An opulent luxury home in Houghton Ridge, Johannesburg, known as Gatsby, is back on the market – this time for a reduced R92m – and to sweeten the deal, the sellers are throwing in a Rolls-Royce.

Chas Everitt Luxury Portfolio CEO Rory O’Hagan told News24 that they had to think out of the box to entice buyers.

“In this day and age, you need to be creative with your marketing. We thought it’s a different angle to offer a car with the house. We thought let’s do something that’s not standard in a house that is a luxury property,” he told News24.

O’Hagan said that despite having to drop the initial asking price of R120m due to South Africa’s strained economy and housing market, there was still a demand for luxury new builds as well as fully-renovated or restored trophy properties.

The 2 000-square-metre mansion was designed and built by the Pellerade Design Group and boasts eight glamorous ensuite bedrooms with luxurious bespoke furnishings, an array of sumptuous reception rooms decorated with an international collection of rare artworks, a private night club, a wellness spa, a library, a gymnasium, conference facilities, a heated indoor swimming pool and an outdoor training pool.

And it’s built on four levels to optimise the beautiful panoramic views of northern Johannesburg.

In addition to the beautiful interior design, the house features state-of-the art security and surveillance systems as well as full home automation.

“The electronics in this home are at a level that you don’t normally see in most homes in this country. From an app, you can basically run your home from anywhere in the world,” said O’Hagan.

The house took eight years to complete and six of those were dedicated to the earthworks.

“To give you an idea, you have a hill. You can imagine the first terrace is going up eight metres. You have to fill it with soil, then you have another terrace and another,” Pellerade Design Group CEO Stephen Pellerade explained.

“We hadn’t realised how much soil you needed to fill the terraces. It was just immeasurable, even financially for wealthy people.”

He said they were lucky because at the time, they were able to strike a deal with the City of Johannesburg when the Gautrain company removed soil from Rosebank.

“So, we had the soil brought here by truck, probably a few hundred trucks a day, depositing the soil for the period of 18 months.”

He estimated that roughly 30 000 tonnes of soil were needed to complete the terraces. 

The Gatsby will be sold, fully furnished with handpicked antiques and period pieces from around the world, and other specially-commissioned modern pieces.