$11.25 million for Fort Myers Beach house is 82% higher than record

A recently built home on Fort Myers Beach has sold for $11.25 million, shattering a price record for the area and likely helping write a new chapter for real estate on the barrier island.

The house is at 5940 Estero Blvd., and its sales price is an 82% jump from the previously largest residential sale on Fort Myers Beach — a beachfront property on Estero Boulevard that sold in December 2022 for $6.175 million, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service.

The house, which had been listed at $11.9 million, was built in 2023, a year after Hurricane Ian decimated much of Fort Myers Beach.

In the aftermath of the storm, local real estate brokers say investors and speculators swooped in to buy up properties that may not have been on put on the market if it wasn’t for the storm. The plan for many was to rebuild the homes and flip them for huge profits.

That hasn’t happened, and after a handful of $5 million purchases in 2022, the market hadn’t seen, until now, a major residential sale.

It is important to note, however, that while investor money is said to drive the phenomenon, that may not be the case here.

The property was bought for $2 million by a Canadian company named Summer Daze in 2017, Lee County property records show. Summer Daze, according to Florida’s Division of Corporations database, is managed by an LLC named Just Off the Beach. The LLC is owned by a married couple and shares a principal address, which is a residence, in Ontario with Summer Daze.

Regardless of who the past owner was, the whopping spike from the previous top sale may be an indicator that the expected price hikes have arrived.

As for the house itself, it has four-bedrooms plus a den, six-baths and directly overlooks the Gulf of Mexico. MLS records show it has 4,902 square feet of living space.

Among its amenities are Thermador appliances, a private elevator, hurricane impact windows and electric storm shutters. Outside, there is a saltwater infinity pool, full outdoor kitchen and fireplace.

Lee property records show the buyer was a family trust.

John R. Wood Christie’s International Real Estate’s Grant Group listed the property and announced the sale.