Sunset Island home sale breaks price psf record

The home at 2830 Lucerne Avenue
The home at 2830 Lucerne Avenue

A dry-lot home on Sunset Island was just sold for $1,292 per square foot, the most expensive price point for a non-waterfront home in the island’s history, The Real Deal has learned.

The non-waterfront 3,643-square-foot home, designed by noted architect Carlos Schoeppl in 1936, was last sold in 2013 for $1.65 million, or $452 per square foot.

The seller, R Investors, brought the home up to date with modern appliances, all-new cabinetry, brand new crown molding and a new gas-heated pool. The company also installed a two-story addition.

It was listed for sale as turnkey in 2014 with an asking price of $5.25 million, or $1,441 per square foot. It sold for $4.7 million.

The listing agent was Nancy Bachelor of EWM/Christies International Real Estate.

Gal Erlichman of the Homeberry Group told TRD that he initially brought the buyer to see the home.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

He said unlike most international buyers, his client didn’t want a waterfront home — or a modern-looking one, for that matter.

The buyer, who Erlichman declined to name, saw a handful of homes, before setting his heart on the one at 2830 Lucerne Avenue.

Erlichman said the owner wouldn’t budge past $4.7 million. So his buyer decided the home was too good to pass up and sealed the deal.

The inventory of turnkey homes in Miami is really low,” Erlichman said. “That’s why people are willing to pay a premium.”

The sale broke the island’s price-per-square-foot record for non-waterfront homes by almost a third. The next most expensive sale, at 2525 Sunset Drive, was for $953 per square foot and $3.3 million total. All three of the most expensive sales were during the first quarter of 2015, according to data from CoreLogic, signaling that prices on the island could be climbing.

Last month, the son of billionaire Ed Ansin spent $8 million on a half-acre waterfront lot in Sunset Island, eight times its last sale price.  The island was also once home to Spanish superstar Enrique Iglesias, whose former home was listed for sale at $25 million in February.