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He swings and he scores! Retired tennis bad boy John McEnroe and his wife, ’80s rockstar Patty Smyth, have sold their longtime home in the guard-gated Malibu Colony community. The roughly 3,700-square-foot residence was never on the market, but records show it went for an impressive $29 million, making it the priciest Colony deal in years.
Originally built in the 1930s but extensively renovated since, the oceanfront house sits on a particularly prime part of the beach, right next door to a home that sold earlier this year for “just” $13.5 million to billionaire Ron Burkle. McEnroe acquired the property way back in 1984 for an indeterminate amount that appears to have been less than $2.5 million; the house was last assessed at $4.7 million, per tax records. In any case, it seems safe to assume that the tennis hothead’s original investment paid off hugely.
It’s not yet clear who the spendy buyer is, though the house is now owned by an Australia-based entity formed by an accountant well known for working with some of Sydney’s wealthiest families, including tech billionaires like the Aussie cofounders of Afterpay.
And because it was never publicly marketed for sale, not many of the home’s inner workings are public knowledge, though it was put up for lease some years ago at a princely rate of $125,000/month. There are five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two powder rooms, plus a chef’s kitchen and media room. Both the dining and living rooms have ocean views, and there’s a walled courtyard separating the main house from the detached garage.
Out back, an oceanfront deck boasts majestic views that sweep up and down the coastline and even capture glimpses of Catalina Island. The upstairs master suite has its own private deck, too, one that’s also equipped with head-on ocean vistas. Also on the premises are an outdoor hot tub, a fireplace-equipped cabana and a sauna.
McEnroe and Smyth famously maintained an impressive stable of luxury homes coast-to-coast, though in recent years they’ve been downsizing — per McEnroe himself. Back in 2017, they sold their plush Hamptons estate for $11.3 million, and they unloaded their Central Park-adjacent apartment in 2013. The couple continue to maintain a main residence in Manhattan, and they still own two other Malibu vacation homes, one of them landlocked and the other oceanfront, and both of them located in a discreet gated community atop Paradise Cove. Those properties were acquired in 2013 and 2015 for a total of nearly $25 million.
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