Naples Daily news just published an article detailing the largest homes sales in Naples in 2010- and Gulf Coast International Properties had three of the top four with our buyers. Despite being a boutique luxury real estate firm with only 10 agents, we sold more than $100 million in Port Royal alone, and our three Naples luxury beachfront sales on Gordon totaled more than $42 million. As the article discusses, the Port Royal real estate market has been fantastic, with dollar sales up more than 40% in 2010 and with expectation that the Naples luxury real estate market will continue to gain strength in 2011. If you are looking in Port Royal, Aqualane Shores, Grey Oaks, or any other Naples luxury real estate community, contact me anytime at 239.595.9278 or [email protected]. Have a great 2011!
COLLIER COUNTY — As 2010 ticked away, two of the year’s top 10 residential sales in Collier County closed less than a week apart – on the same street in Port Royal.
Port Royal – the posh neighborhood that sits between the Gulf of Mexico and Naples Bay – saw more interest from buyers last year. Waterfront and other high-end sales picked up.
“The demand is definitely out there,” said Judy Green, president and CEO of Premier Sotheby’s International Realty Inc.
On Dec. 14, a Gulf-front lot at 4540 Gordon Drive sold for $14.2 million in Port Royal. Six days later, a waterfront estate at 4228 Gordon Drive went for $14.55 million. They were both purchased by trusts.
The asking price for the estate, which was listed in the Naples area multiple listing service, or MLS, was $23 million.
The lot down the street was marketed privately for sale, which means it never appeared in the MLS.
“There, in fact, was a dwelling, however, it was uninhabitable. It is a tear-down. It adds no value to the property and the price was simply on the lot,” Green said.
Michael Lawler, a luxury Realtor for Premier, found the buyer for the lot, which has 160 feet of frontage on the Gulf of Mexico.
Lawler declined to comment about his sale, but Green said he had an “outstanding year” of sales in 2010, using his many contacts in real estate to find “hip pocket listings,” or listings that weren’t widely advertised.
Jim Gorman, a Realtor with Downing-Frye Realty in Naples, said the asking price for the lot was $14.9 million. He said the buyer of the lot also made an offer on the mansion at 4228 Gordon Drive, but was beat out by others who were willing to pay more. Gorman was the listing agent for that home, which he said will be remodeled.
“They want their dream and their dream is not somebody else’s dream,” he said. “There is no such thing as the perfect home for everyone.”
With the inventory of waterfront homes and lots shrinking, Gorman said some Realtors are knocking on doors and calling owners who don’t have their properties on the market to determine if they would be willing to sell.
“The prices are not declining on the beachfront anymore,” he said. “It’s a sellers’ market on the beachfront right now because there is no inventory.”
The home at 4228 Gordon Drive got four offers in 60 days before the best one was accepted, Gorman said.
“When people start to see their options diminish, they act,” he said. “The options on the beachfront are definitely diminished now.”
After crunching the numbers, Philip Collins, a broker associate with Premier Sotheby’s, found that single-family home and lot sales in Port Royal and the surrounding beachfront area topped $353 million in 2010 – up from about $251 million in 2009. There were 59 sales made last year, up from 49 in 2009, he said.
“2010 was a very busy year for us,” Collins said.
He has a new beachfront estate in the area listed for $22.9 million, furnished. Located at 45 32nd Ave. S., it was built in 2010. On a 1.24-acre lot, the two-story mansion has six bedrooms and six bathrooms. It spans 8,226 square feet.
“It has been on the market several months,” Collins said. “The average time on the market down there is 260 days.”
In the Port Royal area, he said there was only one sale directly on the beach in 2008 and there were two in 2009. Last year, there were 10.
In March, Naples Realtor Bill Earls sold a palatial, two-story, six-bedroom waterfront home, stretching 16,215 square feet, for $22 million. The sale was one of the highest made in the Port Royal neighborhood since 2007. It was the top sale for 2010.
Activity at the highest end of the market picked up noticeably in the second half of last year. More than half of the top 10 sales in 2010 closed after June.
“I think we should see more activity this year,” Collins said. “I think it’s going to carry over.”
Green agrees.
“There’s a greater confidence in the economy than there was six months ago and even three months ago,” she said.
There are many factors that play into that confidence, including political changes in Washington, D.C., improvements in the stock market and signs of a better job market ahead.
Most of the buyers in this market are buying second homes, primarily to use in the winter months.
“The majority of our clients come from the Midwest and the Northeast,” Collins said. “We are starting to get more Europeans.”
Port Royal is receiving more attention from buyers because home prices have dropped in the neighborhood, as they have across Southwest Florida. Some buyers perceive that prices in the neighborhood have hit bottom – or are close to it.
“We have had a pent-up demand of qualified buyers looking in the Port Royal area that have been kind of sitting on the fence,” Collins said. “Now they see that the prices are holding and, if anything, they might be creeping up a little bit.”
The record home sale in Collier County still stands at $40 million. That happened in 2007 when Arthur L. Allen Jr., the founder of a Naples-based software provider, bought a waterfront mansion on the outskirts of Port Royal. The home was marketed privately and never appeared in the MLS.
“There is another house on the beachfront right now that’s not on the market, but is widely rumored to be going on the market shortly for north of $35 million,” Gorman said.
If the mansion, which is still under construction on Gordon Drive, sells for anywhere near the asking price it could bring the neighborhood pricing up, he said.
The second highest sale in 2010 was a six-bedroom estate at 570 Galleon Drive, built in 2003. In third place was 4200 Gordon Drive, which went for $16.7 million in January of last year.
“We had most of our activity in October and November,” Gorman said. “I think it was because people wanted to buy prior to the season, and prior to there being more competition for the few properties that are available.”
Naples Realtor Craig Jones, with John R. Wood Realtors Inc., said there are only 14 active listings for single-family homes on the Gulf of Mexico in Naples, including Parkshore and the Moorings.
She’s working with several buyers who are looking to purchase homes in the $6 million to $8 million range.
Jones is “cautiously optimistic” about this year after a calm hurricane season.
“We haven’t been blown away,” she said. “We are still here. Our location is still superb. The access to this place is still very easy and we still have the best weather in the country. Those are our aces in the hole.”
Best Regards,
Brad Johnson
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