Homes for super-rich hit silly season

When the New York Post reported a week ago that a 40-acre ocean-front estate in the Hamptons, complete with main house, three outhouses and a private beach, had sold for US$90m, the property world did not reel in horror. At least one broker opined that the buyer, the owner of the Swedish private equity firm Proventus, had got a bargain.

It now appears that the deal on the East Hampton house, currently owned by Schlumberger oil heiress Adelaide de Menil Carpenter, might not be quite as complete as the Post reported. (Most likely, the parties have entered the "escrow" period in which either still has the option to back out.)

But if the sale does go through, it will smash by a heady US$20m the record for the most expensive private property purchase in the US. That benchmark was set last October when Ron Perelman, the supremo of cosmetics giant Revlon, sold his estate in Palm Beach, Florida, to a Virginia property speculator.

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