How do you check what can be built next to a new Miami condo?

In five records, none of which the sales gallery hands you. The county property appraiser's parcel record tells you who owns each lot around the site and what sits on it. The city's zoning map and code tell you the height and use allowed on those lots as of right. The city's permit and planning portal tells you what has been applied for. The developer's own material tells you whether it holds the next lot and what it means to do with it. And the prospectus and the purchase agreement tell you, almost always, that views are not guaranteed. A water view is the safest on this page because the water is not a lot; a city view is a lot with a number, and the number is where the search starts. Nobody can promise what will be built. A buyer can know what is allowed.

Start with the county. In Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties the property appraiser's online record gives every parcel its folio number, its owner of record, its land use and its sales history. Pull the lots on each side of the view you care about and the lots across the street, then read the owners. A parcel held by an entity with the developer's name in it, or bought in the last two years by a company formed for the purpose, is a parcel with a plan. A parcel held by the same family since the 1970s is a parcel with a price. Neither is a guarantee. Note the lot sizes, because the code's height and density rules work from them. Read verify a developer record, which walks the same public records for the developer itself, and the delivery question and how timelines slip.

The second record is the city's. Each city publishes a zoning map and a code: in the City of Miami the code is known as Miami 21, and West Palm Beach, Miami Beach and the other municipalities each have their own. The map assigns every lot a zone; the code gives each zone a maximum height, a density, and the uses allowed as of right. Read the zone for each neighbouring lot and note three things: the height allowed without a variance, whether a bonus or a transfer can lift it, and whether the lot is in an overlay or a historic district that limits it. A low building on a lot zoned for a tall one is the case to understand before signing. Where the code allows height, assume it can be used. Read high floor living in Downtown Miami for what height does to a line, and oceanfront vs ocean view for the difference between a view across water and a view across a lot.

The third record is live. Cities publish their planning applications, their board agendas and their building permits online; a search by the neighbouring folio or address shows a site plan filed, a variance requested, a demolition permit pulled or a crane permit issued. A filed application is the clearest signal a buyer gets, and it is public months before a fence goes up. Check the agendas of the city's planning and zoning board and its design review board for the addresses around the site, and ask the sales team directly, in writing, whether it knows of any application on the adjoining lots. Read construction noise exposure at Waldorf Astoria and at Olara for the same question asked of two buildings on our file.

Often the tallest thing that will rise beside a new tower is the developer's own second phase. Edgeworth in West Palm Beach is Related Ross's next address on South Flagler Drive, near its South Flagler House; Kempinski Residences in the Design District is two towers on one site, 64 homes each. Ask the developer whether it or an affiliate owns any adjoining parcel, whether the prospectus reserves the right to build a further phase, and what the declaration says about adding land or units to the condominium. A reserved right to add a phase is a planned view change written into the documents, and it is the one case where the answer is in the buyer's own file. Read the condominium documents in five sections and where Edgeworth sits.

Almost every Florida developer's prospectus and purchase agreement states that views are not guaranteed, that the developer makes no representation about future construction on other land, and that the renderings are artistic. Read those clauses before relying on a rendering, because they are what a court would read. Then ask three questions for counsel: whether any representation about the view was made in writing outside the contract, whether the declaration grants any view easement or sets any height covenant on land the developer controls, and what the buyer's remedy is if a disclosed phase is built differently. Read buying off plan: what can change, view corridor risk at South Flagler House and at Delano.

Three things, as mechanics rather than advice. If the lot in front is zoned for height and owned by a developer, choose the line by the view that cannot be built on, the water or the park, or price the city view as temporary. If an application is already filed, read the site plan's height and massing against the floor you are considering, because a tower that blocks the tenth floor may not reach the fortieth. And if the developer holds the next lot, read the phase rights in the documents with counsel and ask for the massing of the planned phase in writing. The desk pulls the parcel records and the zoning for the lots around any building it covers and reads them with the buyer before the reservation. Read questions to ask a sales team and what to do before you visit a sales gallery for the rest of the list.