Top brokers Fredrik Eklund, Dora Puig and Senada Adžem unpacked the post-pandemic market at The Real Deal’s South Florida Showcase + Forum.
They agreed on most points: luxury residential prices will only continue to grow, high-end brands add value to new developments, and security is the prized amenity of the moment. But when an audience member who introduced himself as an agent from New York asked how to navigate his way into the market, they disagreed.
Puig, broker and owner of Luxe Living Realty and one of the top producers in Miami-Dade County, advised caution.
“The one thing you need to be mindful of –– we are the biggest board in the country,” she said on Thursday, referring to the Miami Association of Realtors. “The competition is brutal.”
New York agents would be better served building a referral fee program with a South Florida partner and focusing on their own market, Puig said.
Eklund, an agent with Douglas Elliman’s Eklund Gomes team and star of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York,” disagreed. To him, South Florida has been welcoming compared to New York and Los Angeles.
“The future is here, what can I say,” he said.
That sentiment was unanimous among the speakers.
Following significant price growth and a surge in deal volume, the brokers said deals are taking longer and are more difficult to close. But a shortage of inventory is keeping prices high.
Puig added up the inventory of ultra-luxury projects in Miami Beach, including the Robert A.M. Stern-designed Shore Club development, the Rem Koolhaas-designed Perigon and Rivage, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
“If you add them up, it’s roughly 350 units. It’s nothing. 350 units is one tower downtown,” Puig said. “So how could pricing not hold up with these amazing architects and design teams that are world-renowned?”
Many of South Florida’s planned condo projects are branded, a growing trend in the region that agents say is more than just window dressing.
“The services, the amenities, the flag itself,” Eklund said. “It’s super, super important. It’s a mentality, like ‘I’m buying into something incredible.’”
A luxury brand can increase a property’s value by 30 percent or more, he said. Branding can also help in the search for construction financing, which helps in the current landscape of high interest rates and more cautious lenders.
“There are projects that are sold out that might not get built,” he said.
Adžem emphasized the importance of the developer’s reputation.
“You need to know that this team is going to deliver, and that they’re going to do it the exact way that they promised,” she said.
Amenities are important as ever, the agents said. While amenity packages have grown to include co-working areas, pickleball courts and private dining, what matters most to buyers is privacy and security, according to agents.
Puig credited growth in demand for Fisher Island to its security. The private island off Miami Beach is only accessible by ferry, boat or helicopter.
“During the pandemic we went on SpaceX in sales. The security and the privacy [were] really the main element,” she said.
Adžem added that demand for gated communities in Palm Beach and Broward counties that have armed security and 24/7 vigilance is growing.
“They want to feel comfortable,” she said of luxury buyers.
Eklund, who recently moved to South Florida after living in Los Angeles and New York, said he was surprised by the police presence across the region.
“For the first time in my life I’m not speeding,” he joked.
While agents are navigating the post-pandemic market, they could also be facing significant changes within the brokerage industry, following the guilty verdict in the $1.8 billion NAR commissions lawsuit. Puig doubted that a change in who pays buyers’ commissions would affect luxury agents, and Adžem questioned the premise of the entire suit.
“Sellers always have had the right to negotiate their commissions,” Adžem said. “The plaintiffs’ attorneys tried to solve a problem that didn’t exist.”
Eklund added, “I think real estate commissions should go up.”
The room roared with applause.