Colombia maintains lead for interest in Miami real estate in June

For the seventh straight month, Colombia has topped the Miami Association of Realtor’s list of foreign countries showing the most interest in South Florida real estate.

The association, which releases its report monthly, gathers data on foreign nationals searching for properties using its website and ranks the countries based on their total number of searches.

For June, Colombia ranked highest, followed by Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina.

Brazil’s relatively high ranking at No. 3 signals interest in South Florida has returned for the country, which dropped below fifth place earlier this year after spending more than 17 months in the No. 1 spot.

Canada, which had also ranked low in previous months, rose to the No. 5 spot in June. Several preconstruction condo projects in South Florida are vying for Canadian buyers, in part as a way to replace weakened demand from Latin American countries due to their financial and political instability.

According to the association, Colombians made up 10 percent of all residential home sales to foreign nationals in South Florida last year. That ratio was beat only by Venezuela with 13 percent and Brazil with 12 percent.

The typical Colombian demographic buying here is upper-middle-class families, who spend on average $516,000 per purchase, according to the report. — Sean Stewart-Muniz

1. Colombia
2. Venezuela
3. Brazil
4. Argentina
5. Canada
6. Spain
7. India
8. France
9. United Kingdom
10. Philippines