In Northern Virginia’s highest sale by the Potomac River this year, a 22,000-square-foot, new construction mansion traded for $18.5 million on Tuesday after spending more than a year on the market.
The 10-bedroom, 16-bathroom home at 6431 Georgetown Pike is situated in McLean’s rarified Hickory Hills neighborhood — a Washington, D.C., suburb that gained traction after Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy settled at nearby Hickory Hill. It sold for about 7% less than its $22.5 million list price. Still, the transaction beat out this area’s top sale for the year: a $17.5 million residence at 1150 Chain Bridge Road.
Mark Lowham and Will Thomas of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty listed the property. Piper Yerks of Washington Fine Properties acted as the buyer’s agent. According to Lowham, the buyer, who was not identified, plans to live in the house.
The four-story Georgetown Pike home was constructed in 2023 and developed by The Building Group, a McLean-headquartered company run by Mike and Mandy Mafi. The developers boast a portfolio of similarly mammoth residential properties, such as the “Château de Lumière” in Great Falls, which sold for $9.8 million in 2024.
The Building Group’s “niche is building these very opulent, very exceptional mansions throughout Northern Virginia,” Lowham said. “But now they’re also building them in Montgomery County,” he noted, pointing toward another D.C. suburb on the Maryland side of the border. “They’re all custom homes, but they have one thing in common: that they are super luxurious.”
The property at 6431 Georgetown Pike, for example, is decked out with Italian marble, intricate millwork and moldings, hand-forged iron, and mosaic murals. The house sits on nearly 4 wooded acres and boasts oversized living spaces designed to host gatherings, with a catering kitchen to go along with a principal kitchen, a catering kitchen, a wet bar, and a 12-plus person dining room.
There's also a 3,300-square-foot primary suite (which, for those curious, has a 1,400-square-foot closet).
In addition to a decked-out gym, the house has a massage room, a beauty parlor, and a spa with a dry sauna and a steam sauna.
The mansion has a “real emphasis on amenities in terms of health and wellness,” Lowham said. “This really appeals to our luxury buyers.”
‘What you can buy for $10 million in Washington’
Sales like this are happening more and more in Washington, D.C., Lowham said.
The Washington market “didn’t used to have houses that sold for more than $10 million and now, we don’t have a lot of them, but so far this year there have been nine in the region,” Lowham said. And when it comes to trades of this level, an all-cash deal is “very, very typical.”
That upward trend is notable to Lowham, who sees it as evidence that the Washington market is catching up to those of other global capitals. Using $10 million as a marker, he suggested, “what you can buy for $10 million in Washington is still astounding for what you could buy for $10 million in another global capital.” In other words, it’s better value for your money.
“I think that we’re seeing the world slowly but surely coming to Washington, bringing with it not only the taste and the interest in these luxury properties but also the capital to buy them,” Lowham said.
Some of that capital is local, the agent noted. “In Northern Virginia, what’s driving it is, you know, there’s a robust economy,” he said. “There’s still a lot of wealth being created.”
The region has also seen a recent spate of sales from people affiliated with the Trump administration, he said. “A number of them have bought very expensive homes.”
More options for DC buyers
When it comes to time spent on the market — 6431 Georgetown Pike spent 223 days total, according to Homes.com, although it was initially listed while under construction — Lowham said that’s a function of a bit more inventory hitting a supply-constrained market.
“That inventory is coming in on the heels of a really barren landscape, in terms of listings,” he explained. “There are more options now for buyers. It’s going to take a little bit longer to sell something because buyers are going to look at more properties.”
The home at 6431 Georgetown Pike in particular saw “an exceptional amount of activity” for a property in its price range, Lowham said. Prior to this week’s closing, the agents had four other contracts presented on the house. “For different reasons,” he noted, “most of them were related to being able to bring capital into the United States, the transactions didn’t move forward.”