The Trump administration is renting three houses near Mar-a-Lago for $13.3 million, a sum greater than half of the properties’ estimated market value and a steep markup from the rates it paid in the same Palm Beach neighborhood five years ago.
The General Services Administration in February signed four-year leases for two of the homes and a five-year lease for the third, all within two blocks of President
Even for the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, the rates stand out.
The three homes are renting for far more than nearby commercial real estate and are among the costliest properties leased by the federal government on a price-per-square-foot basis, according to planning and real estate professionals familiar with the market.
They also represent a hike from what the government paid to rent two Palm Beach homes during Trump’s first term.
One, a five-bedroom house with a pool and cabana, will cost taxpayers $1.44 million per year through 2028. That’s more than five times the annual rate— $279,821— that the GSA paid to lease the same property in the last year of Trump’s first term.
“These rents appear to be exorbitant,” Ron Kendall, a former General Services Administration lease officer, said after reviewing the publicly available lease information. “If you’re paying a million and a half a year, why not just buy the building?”
The Defense Information Systems Agency — which oversees the president’s secure communication with the military — sought a vendor to install commercial internet service at the three sites, according to procurement documents it filed in May.
Federal officials typically need to rent property close to a high-ranking official’s residence for security reasons, said Cary Feld, a former GSA lease contracting officer and FBI realty specialist. That can limit their rental options, but GSA should still ensure a competitive bidding process, he said.
“Every lease I ever did for GSA, we were required to test the market,” Feld said. “Reach out to local government, real estate brokers. You never want to do things without competition.”
Lonnie Hendry, chief product office at Trepp, a research firm tracking real estate leases, called the three leases clear outliers for the Palm Beach market. “These are just significantly off the chart,” Hendry said.
‘Not at Liberty to Discuss’
The rental agreements were finalized during a stretch when the president signed executive orders designed to “eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity” across the government. The administration has since eliminated at least tens of thousands of federal jobs and frozen or canceled billions of dollars’ worth of programs.
Each of the Palm Beach houses matches what one might expect in the upscale neighborhood Trump now calls his primary home — one where he spent nearly a third of his time during his first 100 days in office, according to the Palm Beach Post. Together, their combined estimated market value is $24.8 million, according to Palm Beach County appraisal records.
One 4,700-square foot home boasts five bedrooms, 6.5 baths and deeded beach access. Another has five bedrooms, a pool and a “staff apartment” near the two-car garage. The third has a 50-foot pool, two fireplaces and a gourmet kitchen.
Vesna Oelsner, whose house at 153 Woodbridge Road is one the administration had also previously rented, told Bloomberg Government she felt the increased rate was appropriate for the area. She declined to discuss the details of the lease, saying she’d signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Asked about the house’s market value, Oelsner said, “I’m not at liberty to discuss” and hung up.
The other owners didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.
A block away, at 136 Kings Road, officials are paying $1.2 million per year for a five-bedroom house that was publicly advertised as a “a private garden paradise.”
The listing for the house shows it as a $100,000 monthly rental. That means federal officials aren’t getting a long-term discount but instead paying that same rate every month over a four-year lease. The house was appraised at $8.4 million in 2024, according to Palm Beach County property records.
The third property, 136 Woodbridge Road, was used by staffers in the Executive Office of the President during Trump’s first term, GSA records show.
Its lease was extended during the Biden administration. This year, it’s costing taxpayers $685,652 per year — more than double the $332,840 rate paid late last year. The four-bedroom house was appraised at $6.4 million last year, county records show.
An annual rental rate equal to 7% of the property’s market value is a fair deal for the owner, said Kendall, the former GSA staffer who previously led a trade group for property owners who lease to the federal government. He said the current Palm Beach renters “are getting double what they should be getting” from the government.
The National Association of Realtors has in the past touted a common guideline that a rental rate of one-fifteenth of a property’s value, or about 6.7%, is good for the owner. The Palm Beach leases range from 10.7% to 14.4% of the houses’ appraised values.
Appraisals serve as estimates of a house’s market value, unlike assessments, which help determine property taxes. Some Palm Beach appraisals have come in low compared to recent sales, but the discrepancy isn’t enough to bring the GSA rental rates in line with industry standards.
Four houses in similar lots within a few blocks of Mar-a-Lago have sold since December 2024, county records show. The sale price of each has been 25% higher than the appraised value, on average.
Other single-family homes near Mar-a-Lago have been available this year for $45,000 to $125,000 per month, according to Realtor.com. But those homes were advertised as seasonal rentals; the GSA is paying within that range year-round for four-year leases.
Golf Course Properties
In all, the three Palm Beach houses will cost the administration $3.3 million a year.
During Trump’s first term, his administration leased two houses in Palm Beach for a combined $546,783 per year, according to its September 2020 inventory. During former President
Taxpayers are also now on the hook for two rental houses in Jupiter, Fla., where Trump owns a golf course. One townhouse at the Trump National Golf Club is being leased for $300,000 a year, GSA records show. County officials haven’t posted an appraisal for the property, but it’s listed for sale with an asking price of $1.99 million, according to Redfin.
Another house, at the Jupiter Country Club, is leased for $306,000 a year, records show. It was sold in February 2024 for nearly $2.1 million and had been appraised at $1.8 million.
The administration is also renting a five-bedroom house near Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. The annual cost: $215,000.
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