Do you want to own a piece of a home once owned by Kanye West?
Steven “Bo” Belmont is betting that you do.
Belmont, who purchased the Tadao Ando-built home from West for $21 million in 2024, has big plans for this concrete slab in Malibu: turning it into a luxury community space for members in the vein of the Soho House. Belmont wants to let multiple people share in his property by selling paid memberships for access to the space and a share in its equity.
There’s just one complication: West famously gutted the home before selling it.
“The equity in this is built on the finishing of the property,” Belmont told Business Insider. “So when they invest, those dollars go toward just moving that property down the line.”
Fractional real estate’s main purpose is to democratize real estate investing so more people can get in on the action. Belmont is admittedly raising the barrier to entry with his latest venture, Populis, offering not just the potential to make money, but opulent experiences — like hanging out at events in a Tadao Ando-built beach house in Malibu once owned by a famous rapper.
“We made the entry a little bit higher, which tends to cater to more of an accredited investor,” Belmont said. “But as we push through the luxury end of Populis, we will absolutely be spinning one out once we have the bandwidth to accommodate the full democratization of real estate and other goods, other real-world assets.”
Fractional ownership for the wealthy
The Malibu mansion is listed for $12 million by Christie’s International Real Estate SoCal, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.
“This is not a traditional whole-asset sale,” the listing reads. “It is a private, membership-driven opportunity designed for buyers seeking exposure to blue-chip real estate without assuming full ownership, management, or renovation responsibility.”
Belmont, alongside Alexandra Damsker and Matthew Hintz, founded Populis, which is essentially a crowdfunding endeavor to turn “architecturally significant properties” into Soho House-like spaces while also giving investors a chance to make some money.
Belmont isn’t solely in the business of catering to the ultrawealthy investor. His company Belwood Investments caters to the everyday investor looking to participate in luxury real estate flips.
But for a product like the Malibu house, he figured he needed some extra muscle in backing power — enter Populis.
The membership program, which is beginning with the Malibu house, aims to be a “civic movement of architects, artists, and outsiders reclaiming culture’s rarest places,” according to its website.
Through four different membership tiers, investors — after investing anywhere from $15,000 to over $100,000 — gain access to the properties in the form of tours, events, and summits at each.
“There’s the opportunity to socialize and hang out with all of these other investors and meet at these amazing properties,” Belmont said. “There are a lot of these really world-class class amazing properties around the world that we are able to offer to the masses.”
Bringing life to an abandoned home
Kanye West bought the home in 2021 for $57 million, but never lived in it. It’s one of a few properties West has unloaded recently, like one of his ranches in Wyoming. If all goes according to Belmont’s plan, the Malibu home will see life where it hasn’t in years.
As Belmont sees it, the home has value outside West’s involvement. It’s a uniquely built structure right on the Pacific Ocean that plenty of people will want to visit.
“This is not a regular single-family home — this is not even a regular concrete home — this is something completely different,” Belmont said.
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