The purchase is open to you. The structuring question should be answered before you choose a building, not after.
This page describes what changes for a German resident. Your own position needs German and US advisers, and we make those introductions. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
There is no restriction on a foreign national owning residential property in the United States. No visa, no residency and no citizenship is required to buy, to own or to sell. Ownership and immigration are separate systems and buying property grants no right to live in the country.
What differs is what sits around the purchase: how the asset is held, how two tax systems interact, financing, and currency.
Germany and the United States have an estate and gift tax treaty. That places a German buyer in a materially different position from a Spanish or Monegasque one, where no such treaty exists, and it is worth knowing at the outset because it shapes what your advisers will recommend.
United States real property is a US situs asset and can fall within the US estate tax net on the death of a non-resident owner. The exemption for a non-resident alien is dramatically lower than for a US person, and holding the asset personally sits directly inside that regime.
The estate and gift tax treaty between Germany and the United States affects how that exposure works and how it coordinates with German inheritance and gift tax. It is a genuine advantage and it is not a solution by itself.
German succession planning tends to be considered and structured, which in our experience makes German buyers more receptive to this conversation than most and more likely to have advisers already in place. The instruction is simply to bring the Miami asset into that existing planning before contract rather than adding it afterwards.
Restructuring an asset already held can itself be a taxable event in one or both systems. This is a decision to make once, early.
Florida imposes no state income tax. Federal tax applies regardless of the state, and a German owner letting a Miami residence has US federal reporting and filing obligations on that income.
Germany taxes its residents on worldwide income, so the same income enters the German system. The income tax treaty between the two countries and domestic relief rules together determine how the position is reconciled.
On sale, the United States operates a withholding regime on dispositions of US real property by foreign persons. Tax is withheld at closing and reconciled through a later filing. The rate and exceptions are statutory and carry conditions, so we publish no figure, but the mechanism affects the cash you receive at completion and is worth planning for.
German reporting obligations on foreign assets and holdings are their own subject and should be handled by your German advisers rather than assumed away.
Foreign national mortgage programmes are available to German buyers through Florida portfolio lenders. Expect a materially larger deposit than a domestic borrower, no requirement for US credit history, and pricing above domestic equivalents. Terms move and vary by lender, so we publish none.
The preconstruction sequencing matters more than the terms. Deposits are committed at contract and paid in instalments, financing is arranged at closing, and most preconstruction agreements contain no financing contingency. Establish how completion will be funded before committing deposits.
On currency, a euro denominated buyer purchasing a dollar asset over a multi year deposit schedule carries a position whether or not they intend one. Some buyers convert at each instalment, some fix scheduled payments forward, some already hold dollars. We do not forecast currency and we would be wary of anyone in this industry who does. Get the deposit schedule in writing and take it to a currency specialist.
Right: construction quality questions. German buyers ask about specification, mechanical systems, glazing and building envelope more consistently than most, and those are the right questions in a climate this demanding on a building.
Wrong, or at least underweighted: the association and running cost picture. A German buyer accustomed to a different ownership model sometimes underestimates how large and how variable a Florida coastal association budget is, particularly the insurance line, and how much a special assessment can be.
Also underweighted: rental restrictions. If part year letting is part of the plan, the condominium documents decide whether it is possible, and that is discovered late more often than it should be.
Both have their own notes and both are readable before you commit.
German buyers usually have advisers already, and the useful step is connecting them to US counsel early rather than presenting them with a completed purchase. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will make the US side introduction at the point it still changes the outcome.
We are a brokerage and we do not advise on tax or succession in either country. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.