When searching for a new house in South Florida, Lionel Messi prioritized discretion, comfort, and room.

The soccer player and his wife finally settled on a waterfront property in Bay Colony, a neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale that cost them over $11 million. Brokers claim that this is one of the only gated communities in the area, if not the only one, with private, 24-hour security.

Realtor Karen Bellows, who is selling a nearby mansion for $8 million and remarking, “Other communities are gated, but they don’t have the 24-hour security,” was explaining why her client chose to advertise the home at 30 South Compass Drive. As one resident put it, “Some of the other neighborhoods that have some of these high-end homes, they are trying to match the security [of Bay Colony].”The master suite in Messi’s 10,500 square foot estate is 1,600 square feet. The home has eight further bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms. It has two docks and a pool on a point lot. Due to the 170 feet of waterfront and deep water dockage, Messi will presumably be in the market for a yacht, if he doesn’t already own one.

The late fast food moguls Dave Thomas and Ray Kroc also called Bay Colony home, so he’s hardly the only famous person to reside there. However, Messi is the greatest.

Real estate agent Lauren Dekok of Keyes Company is selling a home in the nearby hamlet of Sea Ranch Lakes, where Messi’s longtime friend Sergio Busquets just purchased a home for $8.7 million. “Bay Colony was always an understated neighborhood,” she said.

According to RelatedISG Realty’s head of sales, Robert Esposito, Messi’s acquisition will put the neighborhood “on the map.”

This summer, Messi’s visit in South Florida caused a stir, with cameras following him around as he looked at mansions in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Pictures of him purchasing groceries went viral. The Mas brothers’ Major League Soccer team, Inter Miami, signed Messi to a contract for $50 million to $60 million. In addition to receiving ownership stakes in the squad, he also signed revenue-sharing deals with Adidas, Apple, and other corporations.

Esposito speculated that Messi moved to Fort Lauderdale so that his family “could live a more normal, quiet life.” While luxury house prices in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach have been on the increase, those in Broward County have remained relatively stable.Compass’s top Fort Lauderdale broker, Chad Carroll, predicts that the city’s private community prices will continue to rise as a result of rising demand. According to Carroll, Bay Colony is in direct competition with Sea Ranch Lakes.

Also located in Fort Lauderdale is the exclusive Pine Crest School, where Messi’s children may be enrolled, as well as Drive Pink Stadium, where Inter Miami trains.

Carroll remarked, “Obviously you’re close to the schools and the stadium, but it offers larger estates” than Sea Ranch Lakes.

There are around a hundred waterfront lots in Bay Colony. The 2021 purchаse of 141 Bay Colony Drive by author and social media celebrity Patrick Bet-David for $20.4 million was a record for the area.