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Few entrepreneurs have built a life—and a real estate footprint—quite like Sir Richard Branson. Worth an estimated $2.8 billion as of December 2025, the British billionaire made his fortune turning the Virgin name into a global empire spanning airlines, travel, media, finance, and space tourism.
Born in England in 1950, Branson left school early due to dyslexia and learned business by doing—launching Student magazine, founding Virgin Records, and later shaking up aviation with Virgin Atlantic. The Virgin story has had its peaks and pivots. Virgin Orbit collapsed in 2023 after a high-profile debut, while Virgin Money was sold to Nationwide in 2024 for more than $3.5 billion. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000, Branson has long paired entrepreneurship with activism through Virgin Unite, his philanthropic arm focused on social and environmental causes. More recently, he returned to his travel roots with Virgin Voyages, the adults-only cruise line designed to reimagine life at sea.
Real estate has always been part of the lifestyle that came with it. Branson’s best-known address is Necker Island, the private Caribbean retreat he bought in the 1970s and still calls home, along with nearby Moskito Island, where he maintains a personal estate and spends time throughout the year. Beyond those private holdings, he’s also closely associated with a string of island and resort destinations under the Virgin Limited Edition banner—places like Son Bunyola in Mallorca—that operate more as hospitality flagships than personal residences. Taken together, they paint the picture of a billionaire who didn’t just invest in real estate but built an entire way of life around it.
Necker Island
Image Credit: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images Necker Island is Branson’s most iconic real estate holding—and the emotional anchor of his global property footprint. The Virgin Group founder purchased the 74-acre private island in the late 1970s for a reported $180,000 after a yearlong effort to scrape together the funds, famously buying it to impress his future wife, Joan Templeman. Nearly five decades later, it remains his primary home base and the place where he spends much of the year overseeing business ventures, hosting family, and advancing philanthropic initiatives.
At the center of the island is Branson’s own residence, the Great House—a Balinese-style villa perched at Necker’s highest point, designed as an open-air gathering space with sweeping ocean views. In total, the island includes 10 private estates, three of which are reserved for Branson and his family, including his personal 11-bedroom mansion. Though Necker functions first and foremost as Branson’s home, it is also available for ultra-exclusive rentals, with private buyouts reportedly starting around $100,000 per night and climbing well north of $1 million per week. Rebuilt following a major fire in 2011 and Hurricane Irma in 2017, the island today operates largely on wind and solar power.
Moskito Island
Image Credit: DR/SP/Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Branson’s second private island in the British Virgin Islands, Moskito Island, takes a more communal approach to ultra-luxury living—by billionaire standards, at least. He bought the roughly 125-acre island in 2007 for a reported $13.2 million and set out to create a low-key private island neighborhood, where a small circle of ultra-wealthy owners could build one-of-a-kind homes while sharing infrastructure behind the scenes. The entrepreneur keeps his own multi-villa Branson Estate on the island.
The master plan, developed with Taiwanese architect Dr. Ken Kao, leans heavily into sustainability, with solar and wind power, organic gardens, and a light-touch approach to development. A handful of the estates—including the Oasis, the Point, the Village, and the newly completed Cape Stout—are now available to rent, either individually or as part of seven-figure weekly buyouts. The final home to be built, the Aerie, came to market in 2024 at $58 million, with the option for its future owner to join the island’s ultra-exclusive rental pool.
Source: Luxury - robbreport.com
