What You Never Knew About Beyoncé And Jay-Z's Homes

With its distressed façade, arched windows and doors, and radiant gold finishes, this 100-year-old mansion in the heart of the Garden District of New Orleans doesn't exactly look like a home from the outside. And that's because it wasn't, originally. According to TMZ, Beyoncé purchased a church in 2018 intending to turn it into a plush pad, and that she did. But it wasn't without some serious work. Although she snagged the 7,500 square foot building for only $850,000, which is significantly less cash than she's used to spending on real estate, it needed some serious revamping at the time. That is partly why the congregation that gathered here decided to offload it.

However, if anyone could transform this stunning space with 18-foot ceilings into a star-worthy residence, it would be Beyoncé. She converted it into a $2.4 million mansion with six bedrooms, colorful walls, a marble floor, and more one-of-a-kind details. But in 2021, the home was nearly lost, reported New York Post. A fire broke out in its great room, a space that once served as the sanctuary for the Seventh & Camp Church of Christ. Luckily, the suspected arson fire was put out in about an hour, no one was hurt, and the damage was minimal.

Most of us couldn't imagine getting married at home, especially if "home" means our partner's former bachelor pad. However, this bachelor pad lacks the usual dated couch and pile of video games. In 2004, Jay-Z purchased a Tribeca penthouse at 195 Hudson St. for $6.85 million, which would be more than $10 million today, per New York Post. About four years of apartment ownership and six years of dating later, the couple said their I do's here in a ceremony and reception that was kept secret from the public. A tent, a swarm of servers, and tons of flowers eventually tipped off the media.

With 8,000 square feet inside and 3,000 square feet outside, this penthouse has more in common with a wedding venue than most New York City apartments, said Observer. It also wasn't easy for Jay-Z to find it back in 2004. Before settling on this seventh-floor penthouse in a former warehouse, he toured several celebrity condos, including Robert De Niro's. In 2015, million-dollar buyers had the opportunity to possibly run into Beyoncé and Jay-Z themselves when another apartment in the building, which has a shared roof deck with the power couple's unit, went up for sale.

When Destiny's Child announced their breakup in 2005, it was likely a frightening time for Beyoncé, as she didn't yet know that her solo career would skyrocket the way it has. Perhaps she was doing a little real estate therapy when she purchased a condo on the 44^th floor of One Beacon Court for a little more than $5 million, reported Observer. More than a decade later, though, she bid the apartment and her Destiny's Child days goodbye when she sold the unit — in less than two weeks — for nearly double what she paid for.

The three-bedroom condo encompasses 2,500 square feet and features 11-foot floor-to-ceiling windows. It also has oak floors, top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances, amazing views of the city, an open floorplan, and finishes personally chosen by a celebrity interior designer, said Dirt. Beyoncé loved it so much that her mom, Tina Knowles, had a unit in the building, too, just two floors underneath her daughter. However, as the years went on, it simply didn't have the same caliber as the other properties that the power couple spends time in. Beyoncé and Jay-Z would usually head to their Tribeca penthouse while in the Big Apple, and visiting family members and friends would stay at this former bachelorette pad instead.

There's a lot of high-priced real estate in Los Angeles County, perhaps the most popular celebrity spot on the planet. But in 2017, Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new home in Bel-Air topped the charts at a whopping $88 million, making it the most expensive property sold in the county that year, said Nimvo. But that $88 million was a steal — the mansion was estimated to cost $30 million more than that. Considering Beyoncé and Jay-Z's long search for a Los Angeles home, their colossal purchase wasn't completely surprising. They spent three years searching for a spot for their family and were outbid twice for other estates in the county.

Finally, though, this modern white mansion on two acres became theirs. Its photos can be deceiving, but the entire property includes a half-dozen separate buildings amounting to 30,000 square feet. Through that colossal space, Beyoncé and Jay-Z have eight bedrooms, a garage that can house 15 cars, four different resort-style swimming pools (including one on the roof), and an area for playing basketball at their disposal. Even more amazingly, it still wasn't up to Beyoncé and Jay-Z's standards when they signed on the dotted line. They spent nearly $1 million more on renovations before moving in. This included installing a second generator in case of the first one's failure, and building additional living space in one section.

Clearly, whatever Jay-Z touches turns to (more) millions. In 2007, the music icon spent some time renting an ultra-luxe penthouse in the Time Warner Building when he was a tenant of Michael Hirtenstein's, the founder of Westcom Communications. However, about four years later, the apartment was bought by Taek Jho Low, a socialite from Malaysia who was known for being friendly with celebrities like Paris Hilton, Megan Fox, and Lindsay Lohan, per New York Post. But this was no ordinary sell. Low paid $31 million for the 75^th-floor penthouse, the highest price that a pad at 25 Columbus Circle had ever fetched.

The unit has tons of high-end features, like floor-to-ceiling windows offering panoramic views of the city as well as a fish tank suspended in the air (via Insider). But unlike other upscale New York City real estate listings, this apartment was also cozy. It included a plush pink kid's room with a horse-and-carriage mural on the wall, a marble bathroom and marble-floored kitchen, a private office with mahogany wood details, and pops of color throughout the space. However, it seems to have taken Low some time to finally purchase the apartment. He originally toured the penthouse two years before the sale when it was first listed by then-owner Todd Wagner, an entrepreneur who worked with Mark Cuban.

Beverly Hills is full of famous houses, but the abode where Beyoncé filmed her "Black Is King" video may be one of the most famous in the entire city. Newspaper publisher and founder of Hearst Publications William Randolph Hearst once called this Spanish and Italian-style mansion home, and it's also been the setting for tons of Hollywood hits, including "The Godfather" and "The Bodyguard." So it's not surprising that Beyoncé chose to rent this iconic spot for her video, reported House Beautiful. The mansion, located on 1011 N. Beverly Drive, gets tons of airtime in the music video, so viewers can see the inside and outside of the compound throughout the song.

Unfortunately, the music video couldn't get the owners the $195 million they were initially seeking when they put it up for sale, reported Fancy Pants Homes. Instead, after languishing on the market for several years, it sold for just a fraction of that price at $63 million in September of 2021, reported Forbes. But that doesn't make this estate any less stunning — it features ornate gardens and a resort-style swimming pool, a colossal library towering with books through its two stories, and a flashy living room adorned with a barrel-rolled ceiling.

Jay-Z's childhood wasn't as idyllic as Beyoncé's, a point he sometimes mentions in his songs or interviews. According to NYS Music, the music icon has a true rags-to-riches story, having grown up in a public housing complex in Brooklyn that struggled with gun violence and gang involvement. Unfortunately, the complex, which is called the Marcy House, continues to battle some of these issues today due to inefficient public policy or aid, even though Jay-Z has not lived there in decades.

However, the complex is also where Jay-Z got his start as a rapper 30 years ago. Here, he became known as an up-and-coming rapper in his neighborhood in the early '90s. He eventually grew into a prolific artist that will forever be cemented in music history. Partly thanks to Jay-Z, the Barclays Center, which is home to the Brooklyn Nets, decided to relocate to the borough (via The Undefeated).