Florida’s Most Expensive Home Sells for $225 Million—Despite Sitting in an ‘Extreme’ Flood Zone

An extravagant waterfront property in Naples, FL, has become the state’s most expensive home ever sold, after it was snapped up for an eye-watering $225 million—despite being located in an area that is deemed at “extreme” risk of flooding.

The one-of-a-kind property is actually made up of three different dwellings, all of which are understood to have been purchased by the same buyer, whose identity has not been made public, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Although the sky-high price tag represents the Sunshine State’s most expensive residential real estate transaction, the anonymous buyer actually managed to snag something of a discount, given that the properties were originally listed for the collective price of $295 million back in October 2024.

In the end, the central property in the trio of homes—which offers six bedrooms and 13.5 bathrooms and spans 8,846 square feet—sold for $133.2 million, according to property records. Meanwhile, the other two—one is a five-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom dwelling—sold for $46.9 million and $44.9 million, respectively.

Described in its listing as a “stunning beachfront opportunity,” the three-home property spans more than 15 acres, which includes 800 feet of beach frontage, making it “one of the largest beachfront legacy properties” in the U.S.

However, the listing makes no mention of the environmental risks that accompany with the jaw-dropping property—which bears an “extreme” 9 out of 10 risk of flooding, according to the Realtor.com® climate risk rating.

“This property has a 99.90% risk of flooding over 30 years,” the rating states. “This property’s risk of flood is increasing as weather patterns change. Flooding in this area is caused by precipitation, sea level rise, and hurricane storm surge.”

Meanwhile, FEMA classifies the property’s locale as a Special Flood Hazard Area, which is defined as an area “that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.”

The listing also failed to include any interior shots of the three homes—nor did it give any in-depth details about the state of the three properties included in the sale, suggesting that it may have been marketed to interested parties as a teardown, offering a very wealthy buyer the opportunity to construct their own enormous megamansion on the existing plots of land.

However, according to Florida-based real estate professional Cara Ameer, the inherent climate risks that come with the purchase of a waterfront property in many of the most sought-after areas in the Sunshine State do not tend to deter wealthy buyers.

“Florida continues to have a lot of appeal for the uber-wealthy because there is no state income tax, and many people continue to flock there for this reason, irrespective of insurance costs, and live in very expensive homes on or close to the water,” she previously told Realtor.com®.

In the last six months alone, 16 properties have sold in Florida for $40 million or more, according to Realtor.com records, many of them located on waterfront plots.

Just last month, Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin sold his Star Island mansion for $120 million, having purchased it in 2009 for just $16 million. That home was classified as having a “severe” 8 out of 10 flood risk.

A similar property in Miami, which has a “severe” 7 out of 10 flood risk, changed hands for $85.2 million in January.

Although details about the sellers of the Naples property have not publicly shared, records reveal that each of the homes was registered in the name of a separate company—all of which have ties to the DeGroote family, the descendants of Canadian billionaire and philanthropist Michael DeGroote, who died in 2022.

DeGroote made his fortune from trucking and waste management, having founded his first company when he was just 18 years old, according to CBC.

Although DeGroote was based primarily in Bermuda for the last years of his life, he is thought to have begun amassing the properties in Naples in the early 1990s, with property records indicating that the homes included in the compound were all snapped up within a few years of one another.

Now, in addition to his business and charitable legacies, DeGroote’s name will be included in Florida’s real estate history, courtesy of the extraordinary sale—which is among the most expensive properties to ever have changed hands in the U.S.

DeGroote’s legacy compound was actually one of two properties in Naples to have been listed with a $295 million price tag, with the other located just a stone’s throw down the road.

That home was put on the market in February 2024 with the sky-high price tag; however, that was lowered in January of this year to $210 million, having struggled to find a buyer.

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