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The sprawling double manse just steps from the ocean in Southampton, New York, is currently listed for $150 million, but is struggling to find a buyer.
Named La Dune because of the sand dune it sits behind, the beautiful estate is owned by controversial Canadian publisher and art magazine collector Louise Blouin, 63. If sold at its current asking price, it would become the most expensive home ever built in the United States. exclusive summer enclave.
However, this is not the first time La Dune has entered the market. The beautiful property was listed for $145 million earlier in 2016 and again in 2019 for $110 million. Neither time a new owner was found.
The palatial estate in Southampton called La Dune is currently listed for $150 million. If it sells for that number, or anything close to that, it will be the highest-ever sale in Tony’s summer enclave
The property, which includes two large homes, two swimming pools, a tennis court, and oceanfront beach access, is owned by controversial art collector and former magazine publisher Louise Blouin
The houses come with custom features including dark polished wood floors, white interiors, French doors, coffered ceilings and transom windows
Blouin famously took La Dune off the market in 2016 when her name was mentioned in the Panama Papers – a leaked series of documents that revealed the names of hundreds of the world’s richest individuals with offshore accounts.
Instead, she chose to rent her palatial home for $1 million a month that summer. This year, a one-month stay would have cost you $1.2 million.
Taxes on the property alone are estimated to be about $130,000 per year.
The property, which sits on just over four acres of land, houses two separate residences, both protected by enclosed lawns.
There are two swimming pools, a sunken all weather tennis court and security gates leading to a wide gravelled driveway.
The main residence is four floors and includes a gym, cinema and sauna.
Designed to resemble the other, the second house also includes dark polished wood floors and mostly white interiors, complete with detailed moldings, coffered ceilings and French doors.
The property has a 120 meter bulkhead to the beach. Between the two houses, La Dune has 22,000 square feet of interior. Combined, the couple comprises a total of 19 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms.
The main house was built in 1897 and the guest house was added in 2002.
Blouin told CNBC that she is selling (or at least trying to) her home in Hamptons because she and her children spend most of their time in Europe.
But there may be other financial considerations.
La Dune was slated to hit the foreclosure block last May before going to bankruptcy court, according to a report in Bloomberg.
One of the homes La Dune appears to have has been bundled into foreclosure proceedings over a $26 million unpaid mortgage that has risen to $40 million in recent years.
The other house is also in default.
La Dune sits on 4.2 acres and consists of 22,000 square feet of interior space between the two homes. Despite realtors saying the house is priced correctly, it has seen little interest from buyers in its six years on the market
Louise Blouin, a wealthy Canadian former art magazine publisher and current collector, hasn’t been able to move her double mansion for at least six years. She says her family now spends most of their time in Europe
Blouin was listed in the 2016 Panama Papers as a member of the global elite that relocated many millions of dollars to the British Virgin Islands. Back then she took La Dune off the market
Blouin says she wants to get rid of the palatial Hamptons estate because she and her children now spend most of their time in Europe, although foreclosure documents indicate that it has been struggling for years to keep up with the mortgage
Blouin reportedly signed the property’s bankruptcy filing just two days before the foreclosure auction was scheduled. Such a signature typically halts a lender’s efforts to collect unpaid debts.
The buyer’s market for a place like La Dune is extremely small, made up of billionaires and their kin.
Even in the Hamptons, a $100 million price tag will make the brows frown and the eyes pop.
Listing agent Shawn Elliott of Nest Seekers International says that despite its huge price tag, La Dune’s price is in line with its value.
“I believe this is 100% a very realistic price to attract buyers in this market.
“This house is the furthest from a demolition, but if it weren’t for the house, just this piece of land, each of them would be worth $50 million,” he said.
Emphasizing the eternal truth of real estate purchase; location, location, location,” Elliott said, “You really are on the 50-yard line of nothing but wealth.”
Nest Seekers is just the most recent high-end company to list La Dune. The estate was previously listed by Sotheby’s International Realty.
Currently, the record for the most expensive compound ever sold in Hamptons history was the 2014 sale of three contiguous 16-acre lots in East Hampton, worth $137 million.
In 2017, the former 42-acre Ford family estate on Jule Pond Drive was sold for $105 million — a steal compared to its original $175 million listing price.