Featured image credit: Arzuman Brothers
“Living in your parents’ basement” may not be the roast it once was. At least not if your parents own a multi-million-dollar iceberg home. What is an iceberg house? It’s one of the names assigned to a somewhat recent trend among the wealthy: stately homes built upon colossal luxury basements. And when we say “luxury basement” we basically mean an entire subterranean wing of the home. In a city not exactly known for its cellars, these uber basements are hot ticket items according to LA’s luxury home contractors. And they’re offering an extravagant way to significantly boost a luxury home’s value.
From Iceberg Homes to the Lower Level
Los Angeles isn’t the first major city to prioritize the luxury basement. In fact, Southern California is a little late to the game. The trend already took off overseas and in cities like San Francisco where building up and out just couldn’t compete with building down. The media dubbed these “iceberg homes”: After all, there’s a lot more going on beneath their surfaces.
However, in a city known for its hospitable, sunny weather, the “iceberg house” moniker never really picked up traction. The Wall Street Journal tried to make McBasements happen, but the luxury basement crowd doesn’t seem to be stirred by references to fast food and dank cellars. In LA, these chic subterranean wings of the home are simply referred to as “the lower level.” And you’ll find them in multi-million dollar properties from Malibu to Toluca Lake.
What Lies Beneath the Surface
It’s impossible to tell what’s going on beneath the surface of an iceberg house from the exterior. You may see a simple suburban single-family home of Georgian architecture. But it masks a subterranean sanctuary of home movie theaters, bowling alleys, and state-of-the-art gyms. Contractors have shared stories of literal underground nightclubs to rival anything Hollywood could offer the public. Some iceberg homes hide basketball and tennis courts. Others disguise kinky bondage dungeons. And more than a few sit upon modern bunkers in which to comfortably wait out the apocalypse.
Why the Luxury Basement Became So Popular
With a seemingly endless parade of exotic elegance worthy of the upper echelon’s money, it’s a surprise that basements are such a coveted feature among the elite. But there are a few reasons why luxury basements are starting to take LA’s wealthy by storm. For one, building down will keep you a lot more popular with neighbors if the alternative is blocking their panoramic views. In the hills, it’s only courteous to aim low with your construction endeavors.
But perhaps the larger influence was that global event that seemed to influence virtually everything under the sun: the COVID-19 pandemic. With people tied to their homes in a way they’d never been before, their priorities shifted. And some of LA’s elite were wealthy enough to fund their most extravagant ideas for home compounds that offered anything their hearts desired. Sustainable underground gardens with skylights and light wells beaming fresh sunshine? Why not? State-of-the-art surround sound movie theater? You bet. Fully stocked bar and dancefloor? Try and stop them. Forget the sky. The ground’s the limit.
The High Cost of Building Low
But if you’re considering capitalizing on the trend, it’s important to remember that luxury basements don’t come cheap. Speaking with Fortune, Andrew Vaitkevicius of luxury home construction company Arzuman Brothers estimated a 2,000-square-foot luxury basement would cost around $1.5 million. And that’s on the low end. Much of this boils down to the exacting process of basically creating a luxury home beneath the earth’s surface.
After the drilling process, workers plant steel reinforcements and pour concrete. The ordeal can take time to properly execute. And if it’s done wrong, it can lead to costly repairs. One need only look at Goldman Sachs Director Christopher Stanger’s iceberg mansion in London to see the extent of such horrors. The excavation process for the property unsettled the foundations of neighbors’ properties, even barring one inside her home.
However, contractors won’t have to navigate much red tape when it comes to excavation in Los Angeles. In fact, the only guaranteed limitation is the city’s restrictions on moving dirt from a site. But it’s a restriction designed to prevent disasters like the one that befell Stanger’s London neighbors. Many communities also have restrictions on how much “house” can exist beneath the surface. Often, iceberg houses, despite their imposing name, cannot have lower levels with square footage in excess of the property above the surface. But limitations only make things more interesting for those with an ambitious idea and the money to fund it.
The Luxury Basement Trend is Here
It’s worth noting that Stanger’s luxury basement woes occurred over a decade ago. This again highlights that Los Angeles trails much of the rest of the world in adopting this trend of lavish lower levels. However, fueled by the novelties of the pandemic, the trend is well and truly here. And for new luxury construction in LA, this often translates to “aim low, sell high.”
