(Photo: Trinity Foundation investigator Pete Evans took a picture of Benny Hinn’s Dana Point, California, beach home while it was under construction. Evans spoke with Dave Busk, the builder, and was told the new residence would be his client’s “dream home.”)
Beach houses and beach condos along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts have become the vacation homes of choice for America’s wealthiest pastors.
In 2017, Joel Osteen purchased a beach house in Newport Coast, California, for $5 million. Recently, the Redfin real estate website estimated Osteen’s second home to be worth $11 million.
Over the past three years Trinity Foundation has conducted hundreds of property searches, resulting in the discovery of 40 beach houses, beach condos and waterfront homes in coastal cities owned by church and ministry leaders and their non-profit organizations. These 40 properties are worth a combined $140 million.
Wikipedia defines beach house as “a house on or near a beach.” For this study, Trinity Foundation restricted its definition to a home or condo within one mile of a beach. This restrictive definition prevented the inclusion of televangelist David E. Taylor’s $8 million Tampa parsonage and other expensive pastor-owned vacation homes.
Two waterfront properties, while technically more than one mile inland, were included in this study because of their construction next to canals with large boat docks allowing the property owner to quickly travel by yacht into the Gulf of Mexico.
(Photo: Word Network CEO Kevin Adell’s waterfront home is located near a yacht club. In addition to the waterfront home, Adell owns a mountain home in Utah and multiple residences in Michigan. His total residential property holdings are at least $18.5 million, based on estimates from real estate websites.)
Thirty of the properties are vacation homes. The most expensive secondary pastor residence is currently for sale at a price of $14.9 million. Florida is the most common location for pastor vacation homes.
For televangelist Benny Hinn, one beach house is not enough. Hinn appears to reside in two beach houses. Hinn’s Dana Point, California, beach house is currently worth $12 million, according to Redfin.
During an inquiry into religious ministry abuses of the tax code, Hinn’s attorney informed Senator Chuck Grassley that Benny Hinn Ministries “decided the best use for the facility was as a retreat for Pastor’s contemplation and study, Church-purposed entertaining, and for short-term overnight stays preceding or following travel.”
In 2013, Hinn transferred the Dana Point home to his assistant Donald B. Price and Dominion Land Trust, possibly through a straw buyer arrangement. However, in 2020, a corporation filing revealed that Hinn was still using the residence.
In 2020, Hinn purchased a beach condo in Palm Coast, Florida, for almost $2 million. Hinn’s son-in-law, Michael Koulianos, who leads the ministry Jesus Image, also acquired a beach house in Palm Coast.
