The sun rises and so, apparently, does South Florida, where 32 new condominium projects are now in various stages of development.
The latest property is a six-story building on the barrier island town of Gulf Stream in West Palm Beach, according to CondoVultures, a Miami-based consulting company. The building, located on a 3.2-acre site with 300 feet of ocean frontage, will contain 34 units ranging from 2,800 to 4,800 square feet.
It is unclear how many of the other proposed towers could get developed in the short term as construction financing is challenging and expensive to secure, CV said in its most recent report. But the sheer number of new units planned for the tricounty South Florida region bring to mind this famous line from George Santayana in the “Life of Reason”:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
So folks who recall that the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach county market was one of the hardest hit during the housing crash—and where some 4,300 of the 49,000 condo units created since 2003 still have yet to be sold, according to CondoVultures—might question the sanity of starting a total of 6,300 more apartments so soon after the debacle. And that doesn’t count three more properties announced for Miami Beach that could be either rental apartments or condominiums.
But this time, developers are doing things a little differently, according to CondoVultures, a Miami-based consulting firm. For one thing, to make it easier to obtain financing, most of the newly proposed projects are requiring prospective buyers to commit to deposits—to be paid in phases—of as much as 80% of the preconstruction contract price. In years past, early purchasers had to put up 20% deposits.
