South Florida’s Billionaires Wave Is Swamping the Region for Good and Ill

When private equity executive Jason Wright paid $14 million for a waterfront property in Miami Beach’s gated Sunset Islands enclave four years ago, some observers thought he had overpaid. After all, the seller was flipping the home for a staggering 50 percent profit in less than two months. 

Fast forward to today, Wright seems poised to have the last laugh. In May, the investor put the property up for sale, as well as the one next door, for a combined $110 million. While the sum looks staggering, it is not far-fetched.

“Based on the location, the size of the lot, and the quality of the home, I believe it’s a good price,” said Ana Teresa Rodriguez of Coldwell Banker, the broker representing the seller. “We are talking about two different worlds: before and after the pandemic.” 

The listing reflects the latest wave of growth in South Florida’s post-COVID-19 real estate market. The sun-soaked region continues to experience record-breaking real estate activity, especially in the top residential sector. The surge is now spilling into the commercial real estate market. While the wealth migration represents a great opportunity for developers, it also presents challenges for the region as working- and middle-class folks are squeezed and some move out. 

During the height of the pandemic, wealthy Northerners, Westerners and Midwesterners rushed into South Florida, thanks to its year-round sunshine, low taxes and restriction-free living. During the past six months, the migration gained renewed momentum as tech billionaires trickled into the region, spending top dollar on trophy homes. 

In December, billionaire Google founder Larry Page spent $170 million assembling a waterfront compound in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood. His Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, followed suit four months later, buying a waterfront mansion in Miami Beach’s Allison Island for $51 million. 

That same month, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg spent $170 million on a compound in Indian Creek Island, a 300-acre enclave north of Miami nicknamed Billionaire Bunker. The purchase was the most expensive single home transaction in Miami-Dade County’s history. It also made Zuckerberg neighbors with another tech magnate, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who since 2023 has bought three compounds on the island for a combined $237 million.

Politics is sure to have played an important role in these transactions. The purchases came as a wealth tax in California gained traction. The proposal would impose a one-time 5 percent tax on California residents whose net worth exceeds $1 billion. It has gained more than 1.5 million signatures and could become a ballot initiative in November. In response, Brin has donated $57 million to a political organization lobbying for two other ballot initiatives meant to counteract the proposed wealth tax, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But all this growth is not without its drawbacks. 

Florida’s net migration has begun to wane. While the Trump administration’s tough, uncompromising campaign to remove illegal immigrants is at least partially to blame, so is the rising cost of living. Miami-Dade County recorded one of the nation’s largest population declines over the past two years, with more 10,000 residents relocating, according to recent U.S. Census data.

Construction of housing that’s affordable has not kept up. Miami-Dade County needs at least 90,000 more affordable rental homes for households earning up to $75,000 per year, according to nonprofit Miami Homes for All. That cohort of people is spending far more than the recommended 30 percent income limit on housing. 

A shrinking population, even with lots of rich people, poses challenges to the overall health of the economy. It could cost the region essential workers, including teachers, nurses and police officers, who can no longer afford to live there. Not to mention service workers — who are essential for the hospitality sector, South Florida’s economic engine — and young professionals, who are key to growing newly minted companies that local officials are often so happy to welcome.

“Not every city is experiencing the economic growth that we are experiencing here — that is a blessing,” said Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins at a talk hosted by Bloomberg in late April. “But it has exacerbated the affordability crisis. There is no question around that.” 

Despite these drawbacks, both developers and billionaires are capitalizing and facilitating the boom.

In West Palm Beach, billionaire developer Stephen Ross, who moved his primary residence to Florida from New York during the pandemic, has lured high-profile finance companies, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Elliott Management, to his office buildings. His team sees military tech and artificial intelligence as the next frontier for office demand. Already, artificial intelligence software company ServiceNow has committed to leasing up to 200,000 square feet at Ross’s 10 CityPlace development, which remains under construction.

Ross has donated $50 million to Vanderbilt University to help establish a $520 million graduate campus in West Palm Beach, which should create a steady supply of well-educated, employable workers. To keep them happy, Ross’s firm, Related Ross, is providing the lifestyle that high-earning talent desires, from luxury condos and private clubs to music festivals. 

Related Ross is also fixing another problem: good grade schools for the children of executives. South Florida has few quality private schools. In nearby Wellington, the developer has partnered with ElevateED to build a 45-acre nonprofit PreK–12 school, which is expected to open in 2028.

South down Interstate 95 in Miami, billionaire hedge funder Ken Griffin has taken on the mantle. In 2022, the magnate relocated the global headquarters of his two businesses — hedge fund Citadel and market maker Citadel Securities — from Chicago to Miami. Griffin has partnered with Ross to launch a $10 million campaign to lobby other CEOs to relocate to Florida. 

“We want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty, and that embraces people having an opportunity to live the American Dream,” Griffin said at the Milken Institute Global Conference in May.

He is building the real estate to match. Along Brickell’s waterfront, Griffin has tapped Related Companies and Norman Foster’s architecture firm to build a 54-story office tower, which is expected to cost $2.5 billion. The billionaire is now also looking to build a hotel, housing and parking garage on the surrounding parcels. To that end, Griffin quietly bought up the 100-plus condos in a 22-story building on one of the parcels, the Wall Street Journal reported in June. Griffin plans to demolish that tower to make way for apartments and a parking garage. 

Griffin’s purchases are also helping to reset prices in Miami. When the billionaire purchased the 2.5-acre parcel that will house his 1.7 million-square-foot development in 2022, he paid a record $363 million, which sent shockwaves throughout the real estate community. 

Three years later, a joint venture led by Oak Row Equities and OKO Group paid $520 million for developable land nearby. While the transaction was less than that of Griffin on a per-acre basis, it still broke the record for land sales in Miami, on a gross basis. Priced into the $520 million figure is the expected windfall from some of Citadel’s newly minted Miami employees and others.  

“When Citadel moves here, they’re bringing every executive under the sun who can pay the $20 million for a condo next door in our development,” said David Weitz, a co-founder and managing partner of Oak Row Equities.

South Florida’s condo market has long relied on investors looking to flip the units or to rent them out. The pandemic — and now this current wealth migration — has recalibrated the equation to include more well-heeled domestic buyers, many searching for primary residences. Developers hope the new set of buyers will continue to set pricing records and prevent wild swings in the market, which Florida is notorious for.

The number of residential transactions over $10 million doubled in the first quarter of 2026, compared to the same time last year, setting a record, according to real estate company ISG World’s Miami report. The number of transactions of $30 million and above also doubled, to 31.

The office market is benefiting, too, particularly at the top. Miami boasts one of the most competitive U.S. office markets, with vacancies at 12.5 percent, according to a recent report by data firm Yardi. At prime Class A buildings, vacancies are well below that, at 2.8 percent, while commanding average rents of about $145 a square foot during the first quarter of 2026, according to data from CBRE. 

Earlier this year, the family office of billionaire Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, inked an 18,158-square-foot lease at Miami’s 830 Brickell, paying about $250 per square foot, Bloomberg reported. The price makes it Miami-Dade County’s most expensive office lease to date and comparable to what Manhattan’s trophy towers now command.

Broker Cyril Bijaoui is looking to take advantage. Since 2021, Bijaoui has been managing Uno, which was completed in 2002 and which is one of the few office buildings in Miami Beach’s ritzy South-of-Fifth neighborhood. In the first two years of his stewardship, the 97,500-square-foot building became fully occupied with rents topping $100 a square foot. Many of its tenants were money managers who lived nearby.

But it wasn’t enough. Another luxury boutique office building, the Fifth, is going up next door. Backed by billionaire Eric Schmidt, the five-story development would mark the first commercial U.S. project designed by famed Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza. Some of its rents were topping around $200 a square foot. One of Uno’s tenants was set to relocate to the Fifth. “We were going to have to contend with this building,” Bijaoui said.

The broker convinced Uno’s owners to convert the rooftop terrace of the building into additional office space. The 10,000-square-foot suite will have floor-to-ceiling windows, offering unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean, and top-of-the-line finishes. The project is expected to cost about $10 million and produce asking rents of $200 a square foot, which hedge funds and family offices could afford. Bijaoui’s already fielding interest and is leading tours. Once completed and leased, he predicts the expansion will boost the property’s value by $40 million.

“It’s no secret that there’s a tremendous demand for very, very exclusive boutique offices on the beach,” Bijaoui added, “which made sense for the owner to take a multimillion-dollar risk.” 

Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.