SELLER: Britney Spears
LOCATION: Thousand Oaks, CA
PRICE: $8.995 million
SIZE: 8,456 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: A little birdie we’ll call Ben d’Ear chirped in our eager ear over the weekend that Britney Spears hoisted her former mansion in the affluent community of Thousand Oaks, CA, up for sale at $8.995 million. Miz Spears, despite a chaotic and very public meltdown in 2007, is still one of the world’s most successful pop stars, who has sold more than 100 albums worldwide and recently signed a lucrative, two-year extension to her headliner residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. She purchased the property in November 2012 for $6,744,500. Online marketing materials we perused show the contemporary-minded single-story Spanish hacienda-style mansion, built in 2010 on two mostly flat parcels that span just over 1.4 acres inside the guarded gates of the prestigious Sherwood Country Club right next door to a huge compound professional tennis icon Pete Sampras custom built and subsequently sold in October 2013 for $13.56 million, sprawls across 8,456 square feet with a total of five bedrooms and seven bathrooms divided for optimal privacy between master, children and guest wings.
A groin-vaulted and French door-lined gallery links a ballroom-sized foyer with polished limestone floors and a double-height ceiling to the formal living room that features ashy brown oak floors, exposed beam ceiling, Art Deco-inspired black marble fireplace, and a sleekly curved wet bar in front of a glass-fronted walk-in wine cellar. The adjoining family room, with fireplace and dining area, flows directly into the massive kitchen that’s complete with every culinary bell and whistle that money can buy and incorporates two work islands, impressively thick slab marble countertops on white cabinetry, and an over-sized pantry. A games/media room just off the family room has tiered seating, and there are two separate offices, one with hardwood flooring and chocolate-brown cabinetry and the other fully carpeted with white built-ins. The celebrity-sized master suite encompasses an entrance vestibule, bedroom with limestone-faced fireplace, French doors to a private courtyard, a spacious pair of custom-fitted dressing rooms, and two bathrooms that appear to share a steam-equipped shower space that, to be honest, looks significantly larger than this property gossip’s entire bathroom.
The house opens on its backside to a massive, meandering loggia that incorporates a lounge area with fireplace, dining terrace, and a built-in grilling station set into a circular bar. The property’s elevated perch provides 180-degree views of the Santa Monica Mountains, and the landscaped grounds offer a roomy motor court and garaging for at least five cars, raised bed garden for herbs and vegetables, broad expanses of expensively watered lawns, gigantic swimming pool with party-sized spa, and sunken patio with fire pit ringed by built-in banquette seating.
It’s not too much of a surprise Miz Spears would opt to sell her Sherwood Country Club spread since last October (2015) she shelled out $7.4 million to acquire what amounts to a private, 20-ish-acre resort in another Thousand Oaks gated enclave only four miles away. That property, as was widely reported in all the property gossip columns, includes a 13,000-ish-square-foot Italianate mansion with five bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms, swimming pool and extensive pool house, lighted tennis court, extensive gardens, and a three-green golf course complete with sand traps.
Listing photos: Beach City Brokers
