On a multi-year build the developer matters more than the brand on the door. The desk at Miami Dossier sets out what to look at and what the answers mean.
Written by the desk at Miami Dossier, which does not represent developers, for readers who have worked out that delivery is the real risk in preconstruction. All comparisons.
In preconstruction you are not buying a building. You are buying a promise to build one, made by a specific company, and the value of that promise varies enormously. The brand on the door tells you very little about it. The developer's record tells you almost everything.
How many buildings the developer has completed in South Florida, and over how long. Volume matters less than duration: a developer who has delivered through more than one cycle has demonstrated something a developer who has only built in good conditions has not.
Whether they have delivered at this price level. Building a tier-one branded residence is a different exercise from building a mid-market tower, and a strong record in one does not automatically transfer.
What happened to their projects that ran into trouble, because most long-standing developers have at least one. What they did then is more informative than the ones that went smoothly.
Related Group's South Florida record is the longest in this market, which is why it appears as a reassurance in several of the buildings the desk at Miami Dossier covers. That is an observation about duration, not a recommendation.
Ask which of their buildings you can walk today, and then walk one that is at least five years old rather than the newest. A recently delivered building shows you the sales gallery's promise. A five year old one shows you what was actually built.
Ask who the general contractor is and what that contractor has completed. On a tall building the contractor is at least as relevant to delivery as the developer.
Ask what the capital structure looks like in broad terms. You will not get a full answer and should not expect one, but the shape of the response tells you something.
Ask what has already moved on the schedule. Every long project moves. A developer who names the movement plainly is more trustworthy than one who repeats the original date.
The desk at Miami Dossier does not represent developers and holds no position in the buildings it covers. Where a project's timing has moved, we say so on the page rather than repeating an older release, which is why several buildings in coverage carry a status caution rather than a date.
We will tell you what has been delivered, what is under construction and what is only entitled around any specific address. Where we do not know something, we say that too, and we refer anything material back to the current developer documents.
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.
Zones that are being built rather than already built carry more of it, because the value of your purchase depends partly on the surrounding blocks completing. Downtown, Edgewater, North Bay Village and North Beach all sit in that category today, and the desk at Miami Dossier says so on each of those zone pages rather than only in the fine print.
Established zones like Bal Harbour, Coral Gables and Coconut Grove carry less of it and correspondingly less of the upside that comes with being early. That is the trade and it should be made explicitly.
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.
Duration beats volume. A developer who has delivered through more than one cycle has demonstrated something that a developer who has only built in good conditions has not.
The single most useful hour you can spend is walking a building the developer completed five or more years ago. It shows you what was actually built rather than what was promised.
Ask what has already moved on the schedule. The quality of that answer is one of the better predictors available to a buyer.
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.