Report: Jeff Bezos Purchases Massive Hawaiian Compound for Estimated $78 Million

Billionaire Jeff Bezos might have made a recent trip to outer space, but that hasn’t stopped him from wanting a new getaway here on planet Earth.

Pacific Business News reported that Amazon founder recently purchased an estate on Maui with his partner Lauren Sanchez at La Perouse Bay for an “undisclosed amount.”

The purchase was made via private transaction and as Dirt explained, was not a typical transaction between buyer and seller. Rather, Bezos purchased the holding company that owns the massive amount of isolated, oceanfront land and thus became the owner of it.

According to real estate records, the home (known as the Carter Estate) was last sold for $4.2 million to businessman Doug Schatz in 1996.

The real estate posting for the original sale boasts 14.97 acres of oceanfront land accompanied by a two-acre deeded cove that is part of the Pacific Ocean and the “only private white sand beach” on Maui. 

So yes, Bezos now technically owns his own beach and part of the ocean.

“Surrounded by thousands of acres of State of Hawaii Natural Preserve, you are adrift in a sea of privacy,” the real estate listing says. “Private, yet only 3.5 miles to a world class resort with eighteen hole championship golf courses, a forty minute drive to the Maui airport.”

The Maui Times also confirmed that Bezos’ land contains old lava fields and “what might be the only sand remaining on the southern coastline” due to lava flows in the 1750s covering most of the beach that used to be there. 

Maui real estate sources claim that the transaction probably closed in around $78 million, which would make the Bezos purchase the most expensive residential purchase to ever happen on the island. The current record is a July 2021 sale of a $45 million home in Keawakapu.

“Jeff and Lauren love Maui, have a home on the island, visit frequently, and want to be a part of supporting the local community,” a source close to Bezos and Sanchez told Pacific Business News.

Bezos will join the ranks of fellow billionaires Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg, who also own massive amounts of land in Hawaii — Ellison owns 98% of the island of Lanai and Zuckerberg owns around 1,300 acres on Kauai.

The Maui land mass will become one of many massive properties that Bezos owns.

Following his divorce from former wife Mackenzie Scott, the billionaire dropped an estimated $80 million on three adjacent New York City apartments before adding a fourth unit in 2020 for another $16 million.

He also owns a $165 million mansion on an eight-acre plot in Los Angeles and other properties in Texas, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Beverly Hills.

A 2017 report even named Bezos the 28th-largest landowner in America.

According to Zillow, the average home value in Maui is $825,114, a number that has skyrocketed over 15% year over year per findings this September.

“Jeff Bezos reportedly loves Maui and was a frequent guest at the Montage Kapalua prior to his home purchase,” local Maui real estate news said. “Bezos is rumored to have made several substantive donations to local Maui charities in the weeks leading up to his new home acquisition. In August 2021, Bezos donated to the Friends of the Children’s Justice Center. Furthermore, Bezos later donated to the Maui Farm as well as the Hawaii Land Trust which helps preserve native historic sites.”

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Bezos’ estimated net worth was $191.8 billion, ranking him as No. 1 on Forbes’ real-time billionaires index.