Over 200 Condo/Townhome Projects in Miami-Dade County are Available for Bulk Acquisition

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorMiami–More than 200 condominium and townhome projects with blocks of 20 units or more are currently presenting investors with potential acquisition opportunities in Miami-Dade County according to CondoReports.com’s 1Q09 Miami Bulk Buyer Report.   The report differs from previous studies of unclosed inventory as it is both countywide and includes recent construction and conversions projects of 50 units or more. The report draws a distinction between the 2007 and prior projects and the more recent 2008 and 2009 projects.“As 2008 and 2009 projects are still closing out existing sales contracts, the exact number of units in the block is more of a moving target,” explains Adam Cappel, President of CondoReports.com. “Although, you can safely assume that nearly every building that started closing in 2008 or 2009 will have a meaningful block of inventory left.” In the 146 projects that started unit closings in 2007 and before, block ownership exceeds 14,000 units with an average block size of 87 units. The 146 projects identified were almost evenly split with recent construction projects accounting for 55 percent of the sample and conversion projects representing the remaining 45 percent.   “It is clear from the report that there is substantially more condo inventory that is either available, or can easily become available, in Miami-Dade County than many market observers had estimated. For the condominium markets to stabilize, we are going to need to see a large number of these units getting into the hands of end users or well-capitalized investors,” says Cappel.   To put these numbers in perspective, Florida Association of Realtors (FAR) published Miami’s February existing condominium sales figures with 403 unit closings for the month and an inventory of 21,848 units.According to Cappel, these numbers understate true inventory because only a small portion of the block units are listed on the market. “It is entirely possible that the true inventory figure could be pushing 40,000 units,” says Cappel.