Two years after Trump and Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach real estate is still on fire

Contrary to many public misconceptions, Mar-a-Lago—the exclusive Atlantic resort that often served as the “winter White House” of former President Donald Trump—didn’t make Palm Beach, Florida’s luxury real estate and lifestyle popular for the first time.

The Sunshine State’s “playground for the super-rich” has always been ultra-luxurious, dating back to the late 1880s when oil magnate Henry Flagler first built The Breakers and The Royal Poinciana Hotel that eventually became the hub of an empire of money-branded Southern luxury hospitality. The Old North and the now infamous “billionaire row” breed.

So it should come as no surprise that even after leaving the Trump Oval Office for 2020, the luxury real estate market in Palm Beach shows no signs of slowing down even if Air Force One doesn’t land in the city anymore.

Much of the froth is because South Florida in general has been in an uptrend for the market since even before the pandemic.

Low taxes, warm weather, business-friendly regulations, and a burgeoning innovation ecosystem were already attracting finance companies, tech startups and CEOs to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Tampa and Orlando before 2020 as quickly as California and New York. shed on them. COVID-19 has just expanded highways and eliminated speed limits.

However, complex internal migration over the past few years has led to one of the most inaccurate real estate ironies here in decades: After years of booms, busts, and frequent price drops, South Florida now has massive housing and the amplifying crisis few had anticipated. People.

At the top ends of places like Palm Beach — aka “Wall Street South” — where billionaires, CEOs, sports stars and celebrities like Tiger Woods, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Wynn, Jon Bon Jovi, and Ken Griffin have been digging for years, a crisis Supply more acute.

Since the start of the pandemic, sales of luxury homes in Palm Beach County — including Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Islands — have increased 53.5% year-over-year while the average time in the market has dropped to 58 days. In the first quarter of 2022, down 57.2% YoY. In North Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens specifically, where only 89 active single-family listings are currently active, home sales are up 68% year over year, with total volume jumping from $678 million to $1.34 billion.

Similarly, the numbers for the mid- and high-rise apartment submarket in Palm Beach County aren’t far behind: The average number of days on the market was down 41% in 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, while the average number of days on the market was down 41. % in 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, while the average number of days on the market decreased in the first quarter of 2022. Closings are up 54% from 2020.

Developers and real estate investors are rightly trying to keep up.

The Related Group recently announced plans to bring a new high-rise building in the Ritz-Carlton to West Palm Beach, while South Flagler House, a $400 million luxury condominium, is on its way to becoming one of the most expensive residential developments in the United States.

Meanwhile, multi-million dollar apartment projects that have been under construction for years are well-timed to start accommodating buyers starting in the next few months, such as Amrit Ocean Resort and Residences, Seaglass, Nautilus 220, Icon, La Clara, and Forte , and Alba.

Despite all this new stock, though, much of the long-term drivers behind the supply crunch in Palm Beach aren’t easily traceable — which you can learn from other tight, tight-knit ZIP codes in Silicon Valley, Long Island and Los Angeles. Many buildings around the opening were sold months ago or pre-sold before the pandemic, so it doesn’t put a stop to current or future demand.

Land is scarce as well, sprawling, multigenerational properties are common, and most residents who have lived here for years either full-time or part-time would agree that if you already own one of the few waterfront properties available, why not stick with it, especially when it outlasts Price hikes on a bull market?

Each of these factors separately is an incentive for developers to build. But to locals collectively, they are a glaring red light not to sell, particularly when it comes to single-family homes and properties. There is also no small part of NIMBYism (“Not In My Back Yard”) at work unobtrusively here when it comes to the prospect of more intense and more visible developments.

All of this means that each new luxury Palm Beach real estate project adding new stock while simultaneously meeting the growing demand for larger floor plans, hotel-style amenities, and extensive waterfront views is great for potential buyers and businesses looking to relocate here—and even better. For the developers who build them.

This fundamental transformation—from the historically dense apartment model of South Florida to the full-floor, glass-enclosed, single-family, high-tech, mid-rise and mid-rise “houses in the sky”—is not an insignificant point. Developers will need to change design, technology, and financing paradigms. Buyers will need to be patient.

However, what is clear to anyone who pays attention is that these trends for more space, more resort level, the luxury of working from home, better service, higher touch, deeper experiences, and a longer horizon investment on the part of buyers are here to stay.

In light of this context, the long-time developer Catalfumo Companies based in Palm Beach has announced that it has just launched The landing at the PGA Waterway is big news for one of America’s most hungry cities.

“Palm Beach Gardens has become the best haven for luxury real estate in South Florida,” says Dan Catalfumo, founder of Palm Beach Gardens. “It is now attracting more and more distinguished and distinguished individuals relocating to the area. And from this the inspiration for Landing came at just the right time.”

Landing will provide 98 three-, four- and five-bedroom condos ranging from 3,100 to 5,000 square feet spread across three 6-story buildings on the last of 11 contiguous acres of open land in Palm Beach Gardens directly on an inshore waterway with yacht access to Lake Worth and entrance to Palm Beach and Jupiter Inlet.

The project will also include a private 26-slip power marina and sailboat up to 75 feet, a 100-foot infinity pool, resort-style cabanas, a clubhouse, spa, guesthouse suites, high-tech in-unit features and finishes, and an on-site concierge.

If anything about landing the PGA Waterway sounds too much given Palm Beach’s supply crunch, it isn’t.

“It’s what today’s market and buyer are asking for,” says Kevin Spina, sales manager for the luxury “Sky Villa” style of Spina Team of Landing to combine the space and design of the home with the amenities and service of a 5-star resort.

“Palm Beach County is now a thriving hub as big business is migrating to the Wall Street of the South. We are excited to bring the Landing at PGA Waterway to this thriving market and anticipate that it will change the way we understand and experience luxury waterfront living.”

Residences at Landing at PGA Waterway start at $3.9 million with presales beginning June 1. The project is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2022.