A building that is excellent to live in can be an expensive place to keep a residence you visit six weeks a year. The desk at Miami Dossier reads the difference.
Written by the desk at Miami Dossier, which works with buyers holding Miami from Bogotá, Mexico City, São Paulo, Madrid, London and New York, for readers whose Miami is a second position rather than a first home. All comparisons.
Most Miami sales material is written for someone who will live in the building. A large share of the people who buy will not, and almost nothing published addresses what changes for them. The differences are not marginal and several of them are expensive.
Hospitality operating models are excellent and they are not free. A resort component, a full service layer and hotel-grade staffing are funded by the households in the building, and if you are present six weeks a year you are paying for fifty two weeks of a service you use for six.
That is not an argument against branded buildings. It is an argument for being explicit about it. For some buyers the service is precisely what makes a short stay work and the maths is fine. For others it is a permanent transfer to their neighbours.
Whether you may let the residence, for how long, how often, and through whom, is set in each condominium's documents and not by the neighbourhood or the brand. Minimum lease terms vary widely. Some buildings effectively permit nothing.
This has to be read before the building is chosen, not after. The desk at Miami Dossier reads current declarations with clients and will tell you plainly when a building's rules make the plan you described impossible.
It also matters what the neighbouring buildings permit, because their rules shape your street and your resale market. South Beach is the zone where this matters most.
Somebody has to. In a full service building the front desk absorbs much of it, which is one of the genuine arguments for paying for the service. In a residence-only building it is on you or on a manager you appoint.
Storm season is the concrete version of this question. Ask what the building does, what you are responsible for, and what happens to a residence with nobody in it. This is a better use of a tour than looking at the gym.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
How the purchase is held interacts with tax treatment, estate treatment and reporting in your own jurisdiction, and it is very difficult to change once the residence is owned. That conversation belongs with an attorney and a CPA before contract, not after.
The desk at Miami Dossier keeps notes on what taxes a foreign buyer pays, on financing as a foreign buyer, on whether you need to be here to buy, and on the Florida state income tax question for those relocating rather than allocating. Note the framing carefully: there is no Florida state income tax, and federal income tax applies everywhere in the United States.
We are a real estate desk and not a law or accounting firm. What we will do is make sure the question is asked in the right order and introduce you to people who answer it properly.
Zones with depth of market suit it best, because a residence you do not occupy is one you may eventually sell, and selling is easier where buyers already look. Brickell and Sunny Isles have the deepest markets in this tier.
Very low residence counts cut the other way. They are wonderful to own and illiquid to exit, with few comparable sales and a narrow buyer pool. That is the honest cost of scarcity and it matters more to a part-time owner than to a resident.
Zones that are still being built ask you to hold through a construction period. That is easier for someone who is not living in it and harder for someone who wanted to enjoy it immediately.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
Establish what the condominium documents permit on letting, and confirm it in the current declaration rather than from a sales representative.
Be explicit about what proportion of the service layer you will actually consume, because a hospitality operating model is a permanent cost and a short stay is a small share of it.
Settle the holding structure with an attorney and a CPA before contract. It is very difficult to change afterwards and it interacts with tax and estate treatment in ways that a sales gallery is not equipped to discuss.
Most of the people who bring this comparison to the desk at Miami Dossier are not only choosing between buildings. They are moving to Miami from New York, California, London, Bogotá, Mexico City or São Paulo, or adding a Miami position to a portfolio held elsewhere, and the building question sits inside a larger one: how to buy new construction here, how to hold it, and what changes when you do.
The desk keeps short notes on the parts that come up every week: how buying preconstruction in Miami actually works, what a normal deposit schedule looks like, whether you need to be in Miami to buy, whether a foreign buyer can get a mortgage, what taxes a foreign buyer pays on a Miami condo, what happens if a developer delivers late, and the Florida state income tax question. For buyers arriving from a specific market there are notes for Bogotá, Mexico City and London.
Read the ones that apply, then bring the rest to the desk at Miami Dossier. It usually takes one conversation to see which of these fits, or whether neither does.
This page is general information for people considering Miami, written by a real estate desk, not by a law or accounting firm. Nothing here is legal, tax, immigration or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances. Rules change, treaties differ by country, and the right answer for one family is the wrong answer for another.
Figures and building details are compiled from developer documents held by the desk at Miami Dossier and from public filings. They are approximate, subject to change, and anything material should be confirmed against the current developer release before you rely on it. Where the desk at Miami Dossier does not know something, the page says so.
Speak with your own attorney and CPA before you commit to anything. If you do not have one who works with international buyers in Florida, the desk is glad to recommend an attorney, a CPA or an adviser suited to your situation, and to sit in the first conversation so that nothing is lost in translation.
Structure, financing, currency, timing, the right building and the right line: the desk works through these questions with international buyers every week. What this page cannot do is know your position. Tell us the shape of it and we will say plainly which of these fits, which does not, and what we would want to see before anyone commits.