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TUE 07.28.202630-YR 6.58%10-YR 4.650.04HOMEBUILDERS 0.92%Newsletter

Pending $88.4M Palm Beach Estate Tops the Week's Luxury Contracts

A pending contract is not a closed sale, but the county record underneath it gives brokers a real land basis and a real multiple to underwrite against.

Edited by Ashley Baker · How we report
$88.4MPending contract
$9,394/sfLiving area basis
$39M2022 land basis
.51 acLot size

A 9,410-square-foot beachfront mansion at 7 Ocean Lane, in the town of Palm Beach, went under contract at $88.4 million last week, the priciest of 14 luxury deals totaling $190.7 million across Palm Beach County, according to The Real Deal. The estate, marketed as “Toes on Sand,” sits directly on the sand with 100 feet of ocean frontage. No deed has been recorded yet. The $88.4 million is a reported contract price, not a closed sale.

Why it matters

Land basis and pricing power at the top of the Palm Beach market is the number that sets expectations elsewhere on the island and along the coast. What a builder paid for raw waterfront land, and what a finished house on that land can draw under contract, is the comp agents and brokers use to underwrite a teardown parcel or a redevelopment site before it ever reaches the market. This deal supplies both halves of that math with public numbers attached, not just a headline price.

The numbers

Palm Beach County Property Appraiser records for parcel 50-43-43-11-02-000-0061 show the 0.51-acre lot still coded 0000-VACANT, with zero recorded building square footage pending the county’s assessment of the new construction, and a $43.1 million market value on the current roll. Owner-entity Seven Ocean Lane LLC, which public reporting ties to Sabatello Companies president Carl Sabatello, who built the estate, paid $39 million for the parcel on February 11, 2022 (OR Book 33317, Page 923). A prior owner paid $20.2 million for the same lot in December 2020. At $88.4 million, the pending contract runs about 2.3 times Sabatello’s 2022 land basis, though that basis bought raw land only, so the multiple reflects new construction added, not a straight resale. Divided by the listing’s 9,410 square feet of living area, the contract works out to roughly $9,394 a square foot, the basis a house buyer is paying. Divided across the half-acre lot instead, it is about $3,980 a square foot of land, the basis a redevelopment buyer would underwrite. William Yahn of the Corcoran Group held the listing.

What’s next

Watch Palm Beach County official records for the warranty deed that would confirm a closed sale, a final price, and the buyer’s identity, none of which are public yet. Watch too whether the 2027 tax roll finally reflects the finished house instead of vacant land. More at the South Florida market hub.

Sources

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