What do four of the world’s five richest people have in common?

They all have megamillion waterfront estates in Miami and Miami Beach — including a $170 million property for Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg that recently broke a record as the county’s most expensive home sale ever.

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Zuckerberg are the second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-wealthiest people in the world, respectively, according Forbes’ 2026 billionaire list, published this month.

All are recent transplants to the area, buying impressive waterfront homes within the last three years. All four seem to have prioritized privacy in their real estate buys, opting for gated communities like Indian Creek and Allison Island, both just off Miami Beach, or secluded parts of Coconut Grove.

Three of them — Page, Brin and Zuckerberg — have scooped up properties in the last few months alone. Bezos, who spent his teenage years in Miami, moved to the exclusive island community of Indian Creek in 2023. Together, the four men have an estimated net worth of around $940 billion.

The only billionaire in Forbes’ top five not buying Miami real estate seems to be Tesla’s CEO and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who lives in Texas and has a net worth of $839 billion.

Some have speculated that the surge of interest in Miami from ultra-wealthy buyers has been driven by a recent wealth tax proposal in California.

Most billionaires have numerous homes, and few spend the whole year in one place. But billionaires hoping to take advantage of Florida’s low taxes have to live in the state for more than half of the year to establish residency.

Larry Page

Page created the search engine Google with Brin in 1998. He has served as the CEO of Google and of its parent company Alphabet Inc., and his net worth of $257 billion makes him the second-richest person in the world on this year’s Forbes list.

Page has reportedly spent around $188 million amassing a waterfront property in Coconut Grove in recent months. His purchases included Banyan Ridge, a 4.5-acre compound he picked up for $101.5 million, plus nearby $15 million and $71.9 million homes, the Real Deal Reported.

He was one of the first in a recent wave of Silicon Valley tech billionaires to make big real estate purchases in South Florida, kicking off speculation that the wealth tax proposal was sending billionaires fleeing to Florida. Page began assembling his compound in the Grove late last year.

Sergey Brin

Brin, Page’s Google co-founder, is the third-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $237 billion. He also made a major purchase in South Florida around the same time as Page. The tech billionaire reportedly purchased a home on a double lot on Allison Island for $51 million.

Allison Island is located within the city limits of Miami Beach, near La Gorce Island. Although the gated island was clearly up to the standards of the world’s third-richest man, it hasn’t always been the buzziest Miami Beach community.