Property Insights: What Does US$10 Million Buy Around the World?

In the global marketplace for luxury real estate, just what does $10 million buy? That’s the question—and the answer—in this edition of Luxury Defined. 

Does the big city call? Consider the City of Angels, Los Angeles, where that grand sum, or thereabouts, buys a very grand whereabouts: a contemporary mansion in the A-listers enclave of Pacific Palisades. 

Does the dream call for an island escape? Then it waits in a “sea-to-sea” oceanfront idyll in The Bahamas’ Abaco archipelago. 

Perhaps paradise whispers from the woods of the Great White North, Canada, where an ode to Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture beckons. Or off the beaten path, in a 15th-century silk farm on 988 acres in France’s Rhône Valley? 

Read on to discover where, most importantly, and what $10 million can buy. 

1. Santa Barbara Transitional in Phoenix, Arizona 

Family life, comfort, relaxation, and entertainment come into focus in this spacious custom-designed Santa Barbara-style transitional home set on nearly two landscaped acres in the lush, green neighborhood of Arcadia, in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Built in 1971, the home was designed to accommodate extended family and guests with expansive living and play spaces, nine commodious bedrooms, nine sumptuous full bathrooms and one partial bath.   

The island kitchen, with its breakfast bar, custom appliances and cabinetry, is the hub of the main level, serving its own sunny breakfast space and a cocktail wet bar as well as the formal dining room, main family room, and lounge. 

Many rooms have a view of Camelback Mountain. So too does the rambling rear terrace. Its full barbecue station and outdoor kitchen transition to a dual pool deck (one pool for swimming; the other for plunging) and a pavilion with changing rooms. The fully renovated guest house has its own outdoor pool. 

2. Coconut Palm Bay in Abaco, The Bahamas 

Coconut Palm Bay is a one-of-a-kind oceanfront escape on Man O’ War Cay in The Bahamas’ Abaco Islands.  

On one of the finest sites on the island, and indeed the entire archipelago, Coconut Palm Bay is a 14-acre refuge bridging the Atlantic Ocean to the Sea of Abaco, with beaches on both shores.  

The 6,500-square-foot, multi-level main residence offers uninterrupted vistas of the sea. A four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom guest house provides an additional 2,200 square feet of air-conditioned living space and 360 square feet of covered porches and balconies. 

Both residences lie within landscaped gardens enveloped by a coconut grove. The protected private marina is another unique feature of Coconut Palm Bay, offering 390 feet of docks (nine feet wide with an MLW depth of 8 feet), a covered boat lift with 13,000 lb. capacity, and a boathouse. The estate also includes a 5,000 gallon a day reverse-osmosis water-filtration system with 200,000 gallons of rainwater capacity.  

Related: Discover 5 Stylish Home Offices

3. Former Silk Farm in Uzès, Gard, France 

This former silk farm offers peace and privacy on 988 pastoral acres surrounded by a Natura 2000 classified reserve in the Ardèche department of southeastern France. 

The original farmhouse, the “hunter’s house,” and stone outbuildings were transformed into a luxurious private compound with a combined 9,687 square feet of fully furnished, energy-efficient living space, offered turnkey.  

The architectural style is pure Provencal: Old stone walls, wooden doors and shutters, vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, and floors of hardwood, terracotta, and stone add to the character.  

The residential complex is in an 8,072-square-foot courtyard with a marble swimming pool; a pool house kitted with a gym, sauna, and shower; an indoor resistance pool and a Jacuzzi; as well as a lawned pétanque court. 

A 10,076-square-foot equipment barn houses a tractor, rotary harvester, and buggy. The wider grounds include miles of hiking trails, a subterranean lake, and 37 acres of orchards, olive groves, and a truffle oak forest stretching as far as the eye can see. 

4. Ipeak House in Caledon, Ontario, Canada 

Surrounded by 100 wooded acres in the Caledon countryside, an hour from Toronto, Ipeak House is a forest retreat in the spirit of Wright’s organic architecture.  

Kariouk Architects designed the long, tent-angled steel roof to shape the interior volumes toward a view of the forest. The asymmetric, steel frame construction, clad in slate, echoes the rock outcrops on the grounds. 

Nature is mirrored indoors, too. Granite walls adorn the open-concept kitchen and vast great room. Beyond is a two-story deck with a white oak tongue-and-groove ceiling and ipe wood floor. 

The bedrooms are suspended like a cocoon above the main floor from a 40-foot steel beam and accessed by a catwalk. 

The lower level is dedicated to entertainment and relaxation, with a movie theater, gaming room, and infrared sauna. 

5. Pacific Palisades Contemporary in Los Angeles, California 

This five-bedroom contemporary home embraces a slope in the Rustic Canyon neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, California, with a nostalgic love of mid-century modernist forms in a rigorous 21st century design and use of sustainable materials. 

The lavish primary retreat on the top level includes its own sitting room, office loft, steam shower, and sheltered, private terrace with treetop views.  

Master architect Michael Kovac illuminated the soaring interior spaces with floor-to-ceiling, sometimes double-height windows over warm, hardwood flooring and polished concrete floors.  

The Boffi kitchen has built-in Gaggenau appliances and custom cabinetry. The serene outdoor spaces include an elevated infinity-edge pool and spa, private decks, and a yard—all this just moments away from the beach.  

What else can $10 million buy? Discover what’s on offer here.