Larry Page’s reported Coconut Grove estates changed hands by deeds dated days before California’s billionaire tax line

Four December deeds moved five Coconut Grove parcels to two trusts

Miami-Dade property records show four warranty deeds dated Dec. 26 to 29, 2025 that moved five Coconut Grove waterfront parcels, $127.9 million in all by our sum, to two revocable trusts whose trustee of record is Benjamin David Babcock; The Wall Street Journal, as Fortune and Fox Business relayed it, and Business Insider report that the buyer is Google billionaire Larry Page, whose name is on none of the records. The deeds are dated days before Jan. 1, 2026, the date on which California’s Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires that Californians vote on Nov. 3, fixes who owes it (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; Fortune; Fox Business; Business Insider; Prop 40 text).

The largest is a $71.9 million estate on a 41,125-square-foot lot, a 10,417-square-foot house built in 2015, sold to the Tropical Frontier Revocable Trust by a deed dated Dec. 26, carrying $431,400 in documentary stamps, by a limited liability company that had paid $45.91 million for it in 2021. Fortune and Fox Business, citing the Journal, report the sellers were heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, Roger Barnett; the record names only the company (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; Fortune; Fox Business).

The other three deeds went to the Banyan Canopy revocable trust on Hughes Cove: $20 million for one parcel, dated Dec. 26; $6 million for two vacant lots, also Dec. 26; and $30 million, dated Dec. 29, for a parcel in which another person holds a life estate, with the trust holding the remainder. The same trust bought one more Hughes Cove house for $14.97 million by a deed dated Jan. 15, 2026, after the California date, from sellers who held title on Jan. 1 (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser).

The bigger fight: Prop 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of an estimated 200 California billionaires; committees opposing it had raised about $99.6 million through Oct. 6 against about $32.2 million for it, about 3.1 to 1 by our arithmetic, and a Citrin Center and POLITICO poll of 909 likely voters taken Oct. 9 to 14 had it at 46% for and 43% against, within its 3.6-point margin of error (CalMatters; California Secretary of State; POLITICO).

Your stake: if you own in Coconut Grove or pay Miami-Dade property tax, the $71.9 million estate’s 2026 school taxable value rose to about $56.1 million from about $42.8 million, up about $13.3 million, and its deed paid $431,400 in state documentary stamps (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; our arithmetic).

Florida’s cut comes at the deed, not the California tax

Prop 40 leaves these houses out in so many words: “All interests in any real property held directly by a taxpayer or held via a revocable trust shall not be included in net worth.” The measure sets who owes by its “tax obligation date,” Jan. 1, 2026, and measures net worth Dec. 31, 2026 (Prop 40 text).

The documentary stamps are Florida’s cut of every deed: 60 cents per $100 of the price in Miami-Dade, plus a 45-cent surtax that is not due on a deed transferring only a single-family home (Florida Department of Revenue). Business Insider, citing Analytics Miami, reports that one Miami-Dade single-family home over $30 million sold in 2018 and that 19 homes over $30 million sold in 2025 (Business Insider).

Their side

Representatives for Page did not respond to Business Insider, and we found no statement from Page or from the trustees of record (Business Insider). Fox Business reported that California Secretary of State filings indicate Page’s family office, Koop LLC, and his influenza research fund, Flu Lab LLC, no longer operate in California, and that One Aero now lists its primary address in Florida (Fox Business).

What’s next

Californians vote on Prop 40 on Nov. 3; if competing measures on the same ballot also pass, the one with the most yes votes becomes law (CalMatters). The reported prices run ahead of the deeds we read: Fox Business, citing the Journal, puts the Hughes Cove compound once owned by the late restaurateur Jonathan Lewis at $101.5 million, while the three December Hughes Cove deeds total $56 million, leaving about $45.5 million matched by no deed we read; we did not read the Banyan Ridge condominium records (Fox Business; Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; our arithmetic).

Correction

Correction, Oct. 30, 2026: An earlier version of this story summed the stamps and taxable value of all five December parcels in its "Your stake" line and money table. The outlets we read tie Page to Coconut Grove estates, including the $71.9 million estate, but none ties the three Banyan Canopy deeds to him, so those lines now give the $71.9 million estate's figures alone. We also removed a line on homestead exemptions that gave an incomplete picture of the county roll (Miami-Dade Property Appraiser; Fortune; Fox Business).