Houston's 100 Carnarvon Drive is the most expensive listing

A lavish Houston mansion with a price tag that has made headlines for years is back on the market — and still a little hard to believe.

First, the $36 million asking price makes 100 Carnarvon Drive the most expensive home for sale anywhere near Houston, at least as far as listings published on the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) site go.

Second, it’s so large at 26,401 square feet that it not only has eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and four half-baths, but also what the listing describes as “a series of salons, grand galleries, ballrooms like halls,” and an “owner’s wing” that offers “optimal peace and privacy” – presumably from a large staff.

Third, the neoclassical and French interior – by renowned (and late) New York architect and designer David Easton – is so over-the-top that it looks more like a castle than a home.

100 Carnarvon Drive.

Steve Chen/Douglas Elliman

It is a rotunda with a domed, hand-painted trompe-l’oeil ceiling and a floor paved with five types of marble. There are “long arcaded galleries filled with a breathtaking array of columns.” There is a viewing room decorated as elaborately as the rest of the house (almost) and a Thai massage room.

The primary bedroom has mahogany cabinets in a closet that seems larger than many houses, plus (of course) a spa bath.

Elsewhere in the house, more mahogany covers the walls and ceiling of the majestic library, and a formal dining room includes “antique hand-painted canvas panels imported from Europe.”

It sits on more than two acres landscaped with gardens and a “Parisian-style pool.”

All of this is largely reflected in the price, which, if this property sold for $36 million, would break some records given that a home just two doors down—the English-manor-inspired 120 Carnarvon Drive — which sold in October for $21 million was the most expensive single-family home sale in Houston history, according to the Real Deal (which notes that larger deals could have taken place off-market).

This is also not the first time 100 Carnavaron has hit the Houston real estate market with both its opulence and price tag, nor is this the highest price it has ever commanded. In 2014, the mansion was listed for a truly ambitious $43 million, but failed to sell. In 2018, when the price was cut to a slightly more modest $30 million, it was described as “palastic”, “a living museum” and a “wonder to behold” by a reporter for Houstonia magazine who toured it. But again failed to sell and was subsequently taken off the market.

Although it was technically owned by a trust at the time, when 100 Carnarvon was originally listed for sale nearly 10 years ago, it was widely reported that the owners were Quantlab Financial co-founder Wilbur “Ed” Borsage and his wife, whose realtor said Houston Chronicle at the time that despite furnishing the huge property, the couple just didn’t spend enough time in it.

In 2020, their contentious divorce, with a multi-billion dollar estate at stake, received widespread media coverage.