South Florida real estate now in the “Viagra cycle”: VIDEO

The Real Deal's latest roundtable drew developers and brokers to Aventura

From TRD’s Spring panel in Aventura sprung a lively conversation among South Florida’s top developers about the humming state of the market and lingering concerns from the last bust. We were lucky enough to bring onstage Carlos Rosso of The Related Group; developer Avra Jain; Gil Dezer of Dezer Development; Kevin Maloney of New York-based Property Markets Group and Eric Trump of Trump Development.

“I think that the world has changed,” said Rosso during the panel, which was held along with a reception at the site of the future Echo Aventura condominium, a PMG development. “I think that the best that can happen for all of us is that the world stays a little bit longer like this. We are calling this the Viagra cycle – you know, we want it to last a little bit longer,” he said.

Eric Trump condemned the sloppy etiquette of the previous real estate boom in South Florida, which began to erupt in 2008.

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“We came from a false market, a market where people could write their FICO score on a cocktail napkin and get millions and millions of dollars in financing, pre-approved, ahead of time, even though they couldn’t afford it. People were buying beyond their means, and they couldn’t finance it, and that ultimately caused the crash,” Trump said.

Dezer was optimistic for prospects as one of a few landholders in Sunny Isles Beach, including as developer of the Porsche Design tower, but expressed a wariness over the all-cash deals fueled construction. “I’m worried about where the money’s coming from,” he said.

We asked them and now we want to ask you: Give us your take on the market and its future by posting your comments. How on target are these developers?panel (1)

A screenshot of the panel

A screenshot of the panel