The Beckhams’ Renovation Plans Piss Off Their Neighbors, and Other Celebrity Real Estate News
In our biweekly breakdown of what’s happening with famous people’s homes: Djimon Hounsou lists his property as a rental, and Dr. Dre can’t find a buyer for his "Billionaire’s Beach" home.
Viewers have fallen in love with David and Victoria Beckham after watching the couple’s new four-part Netflix series Beckham, but a few people don’t share that warmth: their neighbors. Those who live around the footballer and former Spice Girl’s country retreat in England’s Oxfordshire county (featured in that same series) are upset with some upgrades they plan to make to their property. Elsewhere, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Mauricio Umansky is helping rent out another RHOBH star’s estate, and Dr. Dre is having a hard time selling his $20 million home. Let’s unpack and get settled into this edition of celebrity real estate news.
If you wanna be my neighbor, you gotta get with my plans. Yes, it seems David and Victoria Beckham are on the receiving end of some bad neighborly vibes after successfully securing permission to turn a barn on their sprawling Cotswolds property into three home offices. They’ve also been cleared to build a new road leading into their property, and to build a greenhouse. The couple has three years to complete the plans—plans that have reportedly prompted angry letters from neighbors to local officials. One such letter, obtained by the Daily Mail, claims that greenhouses can be built in a few months, and asks why plans for the famous duo’s greenhouse span two years. Another writes, "I am always amazed at those who come to live in the countryside and then want to bring in suburbia, they are not content to live in a natural country environment." Even if the Beckhams aren’t phased by the negative energy, I’d still recommend burning some sage around the new construction. Maybe they can grow it in the greenhouse.
Speaking of negative energy—do you think that’s why Dr. Dre hasn’t been able to sell his Malibu home? The 8,850-square-foot property complete with a recording studio and home gym sits on the exclusive Carbon Beach (known as "Billionaire’s Beach," for reasons I assume you can guess) and has been languishing on the market, with a $20 million price tag, for almost a year. California realtor Jamie Camp told Realtor that she thinks the home hasn’t sold because of its location, which is on the Pacific Coast Highway. "Most Malibu buyers with $20 million purchase power are looking for privacy and to be off the main highway," Camp said. She also noted that the home was built in 1993 and could use some upgrades. Personally, I don’t have $20 million, but I’d be willing to take it off his hands for $20,000. Let me know!
If Dr. Dre can’t sell his property, maybe he can get Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Mauricio Umansky to help him rent it. Umansky, estranged Househusband and current Dancing With the Stars participant, is helping Teddi Mellencamp, former RHOBH castmember and current friend of Umansky’s estranged wife, Kyle Richards (got that?), to rent out her Hollywood Hills home. Umansky’s real estate firm (and subject of the Netflix show Buying Beverly Hills) The Agency holds the listing. Mellencamp attempted to sell the five-bedroom modern farmhouse property with The Agency in 2020, but was unsuccessful. She can now be your landlord for the price of $35,000 per month. Pretty steep, but your grand-landlord would be Teddi’s dad, musician John Mellencamp. So.
Elsewhere in the ever-growing celebrity-as-landlord space is actor Djimon Hounsou, who is looking for a renter for his 4,000-square-foot Los Angeles property. Hounsou purchased the four-bedroom home in 2020 for $2.1 million, and is now trying rent it for $11,750 a month. The house has cathedral ceilings, tons of sunlight, and glass bricks in the bathroom for some reason; plus it comes with the ability to say "Djimon Hounsou is my landlord." A bargain!
If you’d rather your real estate claim to fame be that a celebrity flipped your home, maybe you’d be interested in the current goings-on of frequent house flippers Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. In June, the couple purchased a 1919 Tuscan-style estate in Montecito, California, for $22.5 million; they’ve since restored it to its former glory in the image of a Pompeiian villa. (That’s their Roman Empire, I guess.) That means grand columns, intricate moldings, and arched doorways—plus a central courtyard featuring a fountain and a fireplace. For their work, they’re asking for $46.5 million.
Those of us with less in the bank might be interested in this other historic real estate opportunity: owning a $7 share of baseball legend Mickey Mantle’s boyhood home. Rally, a company that offers equity shares in collectible assets, opened the sale for shares of Mantle’s Commerce, Oklahoma, home last week. (The $7 price tag is a nod to Mantle’s number during his career with the Yankees.) I don’t know your dad, but my guess is that this is probably something he’d like for Christmas.
And finally, in less festive sports real estate news, former Atlanta Falcons player Kroy Biermann and his estranged wife (former Real Housewives of Atlanta star) Kim Zolciak have been ordered by a Georgia judge to give each other space in their shared Alpharetta, Georgia, mansion. The former couple listed the sprawling property for sale but have been living there together amid their rather tumultuous divorce. They are now under court order to "behave civilly" toward each other, and, basically, to not enter each other’s space without permission. According to Page Six, Biermann received "exclusive possession and use" of the house’s primary bedroom; the gossip outlet doesn’t list which bedroom Zolciak was awarded, but the common areas are available for the two to share.
Top photos courtesy (clockwise from top left): Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for RH; Loredana Sangiuliano/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Samir Hussein/WireImage
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