thing (she wrote a cookbook and hosted the first season of �Top Chef� on Bravo), there is a �chef�s kitchen� that includes a 6-burner Wolf stove:

(Is that a cat sleeping in the corner?)

You can watch the video tour on Oprah.com. For more information, check out the listing. More photos and info on the rumors that LeBron James might be buying it on Huffington Post.

To see my original post about Billy Joel�s beach house in the Hamptons, click here.

Designer Betsey Johnson�s Pink Penthouse

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JUNE 19, 2008

Fashion designer Betsey Johnson is one of a kind, and so is her NYC penthouse. For one thing, it�s pink. Very, very pink. According to the MLS, it has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and is on the market for about $2.5 million:

This stylish Gold Coast penthouse duplex loft is the New York residence of a famed fashion designer whose underlying respect for classics always has an irreverent edge and sense of fun� A lavishly presented confection of fifties Hollywood glamour trimmed in lace, velvet, and gold tassels, beneath the signature pink paint and fabulously frou-frou furnishings is a home with unique character and great bones.

As I was searching for more information about Betsey Johnson for this post, I discovered that she owns a villa in a Mexican fishing village, too, that is now available to rent. She decorated the villa in her inimitable style and dubbed it �Betseyville.�

What do you think? Want to buy Betsey�s penthouse? Rent Betseyville? (Click here for rates and information.)

Tori Spelling & Dean McDermott�s New House in Encino

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JULY 14, 2009

Maybe I shouldn�t admit this, but I actually enjoy the reality show that Tori Spelling does with her husband Dean and cutie-pie kids Stella and Liam. This season onTori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood (Oxygen network), they put the house we watched them remodel last season on the market, and they moved into bigger, fancier digs in Encino, California.

I posted photos of their former home here, so I thought you might like to see where they�re living now. Here are the real estate photos of the house from before they bought it:

The house has four fireplaces. Here�s a photo of the living room after they moved in (via the LA Times):

A larger photo of the white kitchen:

The Family Room:

10/10 UPDATE: See how Tori gave this dark family room a makeover here.

The �Tuscan-style villa� has 6,700 square feet with 6 bedrooms and 6.5 baths. That sounds big to me, but I suppose if you grew up in The Spelling Manor, it might actually feel cozy. I have to say I kind of preferred the smaller one (you can see those photos here). But I�m sure they�ll personalize this one more in time.

Which of Tori�s houses do you prefer�the old or the new?