Minecraft Billionaire Notch Lists Beverly Hills Mansion for $70 Million

Markus Persson has listed his roughly 22,300-square-foot Beverly Hills compound for $70 million—the exact price he paid for it in December 2014, as The Wall Street Journal first reported. The Minecraft creator's asking price, frozen for twelve years, lands on the same day California voters decide Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on billionaires' net worth.

If the Trousdale Estates property fetches its full asking price, it would become the priciest home sale in Beverly Hills this year and the second most expensive in Los Angeles County. The Real Deal reported that only one L.A. sale would top it: Peter Thiel's $130 million purchase of the Casa Encantada estate at a foreclosure auction in September, citing the Los Angeles Times.

Who's selling, and through whom?

Aaron Kirman and Katia De Los Reyes of Christie's International Real Estate Southern California hold the listing, alongside Branden and Rayni Williams of The Beverly Hills Estates. Kirman told the Journal that Persson simply isn't spending much time in Los Angeles anymore and "is committed to selling."

Kirman also acknowledged that luxury markets nationwide have cooled. "We're not doing aspirational pricing anymore," he said. The stance tracks with the broader U.S. housing market, where homeowners across price tiers have slashed asking prices in a stagnant market.

What did $70 million buy in 2014?

Persson bought the property in December 2014, just months after Microsoft agreed to acquire Mojang, the Stockholm studio behind Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. Persson owned roughly 70% of the company, and the deal made him a billionaire. Forbes now estimates his net worth at about $1.5 billion.

The purchase famously beat out a bid reportedly involving Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and it set a record at the time as the most expensive home sale in Beverly Hills history. The spec mansion, built by developer Bruce Makowsky, was originally listed at $85 million. Forbes reported the house came fully loaded with:

• a candy room valued at $200,000
• a 2,500-bottle wine cellar
• an 18-seat screening room
• a car lift that moves vehicles into a gallery-style showroom

Persson later spent millions more on additions, according to the Journal: a recording studio and a private nightclub with a DJ booth, bar, and dance floor.

Is the sale tied to California's billionaire tax?

The listing landed at a politically awkward moment. California voters head to the polls today to decide on Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires who were California residents on Jan. 1, 2026. Two competing measures on the same ballot, Propositions 41 and 42, could nullify it if either draws more "yes" votes.

The measure has already reshaped where some of the state's richest people say they live. Google cofounder Larry Page left California before the cutoff and spent $173.4 million on Miami mansions. Fellow cofounder Sergey Brin relocated to Nevada and has poured $102 million into fighting the tax. Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick says he moved to Austin on Dec. 18, 2025—about two weeks before the tax would have applied to him.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg told the company's directors he intended to establish residence outside California. Meta then struck a deal to issue a new class of nonvoting stock that could help him cover a potential tax bill; as part of it, he committed to staying in California, or wherever Meta is headquartered, for eight years.

But there's no public indication Persson's sale is tax-driven, and unloading the house wouldn't obviously change his exposure if it were. The measure's residency test looks back to Jan. 1, 2026, and its text excludes real estate that billionaires own directly. Neither Persson nor his agents have tied the listing to the vote.

What changed Persson's mind on AI coding?

The mansion isn't the only thing Persson has reversed course on lately. Early this year, his full-throated warning against AI-generated code made headlines. He wrote on X that anyone advocating for the practice is "either incompetent or evil," and he has long urged young developers to "Learn. Your. Craft."

The conviction had a shelf life. In July, Persson told his followers he "just might give vibe coding a shot," citing trouble hiring talented programmers, and asked which tools he should try. By September, he'd come around entirely. "I will admit, I am enjoying vibe coding," he wrote. "I may have been a teensy tiny bit wrong."

Now the programmer who turned a $2.5 billion Microsoft exit into a $70 million trophy home is testing whether the luxury market will meet his decade-old price—with the agents themselves conceding the era of aspirational pricing is over.