Larry Ellison Bought Eight Houses Near His Florida Estate for His Staff

Larry Ellison has found an unusual way to make life easier for the people who work for him. In 2023, the Oracle cofounder quietly bought eight houses in a gated Boynton Beach community for a total of nearly $10 million, giving members of his household staff—including tutors for some of his five children—a place to live about 30 minutes from his Manalapan estate. The Wall Street Journal reported that an LLC tied to Ellison bought all the residences between May and June 2023, according to property records.

The houses are in Palm Meadows Estates, a 288-home community with 24-hour security and a clubhouse, and nobody knew who was behind the shopping spree initially. According to the Journal, local agent Kimmie Cruz was contacted by another broker looking to buy roughly 10 homes in the neighborhood. The buyer wanted mostly single-story houses, including some that weren’t on the market, so Cruz started approaching homeowners directly.

The mystery buyer emerged when Ellison arrived with bodyguards to tour the properties, Cruz told the Journal. Signed contracts followed, and property records later showed that an LLC connected to Ellison had bought all eight houses.

Peter Mahler of Mahler Private Staffing told the Journal that wealthy clients are increasingly providing housing for household employees, particularly in expensive markets where affordable nearby housing can be difficult to find. There are practical and privacy reasons for the trend: staff can live close enough to get to work quickly without living inside the family residence.

Still, eight houses in one neighborhood is enough to get the neighbors talking. Some Palm Meadows residents objected to one owner accumulating so many properties, the Journal reported. The homeowners association later added rules intended to prevent another buyer from doing the same thing.

The homes, most of them around 3,000 square feet with three or four bedrooms, are decidedly more down-to-earth than Ellison’s Manalapan estate, known as Gemini, which he bought in 2022 for $173 million. And that’s just one piece of his sprawling real estate collection, which has included nearly the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai, multiple oceanfront properties along Malibu’s Carbon Beach, a Japanese-inspired compound in Woodside, California, and a collection of homes in Newport, Rhode Island. He also owns the former Porcupine Creek golf estate in Rancho Mirage, which he turned into a wellness resort.