Within Florida's brewery ownership crisis

A timetable crisis unfolds on the condominium market in Florida and threatens to improve the state's image as a refuge for pensioners and an inexpensive beach life.

The owners of the state's older condominiums are geared towards steep special evaluations, while they sell their houses and only receive the reaction of buyers' buyers. In the middle of a real estate market that is still alive for almost every other segment, Florida's agents lose the value. And almost 1,400 buildings are now placed on the black list that the mortgage financing is preserved, which means that these apartments still lead to a sold sale.

At the center of this turbulence is a fundamental reality: Floridas aging condominium building urgently need repairs, and state officials force them to evaluate (and pay) these long overdue upgrades.

According to a law that was issued in Surfside after the tragic collapse of Champlain Towers South, in which 98 people have lost their lives, condominium boards may not have any major structural improvements on another day – or on a decade. The “Building Security Act” required every condominium tower in Florida aged 30 and over to complete a structural integrity study by the end of 2024 in order to obtain a full understanding of which problems need to be resolved.

This year the tab is due for these repairs. Condominium boards must now put aside to fix the problems determined in these studies – from concrete restoration to balcony overhaul. And the assessments of individual ownership owners look both expensive and worrying.

“You will find a massive reduction in the value of these buildings on the basis of these huge special assessments and the work done,” said Orest Tomaselli, CEO of strategic inspections that will advise Condo Boards National about how you can stimulate your reserves.

In Florida buildings with which he worked with which he worked, Tomaselli has recorded special ratings of $ 250 per month for a property that raised $ 2,500 per month per unit for a three -year route.

“There are real people in these units that may be sold,” Tomaselli said of the reviews, “this can lose your nestei and lose enormous amounts of value in your units.”

In the Mediterranean village of Aventura, a condominium complex on the water with a marina apron, load owners were affected by six-digit special evaluations last year, according to reports published.

In the Miamis Cricket Club, a 50-year-old Waterfront Tower, with $ 134,000, special evaluations per apartment, 23 of the 217 condominiums of the building are currently being offered for sale, said Maklerage Compass. In a Miami market in which the median was a condominium award in the fourth quarter of the last quarter of the last quarter, condominiums in the Cricket Club are looking for buyers with a prices of only $ 220,000 for a 1.950 square meter two-bedroom on the 19th floor. (The owner initially searched 330,000 US dollars).

In the meantime, at Summit Towers in Hollywood, a construction-wide special assessment of $ 56 million for the agreement of four board members at an election in January, in favor of new members who promised a “moderate approach” to build up reserves, said Amy Greenberg, a broker and resident of the building with several lists.

“Many people have moved here to retire and live their lives here, and they are a fixed income,” said Kathleen Dibona, a 50-year-old inhabitant of Hollywood who acts as President of Hollywood Beach Civic Association. “It is difficult to manage everything that comes and to beat them.”

Many owners who knows Dibona in Hollywood, a city with older towers, try to derive units with little success. Others, she said, would have reduced insurance cover for her condominiums so that they can pay their special assessments.

If you do not pay these reviews, this will work more than just the individual owners you cannot afford. If 15% of the units owner in a building failure, according to Tomaselli, the entire property could not be justified by strategic inspections for mortgage financing.

“What happens if nobody can get a loan to buy a unit in your building?” says Joseph Hernandez, a partner of the real estate group of the law firm Bilzin Sumberg in Miami. “It essentially makes the units in your building undeserved and leaves the value of these units.

“We can see that many condominiums are in trouble.”

Some could already bring themselves closer. In February, Fannie Mae, the National Mortgage Finance Agency, updated its ongoing list of “non -available” US condominium buildings, which means that they no longer have mortgage financing. Of the 4,885 buildings that are currently on the list, 29% are in Florida, the highest proportion of a state. The main reason: “Critical repairs or postponed maintenance”, says a person who is familiar with the squad.

A new example is 4000 Iceland BLVD., a 32-story condominium in Aventura's exclusive Williams Island, which was built in 1985 and was added to Fannie Maes NO-Lending list in January. According to the Compass, at least 24 unit owners try to sell there. Barry Sytner, the President of the Condo Board, described the recording of the building in the list of Fannie Mae “wrong” and found that the property was just securing a bank loan binding for covering the edition associated with its 40-year inspection.

In Florida there are around 1.1 million condominiums that are 30 years old, according to the Florida Policy Project and are subject to the new law. Of these, 58% are concentrated along the southwestern and southeastern coastal districts, in places such as Tampa, Clearwater and the Greater Miami Metro, including Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County.

This means that the range of the law extends to more than half of all owners of condominiums in Florida's famous retirement slaves. According to the Brokerage ISG World, apartments that are over 30 years old made 86% of all condominiums in Southeast Florida in the fourth quarter of 2024 17,198 properties for sale in the counties Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

But when thousands of newcomers flock to the region, these plenty of existing and reduced units on the market, such as they threaten due to the risk of special evaluations and uncertainties on repair costs.

“The fear of the unknown is to frighten potential buyers,” said Craig Studnicky, Chief Executive Officer from ISG.

“Do you remember this show:” Let's do a deal? “Said Studnicky.” You can get a special assessment and it could be quite modest, which means that you have only done a damn good deal. But what if you are wrong and the special evaluation is gigantic? Not only the special assessment is great, but also the range of construction, and you will live in an building location in the next two years. “

The full extent of the special reviews is still an open question for many Florida real estate. While the state deadline for condominiums was its structural integrity studies on December 31, according to the Miami Association of Realors, this only did 39% of the buildings in Southeast florida.

Some of them because engineers were simply not available in the middle of a nationwide rush to complete these studies. Others could play that the enforcement will not be robust or fast, said Peter Zalewski, a broker, analyst and Condo Investment Consultant based in Miami.

“You have buildings that buy your studies because you may get too high, and maybe you can find someone who can have lowball,” said Zalewski.

“People find out what to do,” added Zalewski. “You think

The state legislator, which is prepared for his meeting of March 4, 2025, has no plans to clear up condominiums or to recover from the deadlines, the legislators of Florida according to Homes.com announced at a miami reals condominium conference last month.

However, the legislator could consider the financing of solutions to support condominiums in covering the costs for structural studies and maintenance, including enabling the invested reserve funds.

Despite some maintenance challenges, the older condominiums in Florida still reflect the only affordable opportunity for those who cannot vibrate the price signs of Miami's new Harvest of Ultra-Luxury developments, says Scott Differfer, a broker based in Miami-Bach for Compass, who specializes in the sale of older units. He says he has pretty much in advance with potential buyers about the scope and the costs for the repair that some of his lists will experience.

Brokers consider the new regulations and mandatory repairs to be a necessary correction in Florida's once ridiculous condominium standards, said differver. Before that, buyers had little insight into the true state of a building – similar to the purchase of a used car without a Carfax report. Since the stricter enforcement requires proper reserves and the complete disclosure of the maintenance history, the brokers say that the condominium market could become more transparent and ultimately could achieve a higher value for owners.

“For probably 75% of the buildings in South Florida, when the dust settles, people will say: 'Do you know what? That was painful. But look at these buildings! 'Said Studnicky. “You are in great form.”

Oshhrat Carmiel is the editor of Highest and bestA newsletter in Südflorida real estate and wealth migration as well as a former real estate reporter for Bloomberg News.