Foreign Buyers Finding Deals in the Miami Condo Market

February 21, 2008

On February 20, 2008, Reutors published an article entitled “Miami Condos are ‘for sale’ for Foreign Buyers“. The article discusses how foreign buyers are stepping in to buy condos at a discount in Florida, where prices have dropped “20 to 30 percent”. The appreciation of their currency is another motivating factor in their decision to buy Miami condos. The story particularly focuses on Canadian buyers, who have a particular interest in buying within the United States, because the Canadian Dollar “has gained 25 percent against the greenback in the last two years”. The article also discusses that these buyers are willing to pay for these condos with cash.

I, for one, have met with a large influx of foreign buyers within the past six months from countries such as Ukraine, China, Russia, Canada, England, Italy, Germany, various countries in South America and territories of the United States, such as Puerto Rico. Many of these buyers came prepared to pay for South Florida condos with cash. In fact, two of the three pending sales that I have scheduled to close in March are cash deals, with no financing contingencies. Great deals in beachfront condo buildings are exactly what these foreign buyers have in mind.

The Reuters article also revealed the following which I found very interesting:

In a study by the National Association of Realtors last year, Florida was the top destination for foreign buyers, accounting for 26 percent of all transactions, ahead of California at 16, Texas at 10 and Arizona at 6 percent.

More than 7 percent of all Florida homes were sold to foreigners, the study found, and 65 percent of Realtors said they had brokered at least one foreign deal.

I would think that Miami homes sold accounted for much higher than 7 percent since Miami should have a much larger percentage of foreign buyers than the rest of Florida.

I’d also like to note that new buyers for Miami condos aren’t only coming from countries abroad. I’ve also found buyers from New Jersey, New York, California, Illinois and Texas. I will admit that local buyers remain a very small percentage of my overall business. In a nutshell, if I had never started this blog I’d probably be out of business. This blog allows me the opportunity to reach people all across the world (including the two people in Ethiopia and Afghanistan who found my site within the past week, according to Google Analytics). The Miami condo market is not a local market…it is a global market. It may not seem cheap to local buyers, but to foreign buyers Miami and Miami Beach condos are bargains to them.