Billionaire Ken Griffin - owner of America's most expensive home - is selling his Miami penthouses for at least 20% less than he paid for them 5 years ago

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Billionaire Ken Griffin - owner of America's most expensive home - is selling his Miami penthouses for at least 20% less than he paid for them 5 years ago
A view of Faena House in Miami Beach.Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
  • Billionaire hedge-fund executive Ken Griffin is selling both of his Miami Beach penthouses for at least a 20% loss, Katherine Kallergis reported for the Real Deal.
  • Griffin, the Citadel CEO and founder who's worth $21 billion, bought two condos, which sit in the exclusive Faena House building, for a combined $60 million in 2015, shattering Miami's sale record at the time.
  • He bought sold the larger penthouse for $35 million and is in contract to sell the second, which was asking $12.5 million, taking a loss of $12.5 million.
  • The billionaire hedge-fund CEO has spent tens of millions in recent years on luxury homes in New York City, London, Palm Beach, and the Hamptons.
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Billionaire hedge-fund executive Ken Griffin is offloading the two Miami Beach penthouses that he bought five years ago at a more than 20% loss, the Real Deal reported.

Griffin recently sold the larger penthouse for $35 million, and the smaller unit - which is asking $12.5 million - is reportedly in contract for an unknown price, per the Real Deal. Even if the smaller condo sells at its asking price, both sales would total $47.5 million - about 20% less than the $60 million Griffin paid for both units in 2015.

Griffin, the founder and CEO of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, has a net worth of about $21 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.

Billionaire Ken Griffin - owner of America's most expensive home - is selling his Miami penthouses for at least 20% less than he paid for them 5 years ago
Griffin is worth about $21 billion.Heidi Gutman/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

The two penthouses sit in the ultra-exclusive Faena House development on Miami Beach, where residents are offered lavish perks including a valet and private concierge service, an in-house spa and fitness center, a private beach club with full cabana service, and two swimming pools.

Griffin isn't the only billionaire in the building. Other known Faena House homeowners include former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, hedge-fund manager Jamie Dinan (who's worth $2 billion), former US ambassador Paul Cejas, British hedge-fund founder Alan Howard (worth $1.7 billion), and Thomas Stern, the managing director of Chieftain Capital Management.

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Griffin bought the two Faena House penthouses - the larger of which occupies the entire top floor of the exclusive Faena House condo building - in 2015, when he was finalizing his high-profile divorce. At the time, the $60 million transaction was the most expensive sale ever in Miami.

Together, the two glass-walled condos - which Griffin never combined, per the Real Deal - occupy multiple floors of Faena House, with 12,516 square feet of living space. Accessible only by a private elevator, the larger penthouse comes with a 70-foot infinity pool out on its 9,900-square-foot, Brazilian-style terrace.

A representative for Griffin did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment for this story.

A years-long luxury real-estate buying spree

In recent years, Griffin has been snapping up luxury homes left and right, shattering records along the way.

Since 2012, the hedge-fund CEO has bought nearly $250 million of real estate in the Billionaires Row area of Palm Beach, Florida. He reportedly has plans to build a massive beachfront mansion on the combined properties.

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In November 2018, Griffin bought four floors of Chicago condo building No. 9 Walton for $58.75 million, which still holds the record for the most expensive home sale in Chicago.

And in January 2019, the billionaire bought a mansion in London that's only half a mile from Buckingham Palace for roughly $122 million. That same month, he paid $238 million for a penthouse spread in Manhattan's 220 Central Park South, breaking the record for the most expensive US home sale ever. Later that year, he picked up two more units in the building for nearly $4 million.

Billionaire Ken Griffin - owner of America's most expensive home - is selling his Miami penthouses for at least 20% less than he paid for them 5 years ago
220 Central Park South sits along the southern edge of Central Park.Getty Images/RBL/Bauer-Griffin

And in February 2020, Griffin bought a sprawling compound on Southampton's "Billionaire Lane" from fashion designer Calvin Klein in an off-market deal.

Griffin picked up yet another piece of real estate in August, when he dropped $37 million on two empty lots on the ritzy Star Island.

The real estate agents representing Griffin in the sale, Oren Alexander of Douglas Elliman and Ryan Mendell of Maxwell E. Realty, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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