His own neighbor: inside the $8 million house Messi bought right next to his Florida mansion

Lionel Messi has decided the best neighbor in Fort Lauderdale is himself. The Argentine paid $8 million for a house in Bay Colony, a gated waterfront community in Florida, right next to the mansion where he has lived since 2023. The purchase was first reported by La Nación and detailed by Forbes Brasil and Correio.

The new property sits at 71 Compass Lane and has about 715 m² of living space on a lot of roughly 1,700 m². It has six bedrooms according to Correio (Forbes says seven), six full bathrooms and a powder room, plus a pool, a private dock and almost 50 meters of waterfront. The previous owners, Michael and Michelle Nelson, paid $2.7 million for it in 2013.

The house next door, at number 91, has been the family's base since September 2023, when it was bought for about $10.75 million. It has roughly 974 m², eight bedrooms, a three-car garage and two docks. Together, the two homes exceed 1,680 m² of built area and add up to an $18.75 million investment.

The deal was made through Sadani LLC, a company tied to the player's private investments. And his real estate empire goes well beyond Bay Colony: Messi owns apartments in Sunny Isles Beach, pre-construction units at Cipriani Residences Miami, the MiM hotel chain in Spain, the Castelldefels house near Barcelona and his well-known property in Funes, Argentina.

There is even a lesson in appreciation on the list: the Regalia Tower apartment bought in 2021 for $7.3 million was listed this year for $13 million, a rise of about 78% in five years, according to Forbes Brasil.