Canadians buy more Florida property than almost any other foreign market, which means the mistakes are well documented and entirely avoidable.
This page covers the process. Which building suits you is a separate question. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
The word is the same. A condo is a condo, you own a unit within a declared regime with common elements, and there is a condominium association setting budgets and levying special assessments much as a Canadian one does.
The purchase mechanics rhyme. Reservation, contract, deposits, closing. Preconstruction here works broadly as it does in Toronto or Vancouver, with a price and a unit agreed now and delivery commonly two to four years out.
The familiarity is the risk. Enough is the same that the differences do not announce themselves.
Deposits are larger and less protected. Florida schedules commonly total roughly 30 to 50 per cent of the price. Only the first 10 per cent must sit in independent escrow. Above that the developer may use funds for construction, which is legal and is why the delivery record matters more than the brand.
There is no financing contingency in most preconstruction contracts. Your closing funds need to be certain, and Canadian lending against US property is a different market with different terms.
Florida has no state income tax, and that is not the whole tax picture. Property tax, insurance and association fees in Florida are materially higher than most Canadian buyers expect, and insurance in particular is the live conversation on this coast.
The fifteen day window is your protection and it is short. After you receive the condominium documents you have 15 days to cancel a developer contract and recover the deposit.
Spending significant time in Florida raises a US tax residency question that is separate from immigration status and is measured on a formula involving days present across three years. Snowbirds cross that threshold more often than they realise, and the filing that addresses it has a deadline.
Canada has an estate tax treaty arrangement with the United States, which places a Canadian buyer in a different position from a Colombian or Mexican one. It does not eliminate US estate exposure on US situs property; it changes how it is calculated.
Neither of these is our work. We introduce US counsel and a cross border accountant, and we do it before you are under contract rather than after, because restructuring an asset already held is slower and more expensive than holding it correctly from the start.
The monthly figure runs whether you are in the residence or not, and for a part time owner it is the dominant ongoing cost rather than a footnote to the price.
An empty residence in this climate needs managing: humidity, storm preparation, deliveries and the occasional leak. Full service buildings handle this materially better, which is a real part of what a branded or hotel operated building actually buys.
Rental rules vary sharply building to building and are set in the condominium documents. Some permit short term rental, many require thirty days or more, and some prohibit rental in the first year of ownership. Establish this before you shortlist rather than after.
Enough of this market resembles the Canadian one that the differences in deposit protection, insurance cost and tax residency do not announce themselves until they matter. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through them specifically.
We hold no listings and we are not the developer. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will tell you what applies to your situation, what does not, and where we would not proceed. For a Canadian buyer that usually starts with the day count and the structure. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.