Ken Griffin Makes Another Major Real Estate Play. This Time In St Tropez.
The billionaire hedge funder spent more than $90 million on a roughly 2-acre French waterfront estate
Billionaire hedge fund giant Ken Griffin is known for purchasing some of the world’s most expensive homes and assembling properties to form sprawling private compounds for himself and his family.
Griffin’s latest target: St. Tropez, where the financier recently purchased a lavish roughly 2-acre waterfront estate with at least four structures for more than $90 million, according to a person familiar with the situation. The deal, which hasn’t previously been reported, closed in late June, according to that person.
The property is in a small enclave with just a handful of homes. It is unclear if Griffin plans to make offers on any of the other homes there. Griffin’s plans for the properties weren’t immediately clear. He declined to comment.
The main property, known as Domaine de la Capilla, was previously owned by celebrity photographer and heir to an industrial fortune Gunter Sachs, perhaps best known as the onetime husband of actress Brigitte Bardot. Sachs died in 2011 and the sale was handled by his sons, Rolf Sachs and Christian Gunnar Sachs. The Sachses couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The property is on Tahiti Beach, at the northern end of St. Tropez’s Pampelonne Beach. The area has long attracted the rich and famous, who are seduced by the glitz and glamour of the French Riviera, with its beaches, picturesque coastline, nightlife and yachting. Bardot’s iconic role in the 1956 film “And God Created Women” helped cement the town’s appeal to a global audience.
Griffin’s deal is among the most expensive ever sold in St. Tropez, which has been experiencing a luxury real-estate boom over the past few years thanks to a resurgence of international buyers, including from the U.S. Prices of homes valued at over $16 million along the southeastern coast of France rose between 15% and 20% in the five years through 2023, according to brokerage Beauchamp Estates.
For Griffin, the French Riviera deal is the latest in a long string of real-estate purchases over the past few years. His portfolio includes a $122 million mansion in London near Buckingham Palace, a roughly $240 million apartment in New York and a $165 million estate in Los Angeles.
In South Florida, Griffin has spent hundreds of millions putting together massive estates on both Star Island in Miami and in Palm Beach.