There’s big money in small islands.
David Malm knows this perhaps better than anyone, as the investor behind a nearly $100 million portfolio of properties across the iconic Massachusetts vacation communities of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Malm, a managing partner of the Waltham-based Webster Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in the health-care industry. He started investing in the islands in 2000, when he bought a 7-acre property for $4 million in an area called Herring Creek Farm, the outlet reported.
“I don’t invest in the stock market,” he told the outlet. “It’s worked well.”
Malm kicked his luxury real estate investment strategy into high gear during the pandemic. Since 2021, he has spent $80 million to buy nine properties on the islands, primarily Martha’s Vineyard.
Gerret Conover, a broker with LandVest who has represented Malm in some deals, said Malm is now a dominant owner in Martha’s Vineyard.
“As of the last couple acquisitions, David is probably the single-largest residential property owner in town,” Conover told the publication.
Aside from his Herring Creek Farm home, Malm told the outlet he has spent an estimated $25 million in renovations on his properties. “They pay for themselves,” he said to the publication.
While home sales have slowed on the island, demand from seasonal renters has held.
A six-bedroom home in Edgartown Malm bought for $10 million, has an asking weekly rent of $45,000 for this coming summer. A pair of adjacent homes he bought for $9 million have weekly rents of $25,000 and $27,500, according to the outlet. A Nantucket home he bought for $19.9 million rents for $75,000 a week, the outlet reported.
Malm occasionally stays in some of these properties when they’re not rented, but mainly he spends his island time at the Herring Creek Farm home.
— Kate Hinsche