The CEO of Facebook just wants a little privacy. I know, the joke writes itself.

Mark Zuckerberg has made a slightly unusual purchase, four of them to be exact. Mercury News reports that Zuck has just spent more than $30 million snatching up four houses adjacent to his own Palo Alto property – paying more the $14 million for one of them. A local real estate agent called this price “absurdly high.”

So, why would Zuck buy up all the houses around his own property? Is he looking to make Zuck-land, is he trying to build a giant complex?

Apparently not. From Mercury News:

Zuckerberg paid top dollar — more than $30 million in total — for the four residential properties located next door and behind his own home. But he has no plans to build a Taj Mahal on the land, according to a person with knowledge of the transactions, who said Zuckerberg is leasing the existing homes back to the families that live there.

The 29-year-old multibillionaire acted after he learned of a developer’s plan to buy one of the properties next door to the Facebook co-founder, said the source. “The developer was going to build a huge house and market the property as being next door to Mark Zuckerberg.”

When you think about it, it’s a smart move. It prevents people that would want to move in next to Zuck for the sole purpose of living next to Zuck from annoying him. Don’t act like you wouldn’t consider it if you had the money.

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