Sergio Pino’s Century Homebuilders Group just scored a $20.58 million loan to build 156 new townhomes and villas in western Miami-Dade County, as he sees demand for lower-priced homes.
The Coral Gables-based company secured the loan from Capital Bank to build the community, Century Park South, at 15700 Southwest 136th Street, southwest of the Miami Executive Airport.
Century Homebuilders has already broken ground on the development and plans to finish construction in about 14 months, according to Century’s CEO Pino. The development will consist of villas and townhomes with three to four bedrooms.
Prices will start at about $241,000, much lower than many other new home communities in the county.
Century Homebuilders bought the 8-acre property in 2017 for $4.2 million.The site was originally zoned for industrial use, but the homebuilder was able to get it rezoned for residential development with the support of the nearby neighbors, according to Pino.
Pino said the community is already 25 percent sold and he expects to sell the remainder of the homes over the next three months. Sales are strong because of the shortage of inventory in Miami of lower-priced homes, he said.
In Miami, new home prices have risen significantly over the past few years due to rising land prices and a scarcity of developable land. As a result, large homebuilders such as Lennar Corp. have looked to south Miami Dade to places such as Homestead to build new home communities.
Century Homebuilders largely focuses on western Miami-Dade County. Pino said he will continue to buy land and is working on a number of new home communities in the area. In June, he secured a $20 million loan to build four single-family home communities in western Miami-Dade County. One of them, Century Estates South, will have 59 single-family homes at prices ranging from $450,000 to $550,000.
These new projects are launching despite a nationwide slowdown in the housing market. Listing prices came down significantly across the U.S., and many homebuilders are having to offer significant discounts to prospective buyers. Experts say rising mortgage rates are making homeownership more expensive and are pushing buyers out of the market.