Billionaire Byron Allen Makes History With Most Expensive Home Purchase By An African-American in the U.S.

By Evan Nicole Brown

The media mogul has purchased a home in Malibu’s Paradise Cove for $100 million, the neighborhood’s most expensive real estate transaction this year.

Malibu’s Paradise Cove neighborhood is getting a new resident: billionaire media mogul Byron Allen.

The Los Angeles-based Allen Media Group / Entertainment Studios chairman and CEO, whose company is valued at more than $4.5 billion and is the largest privately held media company in the United States, reportedly paid $100 million — the most ever for an African-American buyer in the U.S. The 10,698 square foot home sits on 3.6 acres above the beach and boasts eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.

Allen will now call WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, who owns a nearby $190 million compound on the bluff, a neighbor. Allen’s new property has been on the market since May and was initially listed for $127.5 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The sale of this home, which was formerly owned by Public Storage heiress and billionaire Tammy Hughes Gustavson, officially clocks in as the third most expensive sale in California’s real estate market this year and the most expensive of 2022 in Malibu specifically. The Mediterranean-style property has a movie theater, tennis court and two guesthouses, one of which doubles as a gym and yoga studio. Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Realty held the listing and Terence Hill of BT Equities repped the buyer, as reported by Dirt.