Homebuyers paying top dollar for new trophies

Ultra-wealthy homebuyers are snubbing resales of some of Miami’s most prized properties but setting records on extravagant new penthouses designed with them in mind, the New York Times reported.

The duplex penthouses at Ian Schrager’s Residences at the Miami Beach Edition sold for $34 million, or $3,800 a square foot, a new Miami Beach record.

Responding to an influx of wealthy buyers from Russia, Argentina, Brazil and elsewhere, Schrager and other South Florida developers up the ante with each new project, crowning condo towers with penthouses featuring exclusive amenities.

Nearly $500 million in units have sold pre-construction in Porsche Design’s first residential tower in Sunny Isles Beach, where a smart car elevator will deliver drivers directly into their sprawling condos.

“Everywhere there is a grand property, we have these great buyers, and there is no end to them,” Mark Zilbert, the president of the Zilbert Realty Group in Miami Beach, told the Times.

“It is sort of build it, they will come,” Zilbert said. “We didn’t have this a few years ago. But now developers are building these exceptional properties.”

Meanwhile, Casa Casuarina, the former home of Italian designer Gianni Versace now owned by telecom mogul Peter Loftin, has been reduced twice from its original $125 million asking price, and is now listed for $75 million. [NYT] –Emily Schmall