Taylor Swift followers, your probability has come as soon as extra to lease a bit of historical past—particularly, the Cornelia Road condo that impressed her Lover tune “Cornelia Road,” which incorporates the lyric, “I lease a spot on Cornelia Road.”
Swift briefly rented the charming West Village pied-à-terre starting in 2016, whereas renovating her large condo in Tribeca. It was on this hallowed area (initially constructed as a carriage home in 1870) the place, as Swift sings, she memorized “the creaks within the flooring.” The going principle amongst Swifties is that the tune paperwork Swift’s early romance together with her ex Joe Alwyn.
Within the tune, Swift reveals that “in case you ever stroll away, I’d by no means stroll Cornelia Road once more.” Now, one month after the couple break up, the condo is again within the highlight as its actual property dealer drums up publicity in TMZ. All this may be yours, for $45,000 per 30 days.
That is Swift’s lot in life, so to talk. Very like anything that celebrities do today, actual property has turn out to be topic to fixed reporting. In an period when many millennials with lingering recollections of marathoning Cribs now spend their time wistfully scrolling by way of Zillow, actual property has additionally turn out to be part of celebrities’ manufacturers.
Swift’s notoriously plush actual property portfolio—which the Wall Road Journal tallied at $150 million earlier this yr—has helped inform her story for greater than a decade. They’ve helped outline her aesthetic and turn out to be a part of her lore. By means of the years, the singer has woven her houses and their very own histories into her music and, conversely, used her actual property purchases to weave herself into their histories too.
Because the starting of her profession, Swift’s so-called “authenticity” has been on the coronary heart of her detractors’ skepticism—and wealth has lengthy performed an element in sowing that distrust. Regardless of the “underdog” narrative that the singer cultivated early in her profession, some critics identified that she was born into appreciable cash: Her mom is a former advertising supervisor, and her father, a Merrill Lynch stockbroker, descends from three generations of financial institution presidents, in response to the New Yorker. An aptly titled 2016 put up from The Ringer requested, “When Did You First Notice Taylor Swift Was Mendacity to You?”
It ought to come as no shock, given her household historical past, that as Swift’s album gross sales rose, she started to park a few of that money into real-estate investments.
Beverly Hills (and Nashville): That’s the place Taylor desires to be
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Ever the industrious one, Swift made her first buy at age 20, when the Wall Road Journal reviews that she bought her Nashville apartment on Nashville’s Music Row for $2.377M in 2009.
Swift cobbled her 5,000 square-foot starter residence collectively by buying two models—a building endeavor to which she would later return, a lot to the consternation of a few of her neighbors in Tribeca years later.
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The attention-catching abode, seen in Swift’s 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana, was principally the godmother of grand-millennial design. Swift’s zest for one thing “completely different from in every single place else I see”—described by journalist Jody Rosen for Vulture as an “eye-popping cacophony of patterned wallpaper and materials”—foretold present inside design tendencies towards all issues classic and maximalist and helped solidify her accessible, evenly quirky lady model.
As Swift picked out tiles and wallpapers in 2009, she described her ornamental instincts as “whimsical quirky eclectic tree home.” 4 years later, Rosen described the ultimate product as a “Shabby-Stylish Alice in Wonderland.”
In 2010, Swift’s star soared with Converse Now—which defied downward tendencies in album gross sales and bought 1,047,000 copies within the US in its first week. The triumph of Swift’s album ushered in a brand new chapter in her actual property story as properly. We’ll name 2011 her “I’ve arrived” period.
That yr, Swift purchased her first residence in Beverly Hills. In line with her dreamy, proto-cottagecore model, Swift managed to search out maybe the one Cape Cod-style residence within the 90210 for $3.55 million, the Journal reviews. Swift additionally purchased a $2.5 million mansion for her dad and mom in 2011—a Greek Revival construction known as “the Northumberland Property.” (Our Tay-Tay actually loves her idiosyncratic architectural kinds!) A yr later, Swift dropped one other $1.775 million for a second home in Beverly Hills to make use of for visitors—you recognize, as one does.
When Swift lastly welcomed Vogue to her residence for a spherical of “73 Questions” in 2016, she did so at her Beverly Hills property. The wallpaper was out in full drive, and apparently T-Swift retains a VMA trophy subsequent to her espresso maker. The backyard? Gorgeous. The accents really feel like a throwback to the times when Pier 1 was it for suburban inside design, and the lighting is heat and comfy. It was all completely curated, and all of it screamed “Taylor Swift.”
Put collectively, the Nashville and Beverly Hills properties solidified Swift’s buying energy and demonstrated what her followers and savvy critics already knew: She wasn’t going anyplace.
Taylor strikes in—and out—of Cape Cod
Then got here the time Swift dated a Kennedy. In August 2012, months earlier than she launched her smash album Pink and 6 weeks into her relationship with Conor Kennedy, Swift purchased a $4.9 million residence on Cape Cod, throughout the road from the Kennedy compound. Within the e book The Kennedy Heirs, a buddy of Conor’s stated that Swift’s buy made him nervous: “It appeared as if she was getting somewhat too connected, spending 5 million bucks on a home simply to be close to the man.”
Chatter about Swift’s courting life was at its most pervasive across the time Pink debuted. By then, she’d dated a string of A-listers, together with Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner, and Harry Types, and woven a lot of them into a few of her finest songs.
On reflection, Swift’s transient stint within the Cape Cod seaside residence—and the dialogue round it—appears like a relic from the bygone period earlier than “Clean Area,” when gossip about her relationships was as pervasive as opinions of her music. In the long run, nevertheless, Swift bought the final chortle on this one; as rapidly as she bought her coastal pad, she nonetheless walked away with an $870 million revenue.
Miss “Taymerica”
Maybe probably the most essential actual property funding of Swift’s profession up to now got here in 2013, when she purchased her Rhode Island mansion for $17.75 million. This could turn out to be the stage for the brand-defining custom “Taymerica.” The annual Fourth of July occasion first made information in 2014, thanks partially to the rise of Swift’s “Lady Squad.”
This was the time of “Unhealthy Blood,” Mad Max-style costumes, and energy in girlbossy numbers. The “Lady Squad” was Swift at her most controversial, and Taymerica was its nexus. Lena Dunham was on deck at Taymerica 2014, as have been Gossip Lady star Jessica Szohr, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, “You & I” singer Ingrid Michaelson, and Swift’s The Giver co-star Odeya Rush.
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The events appeared, in a method, like Swift’s armor towards the fixed chatter of her critics—photographic proof that some individuals, no less than, favored her simply high quality, thankyouverymuch!
Swift’s Rhode Island residence, additionally known as Vacation Home, was inbuilt 1930 and is the very best on Watch Hill—which makes it the right backdrop for enviable, narrative-setting ’grams. It was right here in 2016 that we noticed Tom Hiddleston in an “I <3 TS” tee—and likewise an totally miserable-looking Ryan Reynolds on the porch.
The Rhode Island property would possibly carry deeper that means for Swift than every other property in her portfolio. The home’s former proprietor—high-society socialite, philanthropist, and artist Rebekah Harkness—impressed Swift’s folklore tune “The Final Nice American Dynasty.” The tune attracts parallels between the scrutiny Swift and her friends acquired throughout their time at Vacation Home and the judgment Harnkess drew in her day.
Welcome to New York
Approach earlier than folklore, nevertheless, got here Swift’s Manhattan lady part. (Keep in mind when she bought a brand new job as a vacationer ambassador and welcomed herself to New York?) In spring 2014, Swift rode in on the chilly breeze and dropped $19.9 million on two penthouses in Tribeca’s Sugar Loaf constructing. (Her cat Meredith Gray appeared to like the view.) Put collectively, the penthouses—beforehand owned by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson—complete 8,018 sq. toes. It was from this abode that Swift as soon as famously exited in a big field.
The Journal reviews that, in 2017, Swift expanded her Tribeca actual property portfolio by shopping for a further $18 million townhouse and, later, an adjoining $9.75 million condo. When Swift purchased the condo, some neighbors within the space expressed their irritation to the New York Put up. “Franklin Road has a historical past of being an apocalypse of building,” one supply stated. “When even one lane is blocked off, it may well trigger chaos.”
Nonetheless, she persevered.
Taylor goes Hollywood
By then, it was time for Swift’s close-up: In 2014, the rumor mill began churning that Swift was itching for her big-screen debut—and an Oscar. She’d auditioned for Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables—which debuted in 2013—and Twilight: New Moon director Chris Weitz stated final yr that she’d requested an element within the 2009 vampire movie as properly. Talking with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2012, Swift claimed she’d been studying scripts for 5 years and dealing with an performing coach as properly.
Cue Swift’s MGM period—in any other case referred to as the time she purchased the Outdated Hollywood property that legendary Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer constructed for $25 million, restored it, and bought it licensed as a historic landmark.
Additionally in 2014, Swift dropped a dreamy video for her 1989 single “Wildest Goals”—which nods closely towards MGM’s 1953 romance Mogambo alongside different influences.
Swift bought her first two Beverly Hills houses in 2018 and made a revenue on every, the Journal reviews. One of many estates had confronted a number of safety incidents previous to the sale.
In 2016, throughout building on her Tribeca penthouse(s), Swift started renting the Cornelia Road condo. She rode out a part of the pandemic in Primrose Hill with Joe Alwyn, however Manhattan appears to have captured extra of their glow. So highly effective is the singer’s lore that within the wake of her break-up with Joe Alwyn, followers have been paying visits to the constructing the place she now not lives in remembrance. Swift would possibly by no means stroll Cornelia Road once more, however her followers doubtless will for years to come back—as will whoever can cough up the five-figure rental worth.
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