Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s houses are fit for American royalty. And with the purchase of a minimalist mansion in Malibu from art collectors William Bell Jr. and Maria Bell in 2023, the power couple now officially owns the most expensive home in all of California history. The two music moguls, who share 56 Grammys between them, are reportedly worth a combined $3 billion. Beyoncé reportedly brought in $579 million through her Renaissance World Tour last year and will likely have another blockbuster summer with the release of her Act II: Cowboy Carter album. (Rumors of Jay-Z’s new album have lit up social media as well, but nothing concrete has been announced so far.)
The pair began building their joint real estate empire in 2008, when they were married. In the years since, they have owned and sold homes in New York City, Miami Beach, New Orleans, the Hamptons, and Los Angeles.
Below, we’ve rounded up some of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s houses, the incredible places that the dynamic duo have called home.
Tribeca penthouse, where they tied the knot
Even though Jay-Z’s 2009 hit “Empire State of Mind” referenced a “stash spot” at 560 State Street, an address in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood, the rapper’s first big real estate purchase was actually in Lower Manhattan. In 2004, several years before he and Beyoncé tied the knot, Jay-Z shelled out $6.85 million for an impressive Tribeca penthouse. The seventh-floor unit was situated in a converted 1929 brick warehouse building and measured 8,000 square feet, with an additional 3,000 square feet of outdoor terraces. The couple would later hold their private, 40-person wedding at the penthouse, reportedly with 70,000 Dendrobium orchids flown in from Thailand. It appears that Jay-Z still owns the unit.
Beyoncé’s Midtown Manhattan condo
Meanwhile, Beyoncé’s bachelorette pad for the first few years of their relationship was a $5 million condo in midtown Manhattan overlooking Central Park, which she purchased in 2005. The ultramodern spot featured floor-to-ceiling windows and 11-foot ceilings, with high-end interior finishes selected by Paris designer Jacques Grange. Beyoncé reportedly used the three-bedroom condo primarily as a spot for friends and family to stay while they were in town. The singer sold the 44th-floor corner unit for $9.95 million in 2017 after less than a month on the market. Her mother, Tina Knowles, also previously owned a residence in the same building but sold it in 2011.
Jay-Z’s Time Warner Center rental
Several years after purchasing his Tribeca penthouse, Jay-Z upgraded to the Time Warner Center in Midtown. The rapper’s new home was a 4,825-square-foot condo he rented for a reported $40,000 per month. The three-bedroom penthouse boasted floor-to-ceiling windows and a skyline view of the city, as well as unusual features like a fish tank that hung from the ceiling. It’s unclear for how long Jay-Z rented the residence, but it sold for a record-breaking $31 million in 2011.
Mansion on Miami’s Billionaire Bunker
Shortly after tying the knot at Jay-Z’s Tribeca penthouse, the newlyweds snapped up a property in Miami on the exclusive Indian Creek Island, where notable residents include Julio Iglesias, billionaire Carl Icahn, Adriana Lima, Tom Brady, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Their Mediterranean-style villa (one of only 35 homes on the island) was built in 1991 and boasted seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, plus its own private boat dock. The couple was believed to have paid a little over $9 million for the compound, but they didn’t hold onto it long, selling it for $9.3 million in 2010.
Hamptons rentals
The power couple next paid a casual $400,000 a month to rent a 31,000-square-foot New England–style mansion in Bridgehampton, New York, in 2012. The vacation home was outfitted with all the necessities of a perfect summer getaway. In addition to a two-lane bowling alley, the home also offered a rock climbing wall, a skateboard half-pipe, a full bar, a pool, a tennis court, and an outdoor kitchen.
The pair also famously rented a home in nearby Wainscott, located just off Georgica Pond, with friend and Roc-A-Fella Records CEO Damon Dash for two weekends that July. “I felt like a little kid in a big haunted house there,” Jay-Z told New York magazine at the time. The Italianate stucco house sat on 8.5 acres and featured an indoor-outdoor pool and a 120-seat screening room, which was used for an intimate yet star-studded premiere of End of Watch starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Celebrities like Madonna and Jennifer Lopez have also been known to rent the property.
Holmby Hills rental
The Carters then began their search for a home base in Los Angeles, but they had a surprisingly hard time locking one down. They were outbid on a number of properties (once by Minecraft creator Markus Persson), so they opted to rent first instead. In 2014, the superstars shelled out $150,000 a month for a newly built, contemporary Holmby Hills estate with floor-to-ceiling glass sliders, an infinity pool, a wine cellar, a 75-foot-long art gallery, and a home theater. When the property sold in 2015, the couple had to vacate the premises, meaning that their search for the perfect West Coast pad continued.
New Orleans church-turned-home
Elsewhere in America, rumors buzzed that Jay-Z and Beyoncé were the new owners of a historic home in New Orleans’ Garden District in 2015. It was later revealed that the pair had indeed picked up a former church turned ballet school turned residence through an LLC linked to the Renaissance singer. Though it’s unknown how much the couple paid for the unique 13,300-square-foot mansion, it was listed for $2.6 million at the time of their purchase. Built in the 1920s in the Spanish Baroque style, the towering three-story building, known as La Casa de Castille, was divided up into a main residence and three separate apartments, with seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms between the spaces. The place made headlines again in 2021 when a fire broke out at the property; several months later, TMZ reported that the couple was listing it for $3.5 million and then a more ambitious $4.45 million. The home didn’t appear to sell, and it was later pulled from the market.
La Villa Contenta
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One week after welcoming twins Rumi and Sir in June 2017, the elated parents (they also share 12-year-old daughter Blue) opted to temporarily move into an estate in Malibu to recoup and get to know the latest additions to their family. The pair rented the 6.3-acre compound known as La Villa Contenta for $400,000 a month. The extremely private, 12,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style residence had amenities like a movie theater, a gym, and a wine cellar, as well as numerous terraces overlooking the Pacific Ocean (though no direct beach access). The Malibu mansion was also where Beyoncé famously shared a first photo of the twins the day they turned one month old.
$88 million Bel Air mansion
Later that summer, the couple finally found their West Coast home base with the purchase of an ultramodern $88 million Bel Air mansion. The property was newly built at the time, and comprises six separate structures measuring a total of 30,000 square feet, with amenities like spa and wellness facilities, a media room, and a whopping four outdoor swimming pools. There are 8 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, a 15-car garage, and more than 10,000 square feet of outdoor living space. Also of note: All of the windows and pocketing glass walls are bulletproof for the utmost security.
Hamptons vacation home
The couple continued their landmark year in 2017 with the purchase of a seven-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom mansion in East Hampton the following month. The Pond House is a 12,000-square-foot behemoth designed by renowned architect Stanford White, situated just off Georgica Pond. The estate includes 203 feet of waterfront property and is adjacent to a massive 17-acre meadow preserve, ensuring that the Carters have the utmost privacy. Incredibly, the previous owner even rotated the house 90 degrees so that the living room now faces west toward the pond, meaning that the family of five gets views of both stunning sunrises in the east and picturesque sunsets in the west.
Record-setting Malibu megamansion
In 2023, Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid $200 million for a stunning Malibu home, setting a real estate record for the most expensive property in all of California’s history. The 40,000-square-foot abode is situated in the exclusive enclave of Paradise Cove on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean; the eight-acre bluff is aptly named Billionaires’ Row. (Their purchase beat out businessman Marc Andreessen’s previous real estate record of $177 million for the purchase of a Malibu home in 2021.) The Carters’ new home was designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, the same creative mind behind Kanye West’s minimalist Malibu mansion. It reportedly took the seller, renowned art collector Bill Bell and his wife Maria Bell, 15 years to complete construction on the property. Images reveal a stunning infinity pool that reflects the sky, large floor-to-ceiling windows, and of course, Ando’s trademark concrete angles and clean-lined exteriors. Celebrity realtor Kurt Rappaport of the Westside Estate Agency represented both the buyers and seller.
