Palm Beach is a town where someone always has a greater net worth, more notoriety, a larger yacht, or better art. It’s a rarefied world for some of the most discriminating people around the globe. For the first time, there are two $200 million–plus properties officially listed in the 33480 Zip code.
“Palm Beach is an asset market,” says Douglas Elliman broker Chris Leavitt, whose $218 million Tarpon Island listing is the highest priced home ever to be offered in Palm Beach. “At the end of the day, it’s an investment as well as a lifestyle—and one that comes with great bragging rights. No one is ever going to lose money on a one-of-a-kind Palm Beach property,” says Leavitt.
For clients in this market, the former Million Dollar Listing star, who had stints in New York and Miami real estate before landing in Palm Beach a decade ago, feels uniqueness, privacy, and rarity are the key selling points. As for Tarpon Island, he says, “at some point it boils down to a simple question: Where else can I live on my own private island with a tennis court, personal wellness center, pool, and a dock with a boat to whisk me to my yacht moored up island? If this is what you are looking for, nothing else compares.”
And, if you’re searching for something a bit different, say 362 feet of direct oceanfront property, that too is available. William Lauder has just put 2.3 acres of subdividable land on the market for $200 million—the largest direct oceanfront estate parcel available on Palm Beach. Only four other properties have more direct oceanfrontage, but they are not for sale.
1063/1071 North Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach (Photo: Shawn Hood Media)
“The transformation of Palm Beach to a year-round community of wealth and culture and a center of international financial acumen is the latest chapter of its ever-upward saga. But defiance of gravity defines the town’s DNA, so no one should be surprised,” says PALMER Editor at Large and bestselling author Michael Gross.
With more than 150,000 New Yorkers having relocated to Florida since March 2020, one local resident likened it to a feeding frenzy: “It’s not about the money, that’s simply the cost of admission. Once you’re in, you need to find your niche. List your wants: privacy, ocean, intracoastal, dock, size, renovated, then go shopping. Nothing is off limits. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that everyone in Palm Beach has their price, and serious buyers are rarely shy about making offers.”
And, these days, if you don’t see it, create it. According to one long-time local real estate watcher, “you only need look at Ken Griffins’s mega portfolio on Billionaire’s Row, Here’s this really rich guy who comes in from out of town and shows all the other really rich guys how they should live. And they took notice. It ultimately becomes a ripple effect.”
From the calls he has received regarding this listing and others at almost every price point, Leavitt feels this is just the beginning: “This is the tip of the iceberg—with huge demand and with such limited potential inventory, Palm Beach is just getting started.”
