More than 50 new SoFla condo buildings completed this cycle

The South Florida real estate market reached a milestone in November with the completion of the 50th and 51st new condo buildings to be developed east of I-95 in the tri-county region during this current cycle that began in 2011.

The 50th new condo building was completed on Nov. 19 when the first deed was recorded for phase two of the six-building Aventura Place project located in the 21200 block of West Dixie Highway just west of Aventura Hospital And Medical Center, according to Miami-Dade County records.

The first phase of the Aventura Place low-rise project in Northeast Miami-Dade County was completed in July.

Less than a week later on Nov. 24, the 25-story north tower in the Marina Palms Yacht Club & Residences project in North Miami Beach began to record deed transactions for units to mark the 51st new condo building to be completed during this South Florida real estate cycle. A twin south tower is currently under construction at the Marina Palms project located in the 17200 block of Biscayne Boulevard, according to government records. (For disclosure, my firm CraneSpotters.com has provided consulting services for the Marina Palms project.)

Developers have now built nearly 4,000 units east of I-95 in the tri-county region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach with the inclusion of these two newest condo buildings to be completed, according to CraneSpotters.com.

Propelled by a combination of foreign investors with strong currencies and attractive real estate prices early on in this cycle, more than 85 percent of the new condo units completed to date are located in the international-oriented market of Miami-Dade County, according to the data.

The remainder of the completed units are located in the more domestic-oriented markets of Broward County, with nearly 11 percent of the South Florida total and Palm Beach County with about 4 percent, according to the data.

In the first 11 months of this year, developers have completed 31 new South Florida condo buildings with nearly 2,800 units east of I-95.

This year’s construction activity represents a jump from previous years when 13 new South Florida condo buildings with more than 900 units were completed in 2014. Five buildings with more than 150 condos were finished in 2013, and a pair of buildings with nearly 115 units combined were built in 2011 and 2012.

An additional 123 new condo buildings with more than 12,100 units – about 25 percent of the South Florida pipeline – are currently under construction as of Monday.

Concurrently, 225 new condo buildings with nearly 32,600 units – about 67 percent of the South Florida pipeline – are currently in the planning or presale phase of development, according to the data.

The unanswered question going forward is whether the pool of preconstruction condo buyers — who are faced with rising unit prices and weakening foreign currencies against the dollar — is deep enough to warrant the construction of all of the new towers currently in the pipeline for South Florida during this cycle.  

Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.