Oracle Co-Founder Larry Ellison Bought Florida Homes for His Private Staff
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison quietly purchased eight homes in a gated Florida community for nearly 10 million dollars to house his family staff and private tutors.
In recent years, residents of the small gated community Palm Meadows Estates in Boynton Beach, Florida, whispered about a flurry of quiet home purchases in 2023. Eight houses, owned by various sellers and mostly not even listed on the market, sold within weeks for a combined total of nearly 10 million dollars. All of them were bought by an LLC with a California address.
Rumors quickly spread that the mysterious buyer was a tech billionaire. Some speculated it was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, while others believed it was Elon Musk.
It ultimately turned out that the buyer was Larry Ellison, billionaire and co-founder of Oracle, according to property records and interviews with individuals familiar with the transaction. A year earlier, Ellison paid 173 million dollars for an oceanfront estate in the upscale town of Manalapan, about a 30-minute drive away.
However, the Boynton Beach properties were not intended for Ellison himself, but for his family staff—including private tutors for several of his five children with his sixth wife, Jolene Ellison, according to sources familiar with the details. An Oracle spokesperson declined to comment on behalf of Ellison.
The purchases provide a rare glimpse into a phenomenon usually hidden from the public eye: as ultra-wealthy individuals expand their private real estate holdings, they also buy homes for the people who manage their households. Some of the world's wealthiest people have created private residential compounds where staff live close enough to be available when needed, yet far enough to maintain family privacy. Zuckerberg, for instance, bought several homes in Palo Alto to expand his family compound.
The trend is also evident in the luxury high-rise market, where developers integrate small studio apartments and one-bedroom units on lower floors meant for residents' domestic staff.
Living Close to Work
In recent years, many ultra-high-net-worth individuals—including hedge fund managers and tech titans—have flocked to South Florida, transforming the region's educational options to suit their children's needs. Several have invested hundreds of million dollars in establishing or expanding private and charter schools. Musk, Adam Neumann, Zuckerberg, and real estate developer Jeff Green have even started their own schools.
The Ellisons take care to protect the privacy of their five children, all under the age of 18. According to sources familiar with the family, the couple is deeply involved in their children's lives. The Manalapan estate includes multiple structures, featuring areas where the older children are homeschooled. As those sources noted, the children have a variety of private tutors and study multiple languages.
Palm Meadows Estates, situated between West Palm Beach and Boca Raton, is a lake-encircled community featuring a gated entrance and 24-hour security.
"Every single home has a water view," said Ashley McCoy, a local real estate agent with Serhant.
Kیمی Cruz, a real estate agent with LuxeIQ, lives in the community herself. She recalled that one morning around March 2023, an agent from another brokerage called asking for an urgent showing of all her listed properties in the enclave for a buyer looking to acquire about ten homes.
Although no proof of funds was provided at the time, the agent promised Cruz it would be "worth it" to arrange the visits on short notice.
Maintaining Strict Privacy
That same day, Cruz showed several properties to a small group that included an engineer. She noted the group was particularly interested in low-profile, single-story homes. They later asked to see houses that were not even on the market, prompting Cruz to meet separately with homeowners to persuade them to sell.
"I said, 'Look, this is an opportunity to sell your house without ever putting it on the market,'" Cruz recounted. "There is a very serious buyer here. The money is real."
A few days later, Cruz was told the buyer wanted to tour the properties himself. Surrounded by security guards, Ellison himself arrived for the inspection. That very evening, Cruz received the first of the signed purchase contracts.
A limited liability company associated with Ellison, whose net worth is estimated at about 200 billion dollars, completed the purchase of the eight homes between May and June 2023, property records show. The mid-sized houses feature manicured lawns and, in some cases, swimming pools.
Each seller reaped a substantial profit from the deal—a common occurrence in the region, which saw an influx of buyers from the northeastern United States during the coronavirus pandemic, according to local real estate agents. Paul and Yvonne Crouza, for example, sold Ellison a three-bedroom, roughly 2,100-square-foot home for 1.2 million dollars. Records show they purchased it in 2019 for just 567,000 dollars. The Crouzas did not respond to requests for comment.
