A 10th new condo project — One Ocean — has been completed in the internationally known barrier island city of Miami Beach during this current South Florida real estate cycle that began in 2011.
Developer sales in the One Ocean condominium project that features a pair of eight-story buildings with a combined 49 residential units and nearly 130,000 square feet of sellable space began to be recorded on March 31, according to Miami-Dade County records. It is located in the one hundred block of Ocean Drive in the South-of-Fifth neighborhood of Miami Beach.
Developed by the Related Group, led by Jorge Perez, at least a dozen units in the One Ocean project located at the beginning of Ocean Drive have traded for a combined $44.3 million, which works out to a price of about $3.7 million each, for an average of nearly $1,335 per square foot as of Monday, according to government records.
Individual units in the One Ocean project have transacted at prices ranging from $2.1 million to more $5.1 million each. On a price-per-square-foot basis, individual condos have traded from less than $1,030 to nearly $1,700, according to government records.
Currently, two units in the One Ocean project are listed for sale at an average price of more than $4.7 million each, for a blended rate of more than $1,930 per square foot as of Monday, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange and government records.
The completion of the One Ocean project comes less than six months after the nearby Marea South Beach condo project in the 800 block of South Pointe Drive was completed in October 2015.
To date, the Related Group has completed eight new condo projects composed of 11 buildings and nearly 1,500 units east of I-95 in the tri-county South Florida region of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach during this cycle, according to the preconstruction condo projects website CraneSpotters.com. (For disclosure, my firm operates the website.)
Overall, the Related Group has announced plans to build at least 39 new condo buildings with more than 9,800 units east of I-95 since 2011.
Currently, 15 new condo buildings with more than 4,550 units are under construction and 13 additional buildings with nearly 3,800 units are in the planning and presale phase of development.
In coastal South Florida, developers have announced plans to build at least 417 new condo towers with more than 51,000 units east of I-95 as of Monday, according to CraneSpotters.com.
The market of Miami Beach — a popular destination for foreign investors and domestic buyers alike — is the seventh most active area east of I-95 in the South Florida region based on nearly 2,125 total units announced during this cycle, according to the data.
To date, 16 new condo buildings — including the One Ocean project — with at least 550 units have been constructed in Miami Beach since 2011. An additional 15 buildings with about 370 units are currently under construction, according to CraneSpotters.com.
Combined, the number of new units completed and under construction represents about 43 percent of the total pipeline of new condos slated for development during this cycle in Miami Beach.
At least 22 new condo buildings with more than 1,200 units — some 57 percent of the total pipeline announced — are currently in the planning or presale phase of development in the Miami Beach market, according to the data.
Aside from the pipeline of new condo projects, the Miami Beach market currently has nearly 2,660 units being marketed for purchase at an average asking price of nearly $1.3 million each or more than $815 per square foot as of Monday, according to the Southeast Florida MLXchange.
In the first quarter of this year, buyers acquired nearly 500 condo units at an average price of more than $638,300 each or nearly $535 per square foot between January and March, according to the data.
Based on the 2016 resale transaction pace of about 160 units trading monthly, Miami Beach currently has nearly a 17-month supply of condos available for purchase, according to the data.
A balanced market is considered to have about a six-month supply of units available for purchase. More months of condo units available for purchase suggests a buyer’s advantage, and less months indicates a seller’s advantage in negotiating transactions.
The unanswered question going forward is whether Miami Beach’s allure will be powerful enough to attract the number of buyers needed to purchase all of the pricey condo units that are currently available for purchase in this playground for jetsetters at a time of a slumping global economy, weak foreign currencies and growing concerns about a U.S. recession.
Peter Zalewski is a real estate columnist for The Real Deal who founded Condo Vultures LLC, a consultancy and publishing company, as well as Condo Vultures Realty LLC and CVR Realty brokerages and the Condo Ratings Agency, an analytics firm. The Condo Ratings Agency operates CraneSpotters.com, a preconstruction condo projects website, in conjunction with the Miami Association of Realtors.