WSJ News Exclusive | A Red Hot Chili Pepper and a Getty Oil Heir Once Owned This $9.885 Million L.A. Home

Once owned by Flea, the house now belongs to the artist Muna El Fituri. From left: b Grabowski/Invision/Associated Press; lex Zarour/Virtually Here Studios; tefanie Keenan/Getty Images

Mr. Balzary bought the house in 1996 for $1.17 million, according to property records. While he owned the property, Mr. Balzary added a recording studio in the garage building, Mr. Carswell said. Mr. Balzary didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The musician sold the house for $3 million in 1999 to the late John Gilbert Getty, a Getty oil heir, according to Mr. Carswell.

The seller is artist Muna El Fituri, who bought the house in 2014 for $8.3 million from Mr. Getty, according to property records. She declined to comment on the home.

The house spans roughly 5,600 square feet and has four bedrooms, according to Mr. Carswell. Known as “The Castle,” it was built in the 1920s with art nouveau, Egyptian and Moroccan influences, according to Mr. Carswell. 

In the foyer, a chandelier hangs from a 26-foot ceiling above a spiral staircase that matches the hand-cut stone walls. Egyptian-inspired decorative columns line a roughly 15-foot-wide passageway that leads to the home’s formal living room, which has a gold-colored ceiling. It is meant to resemble the gold trim found in the Sistine Chapel, Mr. Carswell said. A balcony overlooks the living room and leads to a lounge area that is also gold-colored, Mr. Carswell said. 

In addition to the 2-story garage, the grounds contain a basketball court.

In September, the median sale price of a home in Los Feliz was $1.9 million, up 9.1% from the same time last year, according to Redfin. Like most markets across the country, L.A. has seen a dip in the number of home sales compared with last year, according to Mr. Carswell. While listing prices remain similar, he said, there is more room for price negotiations. 

Write to Libertina Brandt at [email protected]