It seems that Jhené Aiko has caught a case of celebrity real estate fickle. Not even nine months ago, the alt-R&B/neo-soul chanteuse plunked down a tad more than $3.4 million for a freshly rehabbed contemporary home in L.A.’s increasingly popular and pricey Encino suburb that she’s lickety-split flipped back on the market at $3.65 million.
Originally built in 1966 and extensively updated prior to Aiko’s purchase with clean-lined modern finishes and smart home technologies, the not-quite 3,400-square-foot single-story spread is all but invisible from the street, nestled against the mountains on more than two-thirds of an acre at the end of a long, gated driveway.
Embellished with exterior wood cladding and capped with a metal roof, the four-bedroom and four-and-a-half-bath home offers light-filled open plan living spaces with sloped ceilings and pale wood floors. Jazzy amenities include a chef’s kitchen with a curved breakfast bar and a glass wine cave for the conspicuous storage of expensive vintages. The primary suite is complete with a super-sized walk-in closet, a linear fireplace set into black glass wall, and a spa-style bath lined in delicately veined white marble.
Walls of glass in the living, dining and kitchen areas peel open to a series of outdoor spaces designed for relaxing and entertaining: crystalline swimming pool and spa with plenty of room for sunbathing, a sunken fire pit lined with poured concrete benches, a built-in grill and bar, and a dramatic water feature. A series of decks wedged into the hillside behind the house provides a high perch with canyon and city lights views.
Though the house has been furnished to Aiko’s taste, listings held by “Love & Listings” star Tai Savet (Agents of LA), make use of the same photos from the time Aiko’s purchase.
The 33-year-old L.A. native, who still owns a house in Pacific Palisades that she picked up in late 2020 for $2.5 million, has been cutting a wide swath thru the music scene since the early 2000s, and her star just continues to rise. The first of her half-dozen Grammy nominations came in 2015, in the Best R&B Song category for “The Worst”; last year, her third studio album, “Chilombo,” tallied up a trio of nominations, including for the Album of the Year category; earlier this year she sang a stirring rendition of “America the Beautiful,” in her sweet breathy soprano, at this year’s Super Bowl.
Wherever Aiko is headed next, it’s bound to be bigger and better.
