The regional record
51 East Bay Street, an early-1800s house just north of Broad, closed on October 31, 2025 at $21,028,560, with a separate bill of sale bringing the total to $21,575,000. It is the most expensive single-family sale ever recorded in the Charleston region. It displaced the Vanderhorst Mansion on Kiawah, which had held the record at $20,500,000 since June 2021, and which had itself displaced a $20,250,000 Kiawah sale on Bally Bunion Drive from 2015. For context, 2025 produced twelve closings above $10,000,000 region-wide and three historic-district sales above $15,000,000, where the prior year's high was $9,700,000.
The peninsula
5 East Battery, the John Ravenel House of about 1848, sold on February 28, 2025 for $18,250,000 plus a $3,000,000 bill of sale for its contents, after 39 days on the market. It is the South of Broad record. 18 Murray Boulevard, 8,138 square feet built in 1991, closed in 2025 at $15,200,000 after going under contract within a week with no public listing; the sellers had bought it in 2024 for $6,500,000. 39 Meeting Street (about 1766) sold for $8,900,000 and 46 South Battery (1835) for $8,400,000, both in March 2025. In early 2026 a unit at One Vendue Range traded at $8,750,000 and a 1785 house on East Bay Street at $8,400,000. The next benchmark is listed: 25 East Battery, the Charles Drayton House, came to market in late 2025 asking $28,000,000.
Kiawah Island
The Vanderhorst Mansion on Governors Drive, about 16.5 acres on the Kiawah River, sold for $20,500,000 in June 2021. On the ocean, 133 Flyway Drive sold for $18,800,000 in November 2024, 25 Surfsong Road (7,320 square feet, built 2016, listed at $18,500,000) and 57 Surfsong Road (7,614 square feet, more than 132 feet of ocean frontage) each sold for $16,500,000 in 2025, 39 Eugenia Avenue for $16,000,000 in June 2024 and 9 Eugenia Avenue for $11,600,000 in September 2024. 36 Ocean Course Drive sold for $9,000,000 in May 2025. In May 2026, 88 Surfsong Road, 8,851 square feet on 1.24 oceanfront acres, was listed at $25,000,000, the island's most expensive listing.
Isle of Palms
The island's high sale was $6,400,000 as recently as 2017. 8 54th Avenue closed at $14,200,000 on April 4, 2025, and 1 44th Avenue, a 2017 Beau Clowney design built by Sheppard Construction, closed on May 5, 2026 at $15,000,000 including $500,000 of furnishings, after listing in January at $18,000,000. The buyer was from New Hampshire.
Sullivan's Island
2529 Atlantic Avenue, 4,658 square feet, sold furnished for $13,500,000 on April 10, 2025; the seller had bought it for $9,100,000 three years earlier. 2407 Atlantic Avenue, 5,106 square feet on the ocean, sold for $13,000,000 on October 14, 2025; those sellers had paid $3,300,000 in 2017. 3213 Middle Street, built in 2023 to a Herlong Architects design, sold for $10,500,000 in 2025.
Mount Pleasant
The town record is 100 Haddrell Street in the Old Village at $14,950,000 in April 2023. 202 Bank Street, 6,740 square feet on the harbor bluff, sold for $14,000,000 in August 2025 to a New York buyer. 111 Live Oak Drive, built around 1870, sold for $8,550,000.
Daniel Island
123 Nobels Point Street sold for $12,500,000 in November 2025, in a month that produced $72,000,000 of sales across 23 homes. The prior record was a home on Old Compass Road in Captain's Island at nearly $10,500,000 in 2024, up from $6,400,000 in 2021. 344 Bayley Road on Captain's Island was listed in 2026 at $14,900,000.
James, Johns and Wadmalaw Islands
111 Riverland Drive in Riverland Terrace on James Island, deep water on the Stono, set a neighborhood record at $7,625,000 on May 11, 2026. Wadmalaw's record stands at $5,900,000 (2021); 2970 Roseville Road, 13 acres with more than 1,000 feet on the Bohicket River, was listed in May 2025 at $10,600,000. On Johns Island, 2885 Plowground Road on Burden Creek closed at $4,000,000 in June 2025 after three offers in five days.
What the list says
Three patterns. First, the ceiling is rising fastest on the islands: Isle of Palms more than doubled its record in two years, and Sullivan's and Daniel Island both reset within the same thirteen months. Second, the top of the peninsula is being set by houses with provenance and harbor frontage, and the furniture is often its own contract. Third, the buyers are not local: the New Hampshire buyer on Isle of Palms, the New York buyer in the Old Village, and the broker consensus that roughly eight in ten sea-island luxury buyers come from outside South Carolina. The houses that set records are marketed to the places those buyers live.
Sources
Every figure in this article traces to a source below. Market data carries a date because it changes.
What decides the outcome
A record is a closed sale, not a list price, and this list will be updated the day the next one closes. If you own one of the houses that could set it, the campaign has to reach a buyer in Greenwich, Chicago or London, which is what DHG is built to do.
