His 3,000 square foot beachside house in Montauk, Long Island, is already priced at $8.74 million but interest in the slightly shabby but well placed property has been muted.
It is actually small compared to many of the luxurious neighbouring properties and it doesn’t have a garage or a walk in closet although the four bedroomed property does have a pool and stunning views of the sea.
But it also looks rather sad.
The faded furniture is labelled ready to be sold off separately and the house is bereft of signs of the luxurious lifestyle led by Madoff and his wife Ruth.
His Florida mansion, much more spacious and luxurious than the beach house, and his Manhattan penthouse are about to go on the market.
US Marshals, who seized the properties in order to try to recoup money to pay back those who were fleeced by Madoff’s illegal scheme, said that the Palm Beach mansion will be put on the market by New York luxury real estate broker Corcoran Group which is also selling the Long Island property.
The Manhattan apartment will be sold by Sotheby’s and both are expected to be priced at over $7 million each.
The 4,000 square foot Manhattan penthouse occupies the entire top two floors of an Upper East Side apartment building and features wraparound terraces with extraordinary views.
But not everyone is impressed with the properties. Asked about the Manhattan penthouse New York appraiser Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel said; ‘From what I’ve seen, I’d call it a fairly modest place’.
It has parquet floors, four fireplaces, and a state of the art kitchen with stainless steel counters and high end appliances.
For those who might be interested in such trivia, Madoff, 71, spent his last days as a free man in the Manhattan apartment before being jailed for 150 years for orchestrating a massive Ponzi style investment scheme that spanned decades.
The 6,500 square feet Palm Beach home has also been described as modest. ‘There is nothing really extravagant, nothing over the top about it,’ said Barry Golden, of the US Marshals Southern District Florida office, which is preparing the property for sale.
An attractive selling point is the 80-foot dock on the Intracoastal Waterway where Madoff used to moor his 55-foot, custom-built yacht called The Bull. The yacht, which was often used for sea fishing, boasts a flying bridge that sits so high up that it has an elevator. Two smaller boats are also for sale.
However, it is the land that the property is built on that is what will bring in the punters. According to the Palm Beach County's property appraiser the house itself is probably only worth about $778,000 but the half acre of land on which it is built is appraised at close to $7 million.
