Palm Beach real estate is on a hot streak attributed variously to Covid-19, the SALT tax, and Florida\u2019s own 0% income tax rate.<\/p>\n
Now, the thin barrier island\u2019s boom market will face its greatest test yet: on Monday, the Palm Beach Post reported, a fully furnished spec home at 535 North County Road hit the market for $140 million.<\/p>\n
If it sells at ask, it would be the most expensive real estate transaction in Palm Beach history.<\/p>\n
To date, the record is held by a 70,000-square-foot home on six acres, which sold in 2019 for $111 million. <\/p>\n
This new listing represented by the broker Lawrence Moens sits on two acres and has about 21,000 square feet of interior space.<\/p>\n
Moens also represents a $110 million, 28,000-square-foot house, which is set in an arguably more attractive location on so-called \u201cBillionaire\u2019s Row.\u201d It\u2019s been on and off the market for about three years. (Moens didn\u2019t respond immediately to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot look back,\u201d says the Corcoran broker Paulette Koch, who\u2019s based in Palm Beach. \u201cYou have to look forward. Because there\u2019s a lack of product, and when there\u2019s a lack of inventory [the $140 million house] could easily attain such a price, or close to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The premium, Koch continues, comes from the home\u2019s newness. \u201cThis is a property where you can move into it tomorrow,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a value to that. Buyers in that price category like ease.\u201d<\/p>\n
The property has set records before. Donald Trump bought a six acre lot at a bankruptcy auction in 2004 for around $41 million, and then flipped it four years later to the Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who purchased the land from Trump in 2008 for an unprecedented $95 million. <\/p>\n
After holding onto the property for nine years, Rybolovlev subdivided it and sold the two-acre lot in question for what the Palm Beach Daily News reported as $37 million to Mark Pulte, a real estate developer in Boca Raton. <\/p>\n
After multiple setbacks from Palm Beach\u2019s notoriously strict architectural board, Pulte was given the green light for construction of a home designed by architect Bill Boyle. (Rybolovlev sold the other two lots for a combined $71.35 million.)<\/p>\n
The completed house has nine bedrooms, 12 baths, and seven half-baths. The house sits on the ocean, with 150 feet of shoreline. There\u2019s a large pool, manicured hedges, and a trim green lawn that leads to the beach.<\/p>\n
The house isn\u2019t just furnished\u2014it\u2019s stocked, similar to mega-mansions that recently flooded the L.A. market, for a ready-made lifestyle. Listing photos show made beds, walls covered in artwork, shelves filled with tasteful knicknacks, a back-lit bar stocked with wine and spirits, and bathrooms with hand towels ready to go. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want ease,\u201d Koch says. \u201cYou know what? Life is short. Remember that. So it\u2019s critical they start enjoying it. That\u2019s why people come here.\u201d <\/p>\n