Highest priced Southwest Florida home sale of 2020 occurs after Naples mansion sells for almost $20M
Andrew Wigdor
A mansion in Naples was purchased in mid-June for almost $20 million, making it the highest priced Southwest Florida home sale of the year so far, according to available data from the Southwest Florida Multiple Listing Service.
Completed in 2017, the 10,400-square-foot property in the exclusive Port Royal neighborhood is at 1777 Galleon Drive and sits on nearly 1.5 acres. It sold for $19.8 million on June 18.
The home was listed by William Raveis Real Estate agent Frank Sajtar. William Raveis holds the No. 1 spot among brokerages in market share and volume sold in 2019 and 2020 so far in Port Royal, according to a news release regarding the sale.
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The buyers and sellers of the property both wished to remain private.
With five full bedrooms and bathrooms, the Galleon Drive home features a 77-foot glass-tiled pool, outdoor kitchen, firepit and a deep-water dock.
Materials used in the estate include Italian white-oak floors, bamboo-veined limestone, marine-grade stainless steel and Egyptian grey hammered natural stone.
Other unique features Sajtar pointed to were the "wide-water views" and the property's private sandy beach, "which is pretty rare," he said.
The notable sale is more evidence that the Naples luxury market isn't stopping despite the coronavirus pandemic continuing and cases rising in Florida.
This sector of the market broke a record in May, which saw the most homes priced at $1 million and up go under contract ever in a month of May.
"People are moving to Port Royal," Sajtar said. "Florida is pretty safe for your investment. We've got a situation where things can fluctuate, but the property value in Port Royal really won't do that in the same way they would in other places."
"Port Royal is the last to get hit and the first to recover whenever anything happens with housing prices," Sajtar added.
He attributes this to the exclusive features of the neighborhood, such as it being a waterfront community at the southern-most point of Naples and the private Port Royal club.
"I think that all matters to people," he said.
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Sajtar also has another Port Royal home listed for $54 million, making it the fifth highest priced home listing in Southwest Florida history.
Between closed and pending transactions since the end of the March, Sajtar said he's done about $80 million in sales in Port Royal, even with large portions of the economy shut down during the month of April.
"It doesn't surprise me that we had a home at this price point sell," Lauren Melo, the president of the Naples Area Board of Realtors, said of the $19.8 million property. "What we have seen is our market has been extremely resilient throughout this (pandemic)."
She said that she's heard from a lot of buyers that were planning on moving or retiring in Southwest Florida in a five-year period but accelerated that timeline. This is due, she said, to people who were living in some of the Northern states that saw a greater impact from the pandemic wishing to escape those conditions.
She noted the fact that even when the state was under Gov. Ron DeSantis' safer at home order, people could go out and walk and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine that Florida has to offer.
"I think it's been a draw for us," she said.
Reach Andrew Wigdor at awigdor@gannett.com and on Twitter @andrew_wigdor