Rumors have swirled for nearly a year that busy-as-a-beaver (and newly single) American actor Zac Efron would like to permanently relocate to Australia, where he’s spent much of the last year living in the popular, scenic and surf-centric town of Byron Bay. Now that he’s sold his longtime home in the celeb-saturated Los Feliz area of Los Angeles for $5.3 million, a good bit below the initial asking price of $5.9 million but still a nicely profitable amount over the not-quite $4 million he paid for the hillside home about 7.5 years ago, and dropped $2 million on a vast tract of unspoiled land Down Under, it looks like he just might.
The “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” star’s now former home in Los Angeles is privately squirreled away down a long, gated driveway on more than three-quarters of an acre of hillside property with staggering views that sweep over L.A., from the downtown skyline to the Pacific Ocean. Described in marketing materials as a “perfect celebrity haven” and a “stylish zen contemporary compound,” the estate comprises a flat-roofed two-story main house with four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms plus a separate one-bedroom and one-bath guesthouse.
Listing photographs show the home’s sparsely furnished open-plan living spaces feature glossy wood floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and numerous personal touches: A Bruce Lee painting dominates the foyer, a collection of skateboards hang over the stair well next to the dining room and a vintage pinball machine anchors one corner of the family room.
The Los Feliz property was listed with Kathrin Nicholson of The Agency, while the buyer was represented by John Fanelly at Del Rey Urban Brokerage.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Water pours over a golden ziggurat in the entrance gallery that’s separated from the dining area by a stairwell.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The fireplace hearth floats above the floor in the living room, and in the gourmet kitchen, which likely appealed to the buyer, co-founder and CEO of a cutting edge L.A.-based cookware company, the window over the sink extends all the way to the high ceiling and a couple of egg-shaped light fixtures hang over the center island.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com The “High School Musical” and “Baywatch” star’s main-floor bedroom, painted a trendy shade of charcoal, sports a fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows and a spacious bathroom wrapped in a decadent combinaton of slate tile and faux-crocodile wallpaper.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Three more en suite bedrooms, plus a huge games room and lounge that’s complete with a ping pong table, are located on the lower level.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Unsurprisingly outfitted for the muscle-toned actor as a fitness room, the one-bedroom and one-bath guesthouse is discreetly tucked under the estate’s graveled parking area and four-vehicle carport.
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Image Credit: Realtor.com Protected by a camera-equipped security system, every room in the sunlight-flooded house spills out to stone-paved terraces that run the length of the house on both levels. The largest section of the upper-level terrace cantilevers out over a circular spa that spills over into a swimming pool nestled in the treetops some eight or ten feet below.
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Image Credit: Ray White Late last year it was widely reported in Australia and across the world that the in-demand actor, whose numerous upcoming projects include a remake of the 1987 film “Three Men and a Baby,” had quietly acquired a huge piece of land near Byron Bay. More recent reports cite title records to confirm the 33-year-old actor paid $2 million for a by-all-accounts ungodly gorgeous 318-acre spread in the Glengarrie area of the Tweed Valley, about an hour’s drive north of Byron Bay and a half hour from Gold Coast.
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Image Credit: Ray White Initial reports suggested Efron and his live-in Aussie gal-pal Vanessa Valladares planned to build a romantic getaway, but they have since split. Some reports say he ended it because work commitments meant he was “about to become too busy for a girlfriend”, while other more salacious reports suggest he clipped her because he was not down with the idea of footing the bill for her to live alone in his rented house in Byron Bay while he’s away making “Firestarter” in Canada.
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Image Credit: Ray White Whatever the reason(s), it looks like Efron may end up building a semi-remote bachelor pad on the bush-land property that encompasses serene tree-framed views, rich volcanic soils, towering cliffs enveloped in foliage, several clear-water creeks and rock waterfalls, and a variety of trails for hiking and mountain biking through lush rainforest.
The property was available through Brad Franks of Ray White.
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Image Credit: Ray White