Forget the mega-mansion. The latest ultimate flex for ultra-high-net-worth buyers isn't just a bigger house...it’s buying up the entire block.
Welcome to the era of "landmaxxing."
Featured as one of several trends in the Coldwell Banker Global Luxury 2026 Mid-Year Report and recently spotlighted by The Wall Street Journal in an investigation, landmaxxing describes a practice where wealthy homeowners are purchasing neighboring properties to build sprawling, private compounds. At its core, landmaxxing isn't merely about accumulating dirt; it’s an aggressive defensive play. High-net-worth individuals are snapping up adjacent parcels to shield themselves from prying eyes, protect coveted ocean or mountain views from future developers, and ensure enough square footage to construct multi-generational family compounds with space for guest quarters, security staff, and private docks. For others, it’s a tangible hedge against inflation or a means of insulating wealth from volatile financial markets.
The practice of acquiring the property next door isn't entirely unprecedented—Mark Zuckerberg famously spent over $30 million buying four adjacent Palo Alto homes a decade ago—the current volume and scale of these acquisitions have escalated in the last year. As The Wall Street Journal reported, titan buyers like Ken Griffin, Larry Ellison, and Jeff Bezos are taking the move to astronomical levels. Griffin has poured more than $450 million into assembling a 27-acre Palm Beach compound, while Bezos has dropped over $230 million accumulating multiple parcels on Miami’s exclusive Indian Creek Village, better known as the "Billionaire Bunker." Out in Colorado, Jack Daniel's family member Dace Stubbs bought a 14-acre ranch for $3 million, then immediately shelled out another $1.2 million for the surrounding 40 acres just to guarantee no future neighbor could ever block his mountain view.
These examples highlight how the affluent are prioritizing space, privacy, and scarcity, anchoring their wealth in physical real estate amid heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The 2026 Mid-Year Report looked at this trend from a number of different angles.
Larger properties, on the whole, appear to be performing better. For example, luxury single-family home sales rose 2.8% year-over-year while attached properties slid 3.8% per data compiled by The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. Looking at where global luxury buyers are currently prioritizing their searches, JamesEdition data showed that detached homes and villas remain the overwhelming favorite property type among global luxury buyers, accounting for 76.1% of all unique user inquiries in 2026. Searches for properties with five or more bedrooms logged the strongest growth in buyer inquiries, while searches for buildable land skyrocketed 97% year-over-year. Most dramatically, global inquiries for one-of-a-kind properties—private islands, castles, historic estates, and branded residences—soared by a staggering 146%.
This relentless push for scarcity underscores the broader market dynamics at play. As Eric Finnas Dahlström, CEO of JamesEdition, noted for the Mid-Year Report, “Ultimately, it’s about the allure of having something irreplaceable. And when people are looking to build, it’s often because they simply can’t find what they want on the market.”
That hunger for land is hitting hardest in hyper-exclusive, supply-constrained enclaves where waterfront or prime mountain acreage simply cannot be manufactured. In places like Palm Beach, Miami Beach, Malibu, Lake Tahoe, and Aspen, assembling neighboring lots is often the only way a buyer can secure 200 to 300 feet of contiguous waterfront or private footprint.
Take Aspen—one of the most inventory-strapped luxury markets in the U.S.—where this search for rare footprint real estate is continually breaking price ceilings. Carrie Wells, a leading Luxury Property Specialist with Coldwell Banker Mason Morse in Aspen, recounts a riverfront property that sold for just under $7,000 per square foot. “That property featured river frontage, a pool, and a brand-new modern home just five minutes from Aspen, plus it offered the potential to build a second home on the land or add square footage to the existing estate,” she said. “Both the buyer and the seller recognized how truly unique that situation was.” That sale, along with a downtown penthouse that fetched $8,000 per square foot last year, set new records for the market. She expects to see similar thresholds reached this year and is already looking toward a future in which $10,000 per square foot will be the new price ceiling. “When buyers look at these numbers to justify a major purchase, they feel confident because they see that others have already paid that price,” Wells said. “Ultimately, buyers are treating Aspen real estate as a blue-chip investment.”
When traditional inventory can't meet those demands, buyers will often create their own opportunity by making above-market offers that neighbors can’t resist, as Albert Sousa, a Luxury Property Specialist with Coldwell Banker Realty in Beverly Hills, has observed. "When a client wants a neighbor's property that isn't for sale, they'll pay a real premium to create that opportunity," he said. "That's when you know how serious they are. Buyers who find something already listed tend to be more disciplined. They won't overpay.”
For the lucky homeowners sitting next door to a billionaire, landmaxxing often feels like winning the lottery, as The Wall Street Journal story reported. Early neighbors are scoring massive paydays as landmaxxers fork over eye-watering premiums to close the deal quickly. But the practice also pulls valuable inventory off the market, tightening supply in places where inventory was already thin.
Ultimately, landmaxxing signals a clear narrative about where America’s elite are putting their fortunes: right into the dirt they can see from their own kitchen windows. It's also a reminder that in an unpredictable world, luxury real estate will always be the go-to blue-chip asset.
For more on trends like landmaxxing and what's driving the 2026 luxury real estate market, download the full 2026 Mid-Year Report here.
