The super-rich don’t just buy mansions—they want entire neighborhoods

The ultimate flexibility for billionaires is no longer to buy one mansion, or even two.

Buyers with deep pockets are increasingly snapping up neighboring properties to create private residential areas with amenities ranging from parking to surfboards.

“Landmaxxing” – the pursuit of optimizing land holdings by acquiring more land – drove the luxury property market in the first half of the year, according to a new mid-year report from Coldwell Banker. The report said searches for U.S. luxury properties doubled in the first five months of this year compared with 2025. Searches for buildable land increased 97% year-over-year, while searches for unique properties including private islands and estates more than doubled.

Unlike other real estate markets that are vulnerable to rising interest rates and economic uncertainty, luxury real estate is driven by lifestyle and substantial wealth creation. “If people want to move and have the cash, they can — and they do,” said Mary Lee Blaylock, president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates. Overall, average luxury sales of single-family homes increased 2.8% year over year from January to May, while the median price rose 4.7% to $1.83 million.

Danny Hertzberg, a Miami broker with Coldwell Banker Realty, said demand for condos has increased as wealthy people look to diversify their portfolios by buying real estate. “That’s more desirable than a 40,000-square-foot house,” he said. “For some, it’s privacy and security. For others, it’s a hedge against inflation.”

Dana Koch of the Corcoran Group said neighbors are the first prospects agents look at when selling a property and “a lot of times, people will overpay”.

Some high-profile “landmaxxers” include Ken Griffin, who spent more than $450 million to build a 27-acre compound in Palm Beach, and Jeff Bezos, who spent more than $230 million to buy property on Miami’s Indian River Island. Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison is a prolific buyer of properties in Malibu, California, Incline Village, Nevada, and Manalapan, Florida.

The seller was homebuilder Pedro Adrian, who had previously combined two lots to build a roughly 11,600-square-foot house with a tennis court. Property records show the buyer is Adrian’s neighbor, venture capitalist Benjamin Ling, who paid $27.9 million for the adjacent oceanfront home in 2021.

On Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island, investor Ibrahim Al-Rashid has built a 10,000-square-foot home on the site of the old Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club, which he purchased in 2010 for $3 million. When two neighbors decided to sell their homes, he bought them in 2020 and 2021 for a combined $12.5 million. Ibrahim and his wife, Ryann Al-Rashid, built a hotel with a gym, spa and artificial fish pond.

Herzberg said he has seen clients buy neighboring properties for employee housing, gardening or boating. Last year, businessmen Patrick Dovege Three transactions cost $48.5 million for an oceanfront home, part of the lot next door and the non-oceanfront lot across the street. Dovege is adding a gym, spa and cabana next to the main residence and adding a cricket field across the street.

Dace Brown Stubbs, whose family founded the company that makes Jack Daniel’s beer, originally purchased a 14.26-acre ranch in Snowmass, Colorado, for $2.999 million. She said that after renovating the roughly 4,100-square-foot main home, she and her husband, William King Stubbs, a retired physician who lives primarily in Kentucky, realized they needed to “protect our view.” Over the years, she spent $1.15 million to purchase another 40 acres. “I would hate to have one or two huge houses built on these beautiful fields,” she said.

Margit Brandt of Premier Estate Properties said buyers are willing to pay a premium for multiple adjacent lots, especially if land is scarce. She cited the recent sale of land in Manalapan for $105 million. The seller, WeatherTech founder David MacNeil, paid a total of $93.5 million for the two parcels in 2024 and 2025. The buyer is unknown.

McNeil has since paid slightly more than $100 million for adjacent adjacent property and signed a contract to pay $36 million for a third adjacent parcel of land, totaling 5.5 acres. “It’s almost impossible to rebuild,” Brandt said.

Ibrahim said he invested about $45 million in his Miami Beach home, which he estimates is now worth $100 million, but he is not selling it.

The Stubbs, now in their 80s, spent about $4.14 million on five parcels of land and put a 40-acre portion of their ranch on the market for $12.25 million. Similar compounds are hard to find, said listing agent Carrie Wells of Coldwell Banker Mason Morse. “A lot of people in Aspen don’t want to give up what they have,” she said.

write to EB Solomon at eb.solomont@wsj.com