Can you buy a Miami condo with a 1031 exchange?

Yes, when the condo is bought to hold as an investment, is identified within 45 days of the sale, and is received within 180 days, with the sale proceeds held by a qualified intermediary the whole time. That is section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code as mechanics, and each of the three conditions cuts against a building that is not finished: a home that cannot close inside 180 days cannot be received, so a pre-construction contract with a delivery two years away is not a replacement property in the ordinary form of the exchange. A finished home, or a building whose published date falls inside the window, is. The building's own rule matters too: a condo bought to rent must be rentable under its declaration, and a furnished home carries furniture the exchange does not cover. None of this is advice; it is the list a buyer takes to the exchange accommodator and counsel before the relinquished sale closes.

Real property held for investment or for use in a business. A Miami condo the buyer will rent, under a lease the building allows, is the usual form; a condo the buyer will live in is not, and a condo that is both is the question counsel answers with the buyer's planned use, the days of personal use and the days actually rented at a market rent. The revenue procedure that gives a safe harbour for a dwelling in an exchange sets limits on personal use and a minimum of rental in each of the first two years; the buyer asks counsel for the current terms rather than reading them on a page. The building's rule comes first: a declaration with a minimum lease term of a year, a cap on leases, or a first-year ban on renting decides whether the plan is possible at all. Read buying a condo in Miami to rent out, Miami short-term rental rules and the leasing note at Cassia, whose developer publishes a minimum 3-day stay and optional professional management.

Forty five days from the closing of the sale to identify the replacement in writing to the intermediary, and 180 days from that same closing, or the due date of the tax return with extensions if sooner, to receive it. The identification can name up to three properties of any value, or more under the rules counsel explains, and a Miami buyer who has not chosen a building by the day of sale should expect to name more than one. The 180 days is the clock a new building cannot stretch: the replacement is received when the deed is delivered, and a developer delivers a deed at closing, after the certificate of occupancy, on the date the purchase agreement sets. A buyer reads the outside date and the developer's published schedule against the calendar: Cipriani Residences Miami publishes delivery summer 2027 and Cassia estimated completion first quarter 2027, which a buyer selling in the right month can time, and a buyer selling now cannot. Read delivery timelines and how they slip and which new West Palm Beach condo you can move into first for the finished-inventory version of the question.

The qualified intermediary holds the proceeds from the sale; the seller never touches them, and a seller who does ends the exchange. The intermediary is engaged before the sale closes, and the sale contract carries a cooperation clause and an assignment of the seller's rights to the intermediary. On the Miami side the same happens in reverse: the buyer signs the purchase agreement, assigns their rights under it to the intermediary before closing, and the intermediary directs the funds to the developer's closing agent. Two Miami mechanics complicate it. The deposits a developer requires at contract and at milestones are paid before the sale that funds the exchange has closed, so the buyer asks counsel how those are treated. And the developer's escrow for deposits is not the exchange escrow; they are different accounts under different agreements. Read where your deposit actually sits, pre-construction deposit schedule explained and moving funds to a Florida escrow account.

Three traps as questions. Furniture: since the 2018 tax changes the exchange covers real property only, so the part of a furnished home's price that is furniture is not like-kind and is taxable to the extent counsel calls it boot; a buyer of ORA by Casa Tua or Cassia, both sold furnished, asks how the price is allocated and what that does to the exchange. Read from offer to recording on a furnished Miami condo. The homestead: a replacement held for investment is not the buyer's homestead, so the property tax is uncapped and the exemption is not claimed; a buyer who later moves in asks counsel about the holding period before converting it. Read why property tax resets when you buy a Miami condo. The entity: the taxpayer who sold must be the taxpayer who buys, so a sale by a person and a purchase by a new company, or the reverse, is a question for counsel before the reservation names the buyer. Read LLC, trust or personal name and buying a Miami condo through an entity.

Five things, in writing: the declaration's leasing section and the association's approval process; the developer's published delivery and the outside date in the purchase agreement; whether the developer will accept an assignment of the contract to an intermediary at closing and at what fee; the deposit schedule and when each stage falls against the sale; and the allocation of the price between the home and anything that is not real property. Read condominium documents: the five sections, can you assign a pre-construction contract and documents a Miami pre-construction buyer should request. The desk reads the building's rule and the calendar with the buyer; the exchange itself is the accommodator's and counsel's.