One of the biggest homes in U.S. history is rising on a Los Angeles hilltop, and the developer hopes to sell it for a record US$ 500 million. Nile Niami, a film producer and speculative residential developer, is pouring concrete in L.A.'s Bel Air neighborhood for a compound with a 6,9 thousand square meter main residence and three smaller homes, according to city records. The project, which will take at least 20 more months to complete, will exceed 9,3 thousand square meters, including a 465 square meters master bedroom, a 30-car garage and a "Monaco-style casino," Niami said. Niami's project, on a 1.6-hectare hilltop lot, will have 360-degree views of the Pacific Ocean, Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Plans called for removal of almost 30,600 cubic meters of earth, the equivalent of an American football field covered by 6 meters of dirt. Niami's mansion is set to be the largest built in the U.S. this century, surpassing Versailles, a 8,3 thousand square meters chateau in Windermere, Florida, under construction for David Siegel, founder and chief executive officer of Westgate Resorts. Estates with views of the Los Angeles basin are the California counterpart to Manhattan's penthouses or London's Mayfair manors, drawing a global cast of financiers, technology tycoons and celebrities who collect trophy homes like works of art. Around the world, five properties sold for US$ 100 million or more last year, and at least 20 others have nine-figure asking prices, Christie's International Real Estate reported last month. The priciest home ever sold was a US$ 221 million London penthouse purchased in 2011, according to Christie's. The most expensive properties on the market include a US$ 750 million rancho in USA, a US$ 425 million estate in France's Cote d'Azur Villa Leopolda, an almost US$ 400 million penthouse in Monaco and a US$ 365 million London manor.

The Palazzo di Amore, the nearly eight-year project of real-estate investor Jeff Greene, has listed for US$195 million, making it one of the most expensive residential listings in the country. In Beverly Hills, the 10 hectares compound includes about 4920 square meters of living space, 12 bedrooms and 23 bathrooms across several buildings. A quarter-mile driveway runs past a vineyard before reaching the main home, an over 3250 square meters Mediterranean-style villa. A separate, roughly 1390 square meters entertainment center has a bowling alley, a theater that seats 50 and a dressing room, and a discotheque with a rotating dance floor. Other amenities include a Turkish-style spa and a 39 meters long reflecting pool. Mr. Greene, who made a fortune betting against subprime mortgages, bought the estate out of receivership for US$ 35 million in 2007 from Saudi businessman Mishaal K. Adham and his wife, while it was under construction. Mr. Greene said he bought the estate as an investment property, though he and his wife, Mei Sze Greene, were married there in 2007, with Mike Tyson as the best man. The name "palace of love" is a nod to their nuptials. The couple's main home is in Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Greene said he always intended to sell the property, but construction wasn't completed "until literally a month ago." "Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be this much work," he said. He estimated he spent US$ 25 million to complete the home, which he said was a shell when he bought it. He said the property has been rented over the years, mostly to Saudi royalty. It was most recently listed for rent in September at US$ 475,000 a month. Mr. Greene spoke fondly of the property, but looking back on the process, he isn't nostalgic. "In hindsight, I never would have done this," he said.

The Greek IRS is preparing to sell, through an online auction, 1,500 villas in tourist resorts in the country, such as Santorini, Rhodes, Kos, Porto Heli, Paros, Mykonos and other, because their owners do not comply with their tax obligations. After having exhausted all relevant stages, from the notice to the seizure, the next step for the Operational Collection Unit and the Recovery Control Center for Taxpayers with Great Riches, is the auctions in order to enable the Greek government to collect taxes from the wealthy that are hiding from IRS. "The money might have gone abroad, real estate, however, have stayed in Greece", say the administrator staff of the Ministry of Finance, who is handling the case. The Finance Ministry plans to auction the said real estate through the electronic auction platform e-Auction that the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund's (HRADF) uses for the sale of public real estate. They believe that they will attract a strong interest from abroad (from wealthy Arabs, Russians, Americans, Chinese, Germans, etc.), because they are premium properties, as opposed to apartments and residential properties that have lost their value, or land without clear legal ownership status that scare investors, which results in their auctions proving infertile. The Finance Ministry bets that there will always be those financially strong who will seek to acquire a privileged or unique property with just a few clicks. The draft for the auction of such property has other advantages as well: Instead of the IRS chasing people with low incomes and create a humanitarian issue, they aim at owners with expensive and luxurious properties who can live in smaller houses, which they usually own. Moreover, the high value of property (hundreds of thousands or even millions of euro), is a guarantee that the government will find money to settle the debt in full, so that the debtors will not remain "captives" of the IRS.