Johannesburg - Solid marble balustrades from Turkey; marble and bronze statues from Argentina; chandeliers from France, Italy and Germany; and its own private nightclub, spa, library and gymnasium.
That’s why the Gatsby, a 2 000m² home tucked in Houghton Ridge, costs a jaw-dropping R110 million.
The mansion was built in honour of the extravagant mansion that Scott Fitzgerald’s character Jay Gatsby built to impress his Daisy.
It features four levels, with stretches of glass to optimise the Joburg views. The home features eight en-suite bedrooms, a heated indoor pool, outdoor training pool, a number of reception rooms, as well as rare art and design pieces from around the world.
For sale exclusively through the luxury portfolio division of Chas Everitt International, Gatsby is being “presented to the market fully furnished with hand-picked antiques and modern pieces that evoke the Edwardian era".
The development took more than six years to complete under the personal supervision of Pellerade Design Group's Stephen Pellerade, who travelled the world to source specialised materials and finishes, the group said.
“The entrance façade is a perfect example of the fusion that informed the overall design: oversized oak doors from Argentina floating within a sea of frameless glass and flanked by classical pillars,” he said.
The brief was to create an ultra-luxury home on a par with international standards, combining classical shapes and features with contemporary finishes and the latest smart home automation and eco-friendly technologies. “This is a really unique property. A super-home created to please the most discerning of global real estate investors.”
Both the architecture and the décor of Gatsby hark back to that period of overt prosperity and enormous industrial progress just before WWI.
“As it happens, it was also when the brash and dusty mining camp of Joburg began to take shape as a real city – and its own affluent class, the fantastically wealthy Randlords, began to compete with one another to build the biggest and most splendid trophy homes in fashionable neighbourhoods such as Parktown, Westcliff and Houghton.”
Rory O’Hagan, luxury portfolio chief executive of Chas Everitt, says Joburg’s heritage suburbs are “enjoying a strong renaissance among both local and foreign high-end buyers”.
There is a particularly high demand for luxury new builds as well as fully-renovated or restored trophy homes, he said.
“Gatsby is in a class of its own, however, and we expect it to attract individuals who make up the very top echelon of property movers and shakers in SA and the world.”