Aussie billionaire James Packer moves next door to Donald Trump
Everybody needs good neighbours, and it seems US President Donald Trump gets to pick his.
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Australian billionaire James Packer is moving into US President Donald Trump’s Florida backyard.
The 57-year-old has taken a lease on a multimillion-dollar home that backs onto Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The billionaire’s new Palm Beach home has not been identified, however insiders point to a property that was listed for sale in January for A$23 million.
The property borders the Trump residence as well as the Mar-a-Lago private club and is believed to be owned by Mr Trump. who bought a number of properties in nearby Woodbridge Road.
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The properties border his estate and are used by friends and family and, during his presidencies, the US Secret Service.
Mr Packer’s new home is said to come with special privileges and access to the Mar-a-Lago club.
The value of properties in the area have risen since Trump began his first presidential term in 2017.
The Woodbridge Road property has sat on the market for a year after initially being listed for A$23 million in March 2024 before being taken off the market in July after the asking price dropped to A$20 million.
The main home boasts five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a pool and two-storey guesthouse and metres from the Palm Beach beachfront.
The residency comes after Mr Packer’s Hollywood producer friend Brett Ratner spent recent months fanning the friendship between his one-time RatPac movie-making business partner and the US President.
Ratner sealed the deal in January when he landed access to First Lady Melania Trump for a forthcoming Amazon Prime documentary to be made by Ratner and Packer’s rebooted production company which was shuttered in 2017 after Mr Packer’s international casino operations hit a wall in China and his engagement to Mariah Carey ended.
It was also in January that Mr Packer dined with the President-elect and Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago.
Mr Trump is said to have given the green light to the billionaire taking a property near his historic private “Winter White House” the same month.
Musk, who also attended the dinner, is also renting a cottage, called Banyan, on the estate.
Mr Packer’s proximity to the US President should provide Mr Packer and Ratner with access to the Trump’s Palm Beach home during the documentary shoot.
Mr Packer previously, around 2016, bought a house next door to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the ancient beachside town of Caesarea, some 45 minutes north of Israel’s Tel Aviv.
That relationship too was helped along with encouragement of one of Mr Packer’s influential film industry associates, Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan.
The Tel Aviv house and friendship would come under fierce scrutiny during Netanyahu’s corruption trial in 2020 and 2021 when witnesses testified the returned-to-power Israeli prime minister and his wife Sara had regularly dined with Mr Packer at either of the two neighbouring houses.
The trial is ongoing, the war in Gaza having put it on the backburner.
Mr Packer is not accused of any wrongdoing while the Israeli prime minister, who urged Mr Packer to buy the neighbouring house, has denied all charges.
Mr Packer already has a lavish property portfolio with homes in Los Angeles, Aspen, Mexico, Argentina and Sydney.
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