A little piece of Bermuda that is more than 3,000 miles away has been sold for a cool $55 million.

The Bermudian-styled home has an enviable hilltop location overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

With its pastel blue walls, white shutters, covered veranda and a steeped white tiled roof, it would not look out of place anywhere in Bermuda.

But the property, known as “the Big Blue House”, was built in 1936 at Newport Beach in southern California.

It has been sold, together with another home on a 3.5-acre site, for $55 million. That sets a new record for a home sale in Orange County, California.

The property was previously owned by California’s prominent Irvine family, who once controlled an agricultural ranch of more than 100,000 acres, which stretched from the Anaheim Hills through New Port Beach and north Laguna Beach. In 1910, the Los Angeles Times declared the Irvine Ranch “one of the greatest cultivated farms in the world”.

A previous listing of the blue house stated it had four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a four-car garage, tennis court and swimming pool. The other home in the sale has six bedrooms and was built in the 1980s.

In recent years the property was owned by Kathryn Wheeler, a great-granddaughter of James Irvine, who cofounded the Irvine Ranch. The new owner has not been revealed.

It is not clear why the house in the Corona del Mar neighbourhood was built to resemble a Bermudian home. However, according to a report in the Orange County Register, a previous description of the property by listing agency Rob Giem of Compass, said: “A long private drive leads to the entrance court of the understated home.

“Ageing gracefully on the site, the vintage residence was built as a homage to the grand winter retreats of Bermuda. Undisturbed, it retains all of the original charm and character of its colonial architecture.”

A nearby pool house that was once part of the same estate was sold in 2012 for almost $12 million. It also featured Bermudian-style architecture, including white roof and blue walls.