Neil Young adds his sprawling getaway to Hawaii's $20M-plus club

Neil Young adds his sprawling getaway to Hawaii's $20M-plus club

By Sid Lipsey

You've heard of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Now you can have Neil Young's Crazy-Nice House!

The rock/folk legend is selling his lush 2-plus-acre beachfront estate on the Big Island of Hawaii for $24.5 million.

The home is on a private peninsula between two incredible ocean bays, according to the listing. Besides the main structure — a five-bedroom, four-bathroom beach house — there are two two-bedroom guest cottages, two greenhouses and a pool house.

(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow.)

"The house is a historical estate," says listing agent Carrie Nicholson from Hawai'i Life Real Estate. "It provides luxurious privacy. It's a very classic Hawaii style."

The Wai'alea Bay property has 830 feet of ocean frontage on the Kohala Coast, with prime surfing, snorkeling and beach spots nearby.

The edible gardens are extensive: Honolulu Garden Club has honored the estate for its many coconut tree varieties, the listing says, and there are also mango, papaya, pomelo and lemon trees, as well as a terraced vegetable garden.

Neil Young and Daryl Hannah in Rome in June 2015. Click photo for slideshow.
Neil Young and Daryl Hannah in Rome in June 2015. Click photo for slideshow.

Young has long been linked to Hawaii. He's recorded songs and wrote his memoirs at his estate. In 2012, he talked about his Hawaiian getaway in an interview with Parade magazine: "I love to be in the water. I love to paddleboard and just hang out with friends."

So why is the man who recorded a song called "Hawaiian Sunrise" (aka "Maui Mama") selling his Hawaiian paradise?

Did we mention the "$24.5 million" part? Owners of sprawling Hawaiian estates are hoping to take advantage of surging interest from California tech billionaires, with a record two dozen properties on the market for $20 million or more, according to Bloomberg. Actress Julia Roberts has been trying to sell a historic 2-acre property in Kauai, originally asking $30 million but marking it down a few days ago to a plenty ambitious $26 million. And a 28-acre property in Kauai -- which Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, sold in 2011 for $20 million -- was relisted last month at a nicely inflated $29.5 million.

"There are a lot of people who like to come to our area to get away and unplug from it all," says Nicholson. "The Big Island [of Hawaii] has some exceptional weather. The ocean's gorgeous, there are golf opportunities, the temperature doesn't change much all year round. So we get a lot of people from the West Coast." California tech billionaires have been snapping up Hawaiian playgrounds, causing home prices to swell to tsunami-size levels. Oracle's Larry Ellison and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are among those who have shelled out big bucks for Hawaiian properties in recent years.

So maybe Neil Young is trying to cash in on the trend. He still has other properties, including homes in Northern California and Malibu.

Or maybe he's trying to recoup some revenue after announcing he'd pull his music catalog from streaming services ... ?

P.S. In case you're wondering: The oddball hippie hideaway of his recent paramour, Daryl Hannah, appears to have gone unsold, even though she was asking much less -- $4.25 million -- for an organic oasis in Malibu, California, with many times the acreage.

Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of Neil Young's Hawaii getaway, on the market for $24.5 million.

Also on Yahoo Homes:

Julia Roberts knocks $4M off Hawaii rental estate (35 photos)
Hawaiian cliff-top mansion now about 70% off (51 photos)
Aging couple must sell 'personal Eden,' a treehouse in paradise (29 photos)

And just for fun: