Why bother with a mortgage when you have billions of dollars? Why even fill out a loan application for that matter when you can simply pay cash for any home on the market?
Well, that’s probably why Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s decision to take on not one but two mortgages on their $88 million Bel Air mansion has raised some eyebrows.
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Property records examined by The Daily Mail suggest that the couple, who are worth roughly $3.3 billion together, secured a $57.75 million mortgage on the property this April. That’s in addition to the previous $52.8 million mortgage secured four years ago.
Are the music moguls struggling financially and broke billionaires, as some online commentators have speculated, or is this a savvy real estate move? Here’s a closer look.
An outstanding liability of roughly $110.55 million on a single property sounds mind-boggling until you put it into context. Not only is the figure just 3.4% of the couple’s combined wealth, it’s also at a fairly attractive interest rate.
According to The Daily Mail, the new mortgage has been secured from Morgan Stanley’s Private Bank Group at a 30-year term with an interest rate fixed at 5% for the next ten years. The previous mortgage, meanwhile, was secured from Goldman Sachs at 3.15%. Effectively, the average rate on both these mortgages is significantly below the August 2025 30-year mortgage rate of 6.6%, according to the Federal Reserve.
Even if the interest rates were closer to the average, these loans would have still unlocked some key financial benefits for the billionaire couple.
By borrowing money against an asset they can easily afford, Jay-Z and Beyoncé seem to be pulling from the “Buy, Borrow, Die” playbook. The strategy involves acquiring appreciating assets, such as real estate, stocks or artwork. Then they borrow against those assets to create tax-free cash flow, subsequently passing the assets to their heirs (Blue Ivy, Rumi and Sir) to erase capital gains over the long term.
Beyond the tax advantages, this method also helps wealthy families minimize opportunity costs. By borrowing against their Bel Air mansion, Jay-Z and Beyoncé can invest roughly $110 million in their various business ventures or even the S&P 500, which has delivered a compounded annual growth rate of 13.66% over the past ten years.
