A home built by a renowned architect is more than just square meters. Together with the "box", the owner can get an original concept, an interesting layout, thoughtful engineering and modern materials. But author houses have a significant disadvantage. When it comes to selling it, it turns out that it cannot be “sold” even at cost. Why this is happening, the American business publication Bloomberg figured out.
The famous bright red Y-shaped house, designed by Stephen Hall, was built in the Catskill Mountains (northern Apalachians) in 1999. Then the cost of the house was 270 m22 was estimated at $ 1.3 million. A little later, a boat hangar appeared next to the house, and abstract artist David Novros, whose works are on permanent display at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), painted it from the inside. The appearance of a "piece" garage added another $ 500,000 to the original cost of the complex.
The house is now up for sale for $ 1.6 million, which is 20% less than what was invested in it. The buyer has not yet been found. Raj Kumar, a broker at Select Sotheby’s International Realty, which sells the Y-shaped villa, says the price could have been even lower, around $ 400,000, if he had left the big name in brackets and only counted the number of square meters. “[A house, of course] is worth a lot more, but it has to be valuable in the eyes of the buyer [not just the seller],” says Kumar. The realtor emphasized that the owners of luxury houses, as a rule, do not try to make money on the sale of property, but simply want to reimburse their costs.
Three and a half years ago, fashion designer and director Tom Ford put up for sale his ranch, built in New Mexico by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The refined-looking "farm" has not yet been sold, and its price has dropped from $ 75 million to $ 48 million.
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zooming 1/4 Tom Ford Ranch © Guido Mocafico. Photo from fulltimeford.com. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 License
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zooming 2/4 Tom Ford Ranch © Guido Mocafico. Photo from fulltimeford.com. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 License
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zooming 3/4 Tom Ford Ranch © Guido Mocafico. Photo from fulltimeford.com. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 License
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zooming 4/4 Tom Ford Ranch © Guido Mocafico. Photo from fulltimeford.com. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 License
The house, designed by an American architect of Japanese origin, also widely known for his teaching activities, Toshiko Mori, entered the real estate market in 2017. During this time, a two-story building in the Hudson River Valley has lost half of its value; the owner originally requested $ 6 million for the property. His fate divided the mansion into seven bedrooms, designed by Annabelle Selldorf. Object in Colorado put up for sale in 2015 for $ 33 million; it still "hangs" on the site, but now they are asking for 4 million less for it. “An internationally renowned architect, a first-class building and many [other] stars contributing to the construction of the home are the fulfillment of a [personal] dream,” said Ty Stockton, agent for LIV Sotheby's International Realty; he sells the Selldorf house. Stockton is confident that for a successful transaction, the seller must understand that a potential buyer will not necessarily invest in the building the same meaning as its current owner.
In some cases, the cost of status objects falls almost tenfold compared to construction costs. This happened with a house built by Raphael Vignoli in Connecticut. In 1990, $ 25 million was spent on its construction. After the death of the owner, his heirs put up the house for $ 10 million, in 2012 they managed to sell it … for $ 2.7 million. The new owner, hoping for a quick profit, immediately tried to resell it for $ 25 million, but the plan did not work. The house is still looking for a buyer, but at a discounted price tag of $ 9.75 million.
Ty Stockton is sure that it is unrealistic to objectively evaluate the houses built by "star" architects - they are too unique, like "unicorns in the forest." To somehow argue the fairness of the price, Stockton analyzes what it consists of. When calculating, it takes into account the cost of land, the work of a first-class architect, contractors, a "star" construction team, as well as the cost of materials. After getting acquainted with the estimate, potential buyers understand that the price is not taken from the ceiling. In addition, Ty Stockton estimates how long it would take to build a comparable property from scratch, and often it is time that becomes the most important argument in price disputes. “Most people don't want to wait three years,” the realtor explains.
Frank Lloyd Wright's homes are a prime example of "poorly selling". Of the 380 dwellings built according to the projects of the great American, 280 have survived to us, and at any given time 15–20 of them are put up for sale on the real estate market. It takes about 18 months to sell one such property.
One of the reasons for the lack of demand for housing from F. L. Wright is called the remoteness of houses from civilization and out-of-date planning - they can have a small kitchen or low ceilings. In addition, houses that are several decades old require careful maintenance, repair and restoration; not every owner is ready to pay so much attention to caring for the building. “You buy a piece of art and you have to [take on the role of] a manager,” explains Ted White, real estate specialist at Dielmann Sotheby's International Realty. Experts are sure that in order to purchase a home according to Wright's project, one must not only have a large income, but be a real fan of his work, ready to invest in the preservation of architectural masterpieces.
Another realtor, Doug Milne of Houlihan Lawrence - who sold Tyranna's home for $ 4.8 million - recalls some of the buyers going through the building for several hours. “I didn't feel like I was in real estate, I was more [like] a tour guide,” admits Milne. In other words, our contemporaries value houses designed and realized by the greats more as "museum" specimens, but this does not mean that they are ready to invest heavily in them.
