South Florida real estate hit highs and lows in 2025, but construction financing flowed — for the right projects — and billionaire developers and investors like Amancio Ortega and Steve Ross pumped money into the tri-county region.
Office and multifamily developers backpedalled, despite a series of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Condo developers slogged through the summer, but demand picked up in the fall.
Drama in the real estate scene was wilder than “Members Only: Palm Beach,” from condo association fights to legal battles involving some of the biggest real estate dynasties.
Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature pitched a number of proposals to reduce or eliminate property taxes — the fate of those will be determined in 2026.
The industry also mourned the deaths of influential players.
Here’s a look at some of the top stories of the year:
Billionaire moves
Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins and founder and CEO of Related Ross, is among the billionaires making moves. Ross has about a dozen office properties (completed and in the pipeline) in West Palm Beach and was one of the most successful office landlords this year. Of this year’s 10 biggest office leases in South Florida, Related Ross was the only landlord to sign a new-to-market firm: tech company ServiceNow took space at one of Ross’ office buildings.
Ross made downtown West Palm his playground through Related Ross, his new company. His portfolio includes at least 18 buildings and a mixed-use complex collectively spanning more than 3.8 million square feet of offices, retail and restaurants, as well as about 1,500 condo, apartment and hotel units, according to The Real Deal’s analysis.
Zara billionaire Ortega doubled down on South Florida, making two big plays in Miami-Dade in 2025: his family office paid $274.4 million for the 30-story Sabadell Financial Center in Brickell in October. A month earlier, the family office paid about $110 million for Atlas Plaza in Miami’s Design District.
We can’t ignore Ken Griffin, billionaire hedge fund manager, who acquired fewer properties than in previous years but is still moving forward with plans for a $2.5 billion bayfront supertall in Miami that will house his Citadel hedge fund and sister firm, Citadel Securities. He also scored approval for a 30,000-plus-square-foot private marina with a crew pavilion, owner’s suite and a pool on Terminal Island in Miami Beach.
On the residential front, Rockstar Energy billionaire Russell Savage, previously known as Russell Weiner, picked up trophy properties in Palm Beach County and Miami Beach as he builds his ultra-luxury residential portfolio.
Megadeals
Dealflow at the highest end of the market soared to new levels.
Oak Row Equities and Vlad Doronin’s OKO Group closed last month on their record $520 million purchase of Aimco’s waterfront Brickell assemblage, where they plan an Aman-branded hotel and residential development. Mariposa Real Estate is also a partner. The deal marks the priciest development site sale in South Florida.
Off-market resi sales set city and county records as well. In Palm Beach, billionaire cosmetics mogul William Lauder reportedly sold 2.3 oceanfront acres for more than $160 million to billionaire Microsoft Excel creator Charles Simonyi, as part of a $350 million assemblage on the island. The deal was not recorded publicly.
Two Roads hits dead end in condo buyout litigation
Two Roads Development took a big blow in October, when Florida’s Supreme Court declined to take up the Biscayne 21 condo buyout case.
The story is complicated, but it started in 2022, when Taylor Collins and Reid Boren’s Two Roads acquired the majority of condos at Biscayne 21, an older Miami condo building in Edgewater. The developer-controlled condo association then voted to amend the condo declaration’s termination statute, lowering the threshold to 80 percent from 100 percent. A termination of the association is a required legal step so the developer could eventually knock the building down.
Two Roads launched sales later that year of an Edition Residences planned for the site. Then, the holdout owners sued the developer and the developer-controlled association. All the residents eventually had to move out, and the building is no longer habitable.
The lawsuit moved its way through the courts, and the Third District Court of Appeal issued an opinion earlier this year siding with the holdout unit owners. The court affirmed that the original condo declaration required unanimous consent for termination, invalidating the developer-controlled association’s amendment.
The developer vowed to take the issue to Florida’s Supreme Court, but the court declined to hear the issue, giving the holdout owners more leverage. Many expect Two Roads will settle with them.
In memoriam
The industry mourned the deaths of influential players, including developer Donald Soffer, who founded the city of Aventura.
Darin Tansey, a longtime residential agent in Miami Beach, died unexpectedly in September at the age of 50. The Douglas Elliman agent moved to the city nearly two decades earlier, and built his business in the luxury sector. Tansey was a mentor to many: tributes poured in online and at a celebration of life held at the La Gorce Country Club.
In August, Isaac Kodsi, a developer and real estate attorney, died at the age of 59 at his Coconut Grove home. Isaac, the brother of developer Dan Kodsi, was developing Arbor Residences, a previously stalled condo project he acquired out of foreclosure in 2023. Kodsi also founded Shake Wellness, a trampoline-based fitness business that he ran out of his home.
Multifamily developers list their sites
Many developers put their sites up for sale in 2025, in part due to higher construction costs, interest rates, a supply overhang and slower rent growth. A flood of completed projects in 2023 and 2024 suppressed rent growth, with prices falling in some neighborhoods, and developers had to offer tenants concessions to lease up their buildings.
At The Real Deal’s Miami Forum in November, developers pushed back on the idea that a supply overhang exists. Developers Bruce Menin, Erik Rutter and Joe Lubeck instead pointed to skittish equity investment and other barriers to entry.
A recent uptick in construction loans for multifamily projects suggests the market may be improving. In one of the larger deals that was recorded in December, Focus and Group Fox scored a $250 million construction loan for their planned multifamily tower called Brickell Starlite, on the site of the former Starlite Motel at 128 Southwest Seventh Street in Miami.
Read more
Politics
South Florida
Fight over Trump library land deal led South Florida’s juiciest lawsuits of 2025
Development
South Florida
Vlad Doronin joins Oak Row on record $520M deal for waterfront Brickell assemblage
Politics
South Florida
The Weekly Dirt: Billionaires rush to close trophy deals before year’s end