Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) seems anxious to be rid of his Malibu, California, mansion, a house that’s inarguably the most minimal of all minimalist properties. According to Realtor.com, the rapper, music producer, and fashion mogul has slashed the price of the behemoth beachfront abode, which was designed by Japanese starchitect Tadao Ando. The price tag for the pad has been cut from $53 million to $39 million—a discount of over 26 percent. West gutted the entire place, but never wrapped up renovations on the home, which is missing all of its doors, windows plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and interior finishes.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, West was already facing a loss when he officially listed the property (with celebrity agent Jason Oppenheim of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, no less) on January 8. In an off-market deal in 2021, the ex-husband of reality star Kim Kardashian paid Richard Sachs (Ashley Olsen’s ex) $57 million for the roughly 4,000-square-foot mansion.
“It will take several million dollars for the house to be finished,” Oppenheim told the Journal. Perhaps this generous drop in price will entice potential buyers who initially hesitated to take on the project of finishing the house.
Despite its designer pedigree (and the fact that Ando’s properties are in hot demand; last year, Jay-Z and Beyoncé bought a Malibu house he designed in a record-breaking $200 million deal), the Chicago-born father of four might have good reason to want to get rid of the home at any cost. The “Bound 2” rapper and the property are now entangled in the court system, as a former project manager opened a lawsuit against West in September citing the 16-hour days he says he was forced to work while overseeing renovations, as well as the open insulation he was allegedly made to sleep next to as the home’s caretaker. The contractor also claims he was fired after he declined, at West’s request, to replace the home’s electrical system with one he deemed unsafe. The musician has denied the claims.
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Built in 2013, the home is finished in Ando’s signature concrete and required 1,200 tons of the building material, 200 tons of steel, and 12 pylons anchored more than 60 feet deep to complete. The three-story concrete frame is complemented by 1,500 square feet of deck space and stairs that lead straight to the beach. Wide, straight-angled doorways and windows face the ocean where the home’s four bedrooms used to be. Oppenheim described the house as a blank canvas and said that the house’s architectural integrity and value are still there.
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West, who has long been a fixture of cultural controversy, experienced his biggest fall from grace last year following a series of antisemitic public remarks, prompting Adidas and Gap to end their partnerships with him. Forbes reported that the fallout cost the Yeezy designer $1.5 billion, dropping his net worth to $400 million. In February, West released the album Vultures 1 in collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign.