The number of sales at Premiere Estates Auction Co., which sells luxury properties, rose 30 percent last year, said Anthony Fitzgerald, a broker with the Manhattan Beach, California-based company. He wouldn't say how many homes the company sold. The gain is likely to be exceeded this year, he said.

"The actual dollar amount of homes auctioned off has also increased by about that much," Fitzgerald said. "It means there are more auctions but there are also more high-end auctions. I think it's fair to say that we've seen a 100 percent increase in opening bid prices."

$22 Million

Premiere Estates is preparing the sale of a Malibu, California, beach estate owned by William Chadwick, a managing director at investment bank Chadwick Saylor & Co. The minimum bid is $22 million. With an original listing price of $65 million in 2008, it is the highest-priced home ever to go to auction, according to Fitzgerald.

At an open house in early August, about a dozen people at a time walked through the 10,500-square-foot, nine-and-a-half bathroom estate, which has five fireplaces, an ocean-view gym, a $1.5 million home theater with leather recliners, and a 75-foot (23-meter) lap pool on a 4,500-square-foot patio.

The home sits on "Billionaire Beach," a stretch of Malibu officially known as Carbon Beach, where Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive officer of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., also have homes.

The home, which Chadwick built in 2005, is assessed at $6.08 million and the land at $2.45 million, according to public records. Chadwick bought the property from Pepperdine University in 2002 for $2 million, according to the Los Angeles County assessor's office. The $22 million starting bid at the auction is based on recent sales of comparable properties in the area, Fitzgerald said.

Relocating to Chicago

Chadwick is selling because he wants to relocate closer to his wife's family in Chicago, according to Carol Bird, the home's listing agent with Westside Estate Agency. Chadwick didn't respond to a voice mail left at his office. His company, based in Los Angeles, won't be affected by the move, Bird said.

Interest at the open house indicates a sale may happen before the auction, scheduled for Sept. 18, Bird said. Should it come to auction, Chadwick has the right to decline bids he doesn't consider to be satisfactory.