While it may vex and perplex mere mortals and middle classers, most of whom can only aspire to own a vacation home, it's hardly unusual for privacy obsessed celebrities who own multiple homes in prime and/or resort areas to occasionally lease them out at eye-poppin' prices.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Malibu West
It can't be that Irish-born actor Pierce Brosnan hurts for cash so desperately he needs to lease out his brand-spanking-new, 13,000 square foot mansion (above) Malibu's star-lined (and quickly eroding) Broad Beach for $250,000 a month, can it? Far more likely Mister Brosnan quite simply recognizes the financial benefit of pulling in some periodic but substantial rental income to offset the tremendous and sometimes punishing costs of fat mortgages and fastidious upkeep on multiple, high-maintenance, multi-million dollar homes.
Money talks, hunnies, even to decidedly rich (and famous) folks who, as a group, typically and otherwise ferociously guard their privacy. However, if some filthy rich and wildly profligate wannabe beach goer will shell out $250,000 a month—plus, probably, sign a confidentiality agreement and purchase a sky-high insurance policy—to lease Mister Brosnan's Bali-Thai-inspired 4 bedroom and 12 bathroom compound for a few months over the summer, while he's away making a movie or shacking up in his house in Hawaii, why the hell not?
Half or three quarters of a million clams goes a long way towards Mister Brosnan's annual staffing expenses and maintenance costs of the expansive grounds and unsightly rock revetment residents of Broad Beach were forced to recently build along the beach up to keep the encroaching ocean from washing up into their often low-lying ocean front homes.
listing photos: Areté Estates
Leonardo DiCaprio, a consistent Showbiz mega-earner who reportedly took in $77,000,000 between May 2010 and May 2011, can't possibly have need for extra income. None-the-less he recently put an ocean front compound inside the manned gates of the legendary, star-stocked Malibu Colony community, one of two beachfront houses he owns in The Bu, up for lease at a short-term rate (less than six month) of $150,000 per month.
The long and thin compound-like property (above)—with four bedroom main house on the ocean, a detached 2 bedroom guest house and additional loft space with fitness facility, 7th bedroom and home office area—is also available starting September 1, 2012 as a long(er)-term rental at much less but still hives-inducing $75,000 per month.
Essentially retired sitcom star Paul Reiser—who no doubt still earns a substantial pile of residual income and whose primary residence is a significant estate with a 15,000 square foot mansion and a private softball diamond the guard-gated Beverly Park community—also owns a swank oceanfront house in Malibu Colony that he's got up for summertime grabs at $95,000 per month.
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Malibu West
If that's too much paper for your summer rental budget, busty blond pin up babe Pamela Anderson also owns a recently and extensively remodeled contemporary crib on the land side of Malibu Colony she's got up for rent (again) at $50,000 per month.
Miz Anderson has numerous times denied scandalous rumors of her financial demise and says she spends more time at her lake front Canadian compound than in southern California, but back in 2009 and 2010 there was a deafening flurry of whispers and gossip glossy reports about how the ballooning costs of construction of her Malibu home left her teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Whatever the case—and we do not vouch for the veracity of the ugly scuttlebutt about her allegedly pinched purse—this isn't the first time Miz Anderson has rode the bucking bronco of the real estate rental rodeo with her Malibu Colony casa; She first put the property up for lease on VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) last year with a much higher asking price of $75,000 per month (or $20,000 per week).
listing photos: Coldwell Banker / Malibu Colony
Comedian (and somewhat surprisingly successful cocksman) David Spade has long owned a house with 60 feet of ocean frontage on Malibu's sandy La Costa Beach that's currently available for lease at $40,000 per month, a downright bargain compared to some of the other celeb-owned summer rentals in Malibu.
The 4 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom two-story residence—with a small pool tucked into the brick courtyard between the house and detached 3-car garage—is also up for sale with an asking price of $13,500,000, far less than the $16,000,000 price tag he put on the place when he put it on the market in August 2007.