Canadian singer-songwriter’s beach home was put on the market this week for $24 million, one of many high-end properties flushed onto the market by rising prices as Hawaii evolves into a west-coast Hamptons.
Homeowners in Hawaii are seeking to capitalize on demand from wealthy California technology executives by listing opulent estates, leading to a record number of $20 million-plus homes for sale.
The latest offering is a Waialea Bay property with a five-bedroom beach house, two guest cottages and 830 feet (250 metres) of ocean frontage on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island, listed this week for $24.5 million (all figures are U.S. dollars). It’s being sold by singer-songwriter Neil Young, who’s owned the estate since 1997, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The property is Hawaii’s 23rd on the market for at least $20 million, the most ever at one time, said Matt Beall, co- owner of Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers.
“It’s certainly a higher number of very high-end sales in recent times than at any other time in Hawaii,” he said in a telephone interview while heading to a flight to meet with clients in San Francisco. Beall, whose firm is handling the Waialea Bay listing, declined to identify the estate’s owner.
Just as the Hamptons have long been a retreat for Wall Street executives, Hawaii is becoming a favored playground of Northern California’s wealthy digerati, though they have to get on a plane rather than drive a couple of hours. Property prices in the Aloha State have soared past the heights of the last housing boom as buyers seek island getaways.
Young, whose songs include “Southern Man” and “Heart of Gold,” described the state’s Big Island as having “magical healing” in his 2012 book, “Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream.”
“Living in Hawaii, with the horizon of the ocean meeting the sky, is soothing,” he wrote. “I love this life.”
Neil Young, other Hawaii house-rich look to cash out
