Consider this a World Cup edition of the South Florida Dirt.
From Coral Gables to Hallandale Beach, South Florida and its large population of Argentinians and soccer fans have embraced the sport and its biggest star, Lionel Messi. The World Cup, which ended its Miami run Saturday with the third-place match between England and France, brought a million tourists to the city, by some estimates. The size of their economic impact is up for debate, but the fact that so many soccer players have homes here speaks to long-term investment in the region.
It’s in large part thanks to David Beckham and his partners, who founded the city’s Major League Soccer team Inter Miami in 2018. They lured Messi in 2023. The rest is history.
I looked at our coverage to round up some of the biggest real estate buys. Here’s what I found.
Lionel Messi
In September 2023, Messi and his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, paid $10.8 million for a waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale’s Bay Colony neighborhood, ending weeks of speculation as to where they would settle down. Messi and his family also own three luxury condos in Sunny Isles Beach, including a unit at Porsche Design Tower and an entire floor at Regalia. Messi’s also under contract to buy four units at Cipriani Residences, which is under construction.
Neymar
In 2024, Brazil’s Neymar paid $26 million for a waterfront residential plot in Bal Harbour, where he plans to build a home. In May of this year, the LLC that owns the 0.6-acre lot on Bal Bay Drive filed a notice of commencement for a new single-family home.
Kaká
Kaká, considered one of the greatest soccer players of his era, paid $8.7 million for a condo on the 14th floor of Oceana Bal Harbour, at 10203 Collins Avenue, earlier this year. The 3,350-square-foot condo has three bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms. Kaká, a former FIFA World Player of the Year, retired in 2017. He was part of Brazil’s team that won the FIFA World Cup in 2002.
Ronaldo
In March of this year, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, known as Ronaldo, paid $7.8 million for a penthouse at Onda in Bay Harbor Islands. The five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom unit spans just over 5,000 square feet. The developer, a joint venture between Ugo Colombo’s CMC Group and Valerio Morabito’s Morabito Properties, completed the eight-story, 41-unit condominium in 2024.
Ronaldo, a retired striker who played for his native country of Brazil, is considered one of the greatest players of all time.
Paul Pogba
In 2020, a midfielder who played for Manchester United and France (now with the French Ligue 1 club Monaco), paid $6 million for a unit at the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum condo tower in downtown Miami. That deal closed the same year that David and Victoria Beckham paid $19.8 million for a full-floor unit in the same building, amid rumors that Pogba would join Inter Miami. He hasn’t so far.
Sergio Busquets
Sergio Busquets, one of the best defensive midfielders in the game, paid about $8.7 million for the seven-bedroom, six-and-a-half bathroom house on Seneca Road in the Sea Ranch Lakes community in 2023. He and his wife bought the home the year he joined Inter Miami, and they sold it earlier this year for $9 million, shortly after he retired. The Broward County home fronts Lake Seneca in a gated community.
Luis Suárez
In 2024, Inter Miami’s Luis Suárez paid $11.5 million for a waterfront house in Bay Colony, the same Broward neighborhood as Messi. Suárez, considered one of the greatest strikers of his generation, also played with Messi at FC Barcelona from 2014 to 2020.
Suarez’s house on Compass Point spans nearly 7,100 square feet with eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms on a 0.6-acre lot with 425 feet of waterfront, according to a previous listing.
David Beckham
In 2024, the Beckhams paid $72.3 million for a waterfront spec mansion in Miami Beach, setting a record for the city’s North Bay Road. David, a retired champion and co-owner of Inter Miami, and Victoria closed on the 14,270-square-foot estate, which was asking $80 million.
Luxury homebuilder Bart Reines constructed the new home, which has nine bathrooms, four half-bathrooms, a gym, spa, home theater, a pool and an outdoor kitchen and lounge. The 0.6-acre property includes 124 feet of water frontage. Developer Niklas de la Motte sold the home.
The Beckhams sold their condo at One Thousand Museum in February for $24.6 million.
What we’re thinking about: Who did I miss? Send me a note at kk@therealdeal.com.
CLOSING TIME
Residential: The top home sale was on Star Island, where Sean “Diddy” Combs, sold one of his Star Island mansions for $55 million. JFStar LLC, led by John A. Franklin of Virginia Beach, bought the 8,000-square-foot home at 1 Star Island Drive. It has six bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms and sits on a bayfront 1.3-acre lot with 240 feet of water frontage, a pool and spa, and a dock. Combs is serving his four-year sentence on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Commercial: An affiliate of Chicago-based real estate investment firm Walton Street Capital sold the Alamar Senior Living facility at 8785 Lake Worth Road for $30.7 million. An entity linked to Health Wave Partners, also based in Chicago, sold the Wellington property.
— Research by Mary Diduch
NEW TO THE MARKET
Miami’s “Diet Doctor” Edmundo Tamayo listed a waterfront lot on the Venetian Islands for $45 million with Julian Johnston of the Corcoran Group. The Marco Island property at 1224 South Venetian Way is listed as a spec home that will span 9,400 square feet with six bedrooms, six bathrooms, one half-bath, terraces, a pool, spa and lounge. Property records show an LLC managed by Tamayo paid $8 million for the lot in 2025.
A thing we’ve learned
West Palm Beach and Miami have the widest and second-widest gaps in the U.S. between luxury and non-luxury home and condo prices, according to Redfin. The report confirms what has been playing out in the market, as multimillionaires and billionaires drive record sales at the high end, and the working-class struggle with high rents.
Elsewhere in Florida
- A federal judge sided with ACLU lawyers by refusing to pause a pending civil rights lawsuit over the controversial Everglades immigration detention center Alligator Alcatraz. The center was closed and all tents removed this month, the Miami Herald reported last week. The judge ordered state and federal officials to present concrete evidence of the site’s permanent closure rather than relying solely on official announcements to resolve the case.
- Billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass donated $7.5 million to the political action committee supporting Byron Donalds’ campaign for Florida governor. Yass’ wife is Erika Donalds, a charter school advocate and CEO of charter management companies, and together the couple is pushing a complete transformation of the state’s education system, the Miami New Times reports.