There’s a real estate gold rush underway and the rich are racing to cash in, the Daily Mail can reveal.

President Trump’s return to office has sparked a real estate frenzy in a wealthy part of Palm Beach, Florida, where homeowners are eager to capitalize on the opportunity.

Dubbed the ‘Trump Bump’, this latest surge sees affluent buyers spending millions to live near Mar-a-Lago, famously known as the ‘winter White House’, to enjoy the prestige of being close to the president.

Consequently, some sellers are reaping significant profits, including one who sold a four-bedroom Mediterranean-style home for nearly six times their 2017 purchase price.

Buyers are hurrying to secure properties, especially within the presidential security zone—an exclusive area of Palm Beach that is restricted by the Secret Service whenever he is present.

Property sales in the area just north of Trump’s waterfront estate have doubled since his second term began, compared to the first half of 2024, according to reports.

A prominent realtor specializing in this prestigious area noted a substantial increase in inquiries for any type of property within this timeframe.

‘If you live in the security zone it’s pretty awesome because it’s private, it’s safe and it’s secure,’ said Elizabeth DeWoody, of real estate firm Compass.

‘It means when the president’s in town, general traffic is diverted away from you, there are barriers, there are armed security checkpoints. But as a resident of that area, you are able to come and go as you please.

‘The flight path to the Palm Beach airport normally goes over Mar-a-Lago. But when President Trump is there, flights are redirected away from the security zone. 

‘Water traffic on the Intracoastal is also diverted. So it’s peaceful, it’s quiet…’

But wealthy potential buyers clamoring to stake a claim in the area face stiff competition in a tiny market.

There are only around 100 homes in the security zone, which runs just seven blocks north of Mar-a-Lago on one of the narrowest sections of the barrier island that is Palm Beach. South of the club is Billionaires Row.

Each narrow, short road runs east and west in between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, the latter separates Palm Beach from West Palm Beach.

It is a small part of what is known as the Estates Section, the historical heart of the old-time residential area bursting with Spanish-style and Italianate mansions valued up to $150 million.

Palm Beach, with a population of just 9,493, has long been a haven for old-money families and mega wealthy residents. A whopping 58 are billionaires. 

It’s famed for its Worth Avenue shopping, and celebrity residents include Sylvester Stallone, Howard Stern and Rod Stewart.

While prices for recent security zone sales are lower than the eye-watering values of Billionaires Row’s mega mansions, they are still way beyond most people’s reach.

At least one of the properties currently for sale at $18.9 million is being touted as a possible teardown.

‘Six houses have been sold in the security zone already since January, from a low of $12 million. That’s twice as many as the same time last year,’ DeWoody revealed.

‘Additionally, I’m getting way more inquiries from people asking about trying to buy into the area. Many of these streets were not as popular as they are now after the election.’

Oil industry executive Kendall Cheatham and his wife Ashley Ciaburri Cheatham, a wealth manager and private equity specialist, bought an updated 1950s era mansion on the zone’s Kings Road this year for $12 million.

The five-bedroom, 5,377-square-foot home on two-fifths of an acre was sold by a limited liability company based in Delaware.  

Also on Kings Road sits an imposing five-bedroom, nine-bathroom home covering 6,043-square-feet that went for $14 million in March (less than the $15.75 million asking price). It last sold in 2004 for $2.575 million. 

The new owners are believed to be Kathleen Ryan and businessman husband David, who bought it through a Delaware-based LLC from Palm Beach businesswoman and retailer Lori Bernstein and her husband Michael, CEO of MEB Finance Solutions.

Most other sales in the zone this year are registered under LLCs because of their somewhat private nature.

Included is a six-bedroom home originally constructed in 1972 on a third of an acre almost next to Mar-a-Lago on Woodbridge Road. The home comes with one very exclusive perk: Mar-a-Lago membership (pending an interview and annual dues).

Includes a two-story guest house, the property sold for $14 million in April and went for $2.25 milliion in 2013. 

The new owners were eligible for ‘exclusive guest privileges to the club’ and did not have to pay a hefty initiation fee, saving the buyers a reported $1 million.

The realtors’ blurb read: ‘This is the only street on the island that holds this declaration of use agreement with Trump, making it truly one of a kind.’

Four blocks up from Mar-a-Lago on Via Palma, a four-bedroom, six-bathroom upgraded home originally built in 1955 sold for nearly $17 million in May. It was last sold nine years ago for $5.4 million.

Described as an ‘entertainer’s paradise’, its location ‘just steps to Mar-a-Lago’ was a selling point.

Despite being next to a home owned by Trump’s sister Elizabeth Trump Grau, new construction on South Ocean Blvd only sold for $19.5 million after being on the market for one year. The original asking price was $45 million. 

The traditional style six-bedroom home, due to be finished this fall, is 13,000-square-feet and will feature a gym, sauna, steam room, walk-in wine cellar and a lap pool. It also comes with the Mar-a-Lago initiation fee waiver.

Retired financial planning executive John Breyo, 79, and wife Marilyn are asking $48.85 million for their 1.5-acre Clarendon Avenue property. They paid $5.3 million for it in 1999.

On the same road, a five-bedroom, five-bathroom single story home designed in 1951 by renowned architect Marion Sims Wyeth has hit the market for $18.9 million.

It was last sold in 2022 for $17 million to fashion designer Catherine Prevost, according to the Palm Beach Daily News, which recently called it ‘ripe for renovation or even demolition’.

The frenzy to be near Mar-a-Lago extends beyond the security zone, but within the no-fly zone.

With views of Mar-a-Lago from across the Intracoastal, a five-bedroom, six-bathroom house last sold in 2020 for $3.274 million, but was snatched up in May for $10.75 million by billionaire entertainment booking mogul Gary Osier. His clients include Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler and Rob Lowe.

It previously belonged to realtor owners Samantha Curry and John Michael Collins who renovated and sold it fully furnished.

As the Daily Mail has reported, the old money dynasties of Palm Beach are being challenged, and that’s also all part of the Trump factor.

The place is teeming with New York and California transplants, boosting real estate prices by at least triple figures compared to five years ago.

‘Right now $10 million can be a 13,000-square-foot lot with a house that really needs to be torn down,’ DeWoody said.

The new mix of residents includes the ‘hedgies’ (30- and 40-something hedge fund titans and their families), ‘techies’ (those fleeing the west coast for lower taxes, relaxed regulations and proximity to the presidential power) and ‘speccies’ (real estate speculators banking on the boom’s longevity).

‘Our demographics have definitely changed,’ DeWoody said. ‘We’re not just blue blood generational wealth anymore. My clients and our buyers are smart, successful folks on their own accord.

‘They’re entrepreneurs, they’re high finance… definitely younger. It’s cool to live in Palm Beach now. And one of their great priorities is safety.’

Another intriguing ‘Trump Bump’ real estate battle is happening north of the security zone and involves rock legend Jon Bon Jovi.

An anonymous buyer is buying properties directly next to the musician’s $61 million home in an apparent bid to create a super-compound.

Last month, Bon Jovi was reportedly ‘fighting off overtures’ to sell the seven-bedroom oceanfront home he paid $43 million for in 2020.

The buying spree started earlier this year with the $178 million purchase of two oceanfront lots from billionaire cosmetics heir William Lauder, according to Realtor.com.

Months later, the same unidentified buyer reportedly nabbed two more homes directly behind the Lauder estate.

One sold in June for $18million – four times the $4.5 million price tag the sellers paid in 2018.

Weeks later, the adjoining property sold to an LLC reportedly tied to the same buyer for $30 million – nearly six times the $5.25 million, 2017 purchase price.

Records show the two Delaware-based LLCs registered to purchase the two inland houses – Mango Leaf LLC and Creekshore LLC – are tied to Seattle lawyer Greyson Blue.

A source told the Daily Mail there is a possible Microsoft link, but a person close to founder Bill Gates told the Wall Street Journal he isn’t the buyer.

‘There’s a real buzz that this mystery buyer is [Charles] Simonyi. I’m hearing it everywhere,’ our source told us. Simonyi led the development of Microsoft Office.

‘These people often move behind the shadow of LLCs and trusts when buying in Palm Beach.’

If 76-year-old Simonyi is the buyer, he will be constructing an estate to rival one in the works just south of Mar-a-Lago: Hedge fund titan Ken Griffin’s project, said to cost $350 million.

‘There’s terrific value in acquiring and assembling contiguous properties,’ DeWoody said. ‘It’s very hard to do, but we are seeing it when there’s an opportunity.’