Inside Rihanna’s Homes Through the Years, From Her Luxe LA Rentals to Her Barbados Getaway
Photo: Monica Schipper/WireImage/Getty Images
Rihanna’s home life has seemingly been her focus for the last few years. The pop superstar welcomed sons RZA, 23 months, and Riot Rose, 8 months, with her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, within the past two years, as fans have been patiently waiting for new music. She has teased the release of her long-awaited album, R9, for years now, recently sharing with Extra that she’s taking her time with the project because it needs to be “amazing.” “It has to be,” she said. “That is the only reason it’s not out yet.… There should be a show of growth, right?”
In the years since her last big release—her 2016 album, Anti—Rihanna has kept busy buying and selling properties. She is arguably now a real estate aficionado, having accumulated an impressive portfolio of houses in Los Angeles and Barbados. In between sales and purchases, the “Lift Me Up” singer has also rented several enviable properties over the years, spanning Manhattan, the Hamptons, and London. Here, we’ve rounded up all of the mansions, penthouses, villas, and condos, our favorite Barbadian beauty has called home over the years.
Beverly Hills Post Office mansion
Rihanna first burst onto the scene as the 16-year-old prodigy of Jay-Z’s Def Jam Recordings in 2005. Four years later, in 2009, she purchased a $6.9 million mansion in the coveted Beverly Hills Post Office area of Los Angeles. She sold the 8,520-square-foot, three-story contemporary for $5.03 million in 2011 (at the time, the listing described the home as a “major fixer” with extensive moisture and water damage). The property measured three quarters of an acre, with a main house featuring eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. There was also a picturesque swimming pool out back. The place was eventually fixed up, and in 2016, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen snapped it up for $14.1 million.
Pacific Palisades rental
In 2012, after selling her Beverly Hills Post Office home, Rihanna tried her luck with a stunning bluff-top Pacific Palisades mansion, which she rented for $65,000 a month. The 10,970-square-foot behemoth boasted 14-foot ceilings, a 6,000-square-foot garden, a rooftop sun deck, and seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. One thing she didn’t bargain for, however, was the number of stalkers who descended upon her home. According to Curbed, after multiple trespassers were spotted on the property within the first few months of her time there, Rihanna opted to relocate. The house later sold for $11.175 million in 2016.
Manhattan penthouse
As Rihanna’s music career continued to soar, she expanded her sights to the East Coast, locking in a $50,000-a-month penthouse in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood in 2013. Spanning 7,000 square feet, with a 2,400-square-foot wraparound terrace, the chic condo occupied the two top floors of a luxury apartment complex, with a floating staircase connecting the two levels. The home featured four bedrooms and three full bathrooms, with 14-foot ceilings and views of the Empire State Building. Rihanna moved out in 2017.
Barbados beachside villa
Also in 2013, Rihanna decided to lay down roots in her native Barbados with the purchase of a $22 million beachside villa at One Sandy Lane, one of eight adjacent condos just down the street from the famous Sandy Lane Hotel. The impressive 10,000-square-foot pad features five en suite bedrooms, each with its own private terrace and dressing room, as well as a huge pool, a private gym, and a 24-hour concierge. The singer still owns this property, which is not too far from the five-bedroom home she bought for her mother in 2012.
Sunset Strip “Fortress”
After dealing with stalkers at her Pacific Palisades home, Rihanna sought privacy behind the concrete walls of a house known as the Fortress, a stylish behemoth designed by David Lawrence Gray Architects. Perched above the Sunset Strip, the 10,000-square-foot dwelling featured 40-foot ceilings, steel beams, and walls of glass; a two-bedroom guesthouse; and a notoriously phallic-shaped swimming pool. The mansion also boasted a gourmet kitchen by Porsche Design. The singer paid $60,000 a month for the modern mansion starting in 2014, and moved out in 2017.
Century City highrises
Century city skyline from above in Los Angeles
Around the same time she started renting the Fortress, Rihanna also shelled out $5.5 million for a penthouse in the Robert A.M. Stern–designed Century tower, where other high-profile residents included Paula Abdul, celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa, and the late Friends star Matthew Perry. The perks of the 42-story luxury condo include a 24-hour valet, a 75-foot pool, and intense anti-paparazzi security. Rihanna still owns this condo.
In 2023, Rihanna splashed out $21 million for a second penthouse unit in The Century. The singer purchased the home from Afterpay cofounder Nick Molnar, who had in turn bought the pad from Perry. The four-bedroom, eight-bathroom dwelling measured an impressive 9,300 square feet and occupied an entire floor of the skyscraper. The floor plan was described as “egg-shaped” and boasted floor-to-ceiling windows for 360-degree views of the LA skyline and the Pacific Ocean. Rihanna reportedly never moved into the unit, and flipped it back onto the market for $25 million in early 2024.
Wilshire Corridor condo
Though not much is known about Rihanna’s Wilshire Corridor condo, she paid $925,000 for it in 2015, and the 2,000-square-foot unit sits on one of the upper floors of the high-rise, likely a reaction to the stalker issues she dealt with at her Pacific Palisades house. It appears that the pop star still owns the home.
Hollywood Hills villa
In 2017, the same year she launched Fenty Beauty, Rihanna put down $6.8 million for a Mediterranean-style villa in the Hollywood Hills. The six-bedroom, 10-bathroom main house measured 7,130 square feet, with high ceilings and steel-framed doors throughout. The half-acre property also featured a guest house turned fitness center, an infinity pool, and multiple outdoor lounge areas. Just one year after she purchased the place, however, the singer faced more trespassers, and decided to put the home on the market for $7.5 million. After several years on and off the market, the sprawling pad finally sold for $6.6 million in 2022, about $250,000 less than she originally paid for it.
West Hollywood flip
Not all of Rihanna’s homes were meant to be long-term investments. Also in 2017, she discreetly purchased a $2.75 million Spanish-style villa in West Hollywood, which she flipped right back onto the market three months later for $2.85 million and sold a few months later.
London mansion
Rihanna decamped for London in 2018, renting a historic 19th-century house in the pricey St. John’s Wood district for approximately $25,000 a week. The eight-bedroom mansion, located just a short jaunt from the famous Abbey Road Crosswalk, measured 6,332 square feet, and included a home gym, movie theater, and enough parking space for 10 cars. Images from inside the home reveal extraordinary mirror-lined ceilings and black parquet floors, as well as a music room with a Swarovski crystal-lined bar. The Victorian-era home hit the market in September 2020, asking $40.94 million.
Hamptons getaway
Celebrity Sightings In Southampton - June 04, 2014
Rihanna splashed out on a $415,000-a-month rental in the Hamptons in the summer of 2020. According to Observer, the singer stayed at the charming 6,140-square-foot waterfront home for just one month, from mid-July to mid-August, riding out the pandemic in the secluded privacy of the five-bedroom, six-bathroom retreat. The home also happens to be the spot where Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian filmed much of their reality show back in 2014.
LA Canyonside home
Rihanna kicked off 2021 with the off-market purchase of a $13.8 million home tucked into the side of a steep slope above Beverly Hills overlooking Coldwater Canyon. The 1930s dwelling is situated on a cul-de-sac with A-list former and current residents that include Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Sir Paul McCartney, and features five bedrooms and seven bathrooms spread across 7,600 square feet. Amenities include a second-floor home gym with a full wall of windows overlooking a central courtyard, as well as a swimming pool, hot tub, fire pit, and numerous outdoor terraces for entertaining. The “Umbrella” singer appears to still own this property.
Beverly Hills neighboring properties
A few months later, Rihanna made headlines when she picked up two neighboring Beverly Hills mansions in short order. First it was a $13.8 million contemporary-style property measuring just over 7,600 square feet and featuring five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Next, the “Diamonds” singer bought a $10 million, 3,549 square foot Tudor-esque home boasting wood beams and an oversize swimming pool. She sold the latter for $10.3 million in 2023. She still appears to own the contemporary-style mansion.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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