The South Florida multifamily development market is seeing a shift as many developers are putting their sites up for sale. This follows a period of rapid growth during the pandemic, which has now slowed due to high costs for land, financing, and construction.
Developers are also facing pressure to offer more concessions to tenants in order to lease units. A surge of completed projects in 2023 and 2024 has led to suppressed rent growth, with rents declining in some neighborhoods. Tony Arellano, a commercial broker, explained these challenges to Lidia Dinkova.
Despite these trends, developers maintain that rising costs are not the main reason they are listing their properties. “Some of these guys bought at the top of the market. They were overleveraged, and they thought everything ws going to keep being peachy, that the rents would be peachy, that with Trump being in power, interest rates would have dropped,” said Miguel Pinto of Apex Capital Realty. “None of that has happened.”
Not all developers are making their listings public but may consider selling if offered a suitable price. Sebastian Faerman, a commercial broker at Fortune Christie’s, noted that those who had not started construction recently will likely not move forward with new projects during this cycle.
Some properties on the market belong to land-bankers whose strategy is to buy land, secure entitlements such as increased density through state laws like the Live Local Act, and then sell rather than build.
In Wynwood, Clara Homes listed its site—formerly home to Austin Burke menswear—for nearly $11 million after buying it for $7.7 million and securing approval for a 22-story tower under the Live Local Act. James Curnin of Clara Homes commented on his decision: “I just want to move to bigger and better things.” He acknowledged high inventory in Wynwood but cited frustrations with a lengthy site plan approval process as another factor.
Meanwhile, billionaire Adam Neumann’s Flow acquired a majority stake in Chetrit Group’s Miami River development—a project monitored by industry observers for years.
Recent major transactions include Patrick K. Willis selling his Fort Lauderdale mansion for $27.4 million to Michael Andretti and Favo Capital purchasing a Hollywood apartment tower for $190 million from GCF Development.
On the luxury side, developer Todd Michael Glaser and the Posner Group aim to flip a Miami Beach estate they recently purchased for $105 million by listing it at $169 million or renting it out for $495,000 per month. Plans are also underway for developing a spec mansion on the property that could be listed at $300 million.
Florida’s population reached 23 million last year and is projected to surpass 24 million by 2027 according to data from the Demographic Estimating Conference; however, growth rates are expected to slow in coming years.
