Overlooking the white sands of Gibbs Beach, the Four Winds Estate in St Peter, Barbados, is the type of grandiose villa where you might imagine the island nation’s most famous export would reside.
But this 17,000-square-foot mansion is not the former home of Rihanna.
Instead the sellers are a British couple who have been holidaying on the island for decades and are moving to a smaller house close by in the island.
With six-bedrooms – each with a balcony and a view over the Caribbean Sea – as well as a large blue pool, a tennis court and an octagonal gazebo overlooking the tropical beach, it’s a luxury villa with a luxury price to match.
The two-and-a-half acre Barbados estate has been listed for US$55 million, the highest-ever asking price on the open market for a property the Caribbean island, according to the broker Savills, the joint selling agent.
With a grand double staircase, one could imagine swishing elegantly down to attend an evening soirée, and a long formal snooker room complete with double doors leading out onto a veranda, the villa is full of touches reminiscent of the island’s British colonial heritage.
Outside, the estate includes 350 feet of beachfront as well as a plethora of lush outdoor spaces that the selling agents say have been carefully maintained by the owners. Certainly the classically styled property, designed by Larry Warren architects, seems deserving of its high value.
If it sells at the asking price, the property agents Savills and its associate, Altman Real Estate, say that it will beat a record set last year by another home about a mile away that went for just under $50m.
“This is a rare opportunity to purchase one of the west coast’s signature homes,” says Paul Altman, the managing director of Altman Real Estate. “It is a grand classically styled beachfront villa in a tranquil island paradise.”
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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