Buying mansions here and there is not enough for the uber-rich.
“Landmaxxing,” or buying up adjacent properties to assemble sprawling private compounds, has been a major part of the ultra-luxury market this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Compounds are increasingly in demand, and some of the business world’s biggest names are leading the trend. In South Florida, Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin dropped more than $450 million to piece together a 27-acre Palm Beach compound. Griffin has spent more than $1 billion assembling land from Miami to Palm Beach, The Real Deal previously reported.
Jeff Bezos has become one of the most prolific buyers in Indian Creek Village, Miami’s “Billionaire Bunker” enclave, where he’s spent more than $230 million on several residential properties.
Last month, WeatherTech CEO David MacNeil and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison paid a combined $67 million for land from Florida real estate developer Stewart Satter, splitting the property for their respective neighboring Manalapan compounds. Larry Ellison has also been a busy buyer in Malibu, California, and Nevada’s Incline Village, the newspaper reported.
Wealthy clients want as much as 300 feet of water frontage, which is often only possible by piecing together several properties, Chad Carroll of Compass told the publication.
Venture capital investor Ben Ling and his husband, Hedge Labs co-founder Chris Coundron, paid $40 million for a waterfront teardown next to their mansion on Palm Island, expanding their compound to 2 acres, TRD reported.
Other clients want extra space for more amenities or guest houses.
Last year, GFL Environmental CEO Patrick Dovigi paid $48.5 million across three transactions for properties in Miami Beach’s Sunset Islands, where he’s adding a gym, spa, padel court and cabana around the main residence.
Some buyers are assembling compounds to protect the land around their homes.
Dace Stubbs, a member of the family that makes Jack Daniel’s, bought a 14.3-acre ranch in Colorado for $3 million, then dropped another $1.2 million for 40 more acres to protect the ranch’s mountain views, the outlet said.
U.S. luxury property searches doubled from January to May compared to a year before, and searches for buildable land jumped 97 percent, according to Coldwell Banker. Searches for distinct properties also more than doubled.
While the broader housing market is strained by high interest rates, rising home prices and economic uncertainty, the luxury market tells a different story. Average luxury sales volume rose 2.8 percent in the first five months of the year compared to a year earlier, and the median price rose 4.7 percent to $1.8 million, the outlet reported.
—Grace McClung
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Venture capital investor buys Palm Island teardown next door for $40M
WeatherTech, Oracle billionaires pay $67M for slices of neighboring Manalapan land
