On July 15, the hosts of Fox Business’ The Big Money Show argued on air about whether it counts as greed. Greedy or not, the buying is happening. Some of the biggest fortunes in America are moving into land, and the people who happen to own property nearby could score a big payday.
Here’s who’s buying, why now — and what it means for the rest of us.
Billionaires are buying the block, not the house
Coldwell Banker’s report found would-be buyers circling high-end U.S. homes at twice last year’s rate between January and May. Buildable-land searches jumped 97% from a year earlier. And the hunt for one-of-a-kind properties — private islands, estates and historic homes — grew fastest of all, up 146%.
Jeff Bezos has spent more than $230 million on homes in Indian Creek Village, the gated Miami island that residents call the “Billionaire Bunker.” WeatherTech founder David MacNeil has gone back for the lot next door three times in Manalapan, Florida — spending more than $230 million so far. In June, he and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison went halves on a $67 million parcel that developer Stewart Satter owned, each folding their share into the compound they already had next door.
Griffin’s 27 acres alone cost him over $450 million, according to WSJ. The Real Deal, which has tracked his deals for years, puts his running total between Miami and Palm Beach at more than $1 billion.
The pattern runs inland too, as Dace Stubbs, a member of the family behind Jack Daniel’s, bought a 14.3-acre Colorado ranch for $3 million. Then he spent $1.2 million more on the 40 acres around it so nothing could ever block the mountain view, the WSJ reported.
The truth is buying out the neighbors isn’t particularly new. Mark Zuckerberg bought the four houses around his home in Palo Alto, California, for more than $30 million in 2013 and let the same families stay on as his tenants. Ellison maneuvered in Carbon Beach in Malibu, California, the same way, and the WSJ says he’s still at it today, in Malibu, Incline Village, Nevada and Manalapan.
What has changed this year is the volume.
Privacy, staff quarters and an inflation hedge
The extra land mostly earns its keep, WSJ found: staff housing, gardens, garages and docks. Coldwell Banker’s report lists two more reasons: preserving views and making room for several generations of one family. And it keeps strangers from living within sight of the main house.
