Value of Donald Trump’s Properties Broken Down by Real Estate Developer

A well-known Wisconsin real estate developer said that the value of Donald Trump’s properties would have naturally increased after he became president in 2016, agreeing with the embattled former leader’s line of defense in his New York fraud trial.

New York Attorney General Letitia James last year brought a $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his two eldest sons and his organization, accusing them of knowingly participating in a scheme to inflate the value of the former president’s assets. Trump and his two eldest sons have denied all of the accusations, with the former president claiming the trial is part of a politically motivated campaign against him.

Terrence Wall, a real estate developer who founded T. Wall Enterprises, wrote in a piece for newspaper Wisconsin Right Now that “the Trump brand” would have added at least “20 percent or more” in value to the former president’s properties.

According to Wall, who conducted his own valuation of Trump’s personal assets, the former president’s estimate is closer to reality than that of the New York court. Mentioning the case of Mar-a-lago, the former president’s luxurious resort in Palm Beach, Wall said that Trump valued the property at between $426 million and $612 million from 2011 to 2021, while the New York court said it’s worth $18 million.

“But here’s the thing; the city assessment on Mar-a-lago was $30 million and even Zillow says it was worth $24 million,” Wall wrote. “Both the assessor and Zillow say the property is worth substantially more than the court and prosecutor say. Now given that the assessor is considered an expert in valuation by the government itself, it’s odd that the court says its market value is worth so much less.”

Newsweek contacted Wall for comment by email on Friday.

The value indicated by Zillow and the city assessor is still considerably lower than the price indicated by Trump—but Wall said that an analysis of the value of nearby properties would show that “the value of the land per unit would be only $700,000 by comparison.”

“I saw many condos for sale in the $20 to $40 million dollar range online in Palm Beach,” Wall wrote. “If you consider that the land value portion of each condo would be a standard 25 percent to 50 percent that means $5 to $20 million per unit in land value,” he added. “I calculated that Mar-a-lago could hold around 875 units based upon a density of 50 units per acre […] At 875 units times the land value per unit […] the land would be worth $4.375 Billion to $17.5 Billion.”

According to Wall, the New York court failed to consider several factors in evaluating Trump’s properties, including “the Trump brand.”

“Trump has proven time and time again, worldwide, that his brand commands a premium, so any valuation must consider that,” he wrote. Wall, a Republican, ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Wisconsin Senate in 2010, withdrawing before the primary elections.

“His brand has to be worth at least another 20 percent or more,” Wall said, adding that Trump’s properties would have become “historic” the moment he was elected president.