For the family leaving an apartment in Paris for a home on the Atlantic, paying from a European sale, and asking what changes when the buyer is not American.
This page explains. Whether the building suits you is a separate conversation. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
Ocean House Surfside is the closest to a Paris apartment house in feel: 25 homes, private elevators with their own lobbies, and the Bal Harbour Shops half a mile away. Rivage Bal Harbour is the largest home, three to six bedrooms on the last private shoreline in Bal Harbour, From $14,100,000. The Perigon gives private elevator entry and a resident-only restaurant in Mid-Beach, From $12,500,000. Ocean Terrace is the lower entry at the quiet end of the island, From $3,250,000. None of them requires a visa to buy; all of them require a lawyer, a bank and a sequence.
The same five questions, put to each building from the developers' published material:
Ocean House Surfside. Price point: on request. Delivery: no date on the fact sheet. Unit mix: 25 residences of two to five bedrooms, balconies up to 12 feet deep, delivered finished. Position: 9309 to 9317 Collins Avenue, on the ocean between Bal Harbour and Miami Beach. Operator: MTP Oceanside LLC with Arquitectonica; no brand.
Rivage Bal Harbour. Price point: From $14,100,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 56 homes across 25 stories, three to six bedrooms, about 3,300 to 12,600 square feet. Position: about 2.7 oceanfront acres, about 200 linear feet of private shoreline. Operator: Related Group and Two Roads Development, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; no brand.
The Perigon. Price point: From $12,500,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 73 homes of two to four bedrooms, private elevator entry to each, wraparound terraces. Position: 5333 Collins Avenue, Mid-Beach, shoreline on the ocean and on the bay. Operator: Starwood Capital Group and Mast Capital, with OMA; no brand.
Ocean Terrace. Price point: From $3,250,000. Delivery: no date on file. Unit mix: about 52 boutique residences in one tower and about 24 furnished resort residences in the other, two duplex penthouses in each. Position: 7400 Ocean Terrace, North Beach, about 350 feet of ocean frontage on about five acres of parkland. Operator: Witkoff and Ocean Terrace Holdings, with a 42-key hotel and a private club on the site.
Less than most buyers expect at the contract, and more at the bank.
Buying. A foreign national may buy a Florida condominium in their own name or through an entity, and the purchase agreement does not ask for a visa. Read can a foreigner buy property in the United States.
The money. The deposit and the closing funds arrive by wire from a European account, and the escrow agent and the title company must know where the money came from. A sale in Paris is the usual answer, and the papers that prove it are the notarial deed of sale and the bank statements showing the proceeds. Read source of funds documentation, why international wires get held and what a US bank asks a foreign buyer.
The currency. The price is in dollars, the sale was in euros, and the months between contract and closing are the exposure. Read currency and the European buyer in Miami.
The visa. Owning a home here gives no right to live here. The questions of residence, days in the country and tax status are for an immigration lawyer and a cross-border tax adviser, and they should be asked before the deposit, not after. Read does buying a Miami condo get you a US visa.
The sequence that keeps a household out of trouble, as mechanics.
1. Counsel first. A Florida real estate lawyer, a French notaire for the sale, and one adviser who sees both sides of the tax picture, including how France and the United States treat the home and the gain.
2. The bank. A US account opened before the contract, so the deposit wire is domestic and the closing wire is not the first the bank has seen from you.
3. The reservation or contract. For a new building, Florida law gives 15 days to cancel after signing or after receiving the condominium documents, whichever is later. The Paris sale need not have closed; the deposit must be paid.
4. The deposit calendar. Staged deposits follow the developer's schedule and are held as the agreement states. Read where your deposit actually sits and ask who holds each stage.
5. The Paris sale. Timed so the proceeds land before the closing notice, with the deed of sale filed with the escrow agent as the source of funds.
6. Closing and recording. Payment in full, the deed signed, the deed recorded with Miami-Dade County, the owner's title policy issued. Read what a Miami closing costs.
Surfside is the mile of low buildings between Bal Harbour and Miami Beach; Ocean House sits on that beach with the Bal Harbour Shops half a mile away. Bal Harbour is one third of a square mile, and Rivage is its last oceanfront parcel. Mid-Beach, where The Perigon sits at 5333 Collins, is the widest beachfront on the island, equidistant from Bal Harbour and South Beach. Ocean Terrace at 7400 sits where the oceanfront turns to parkland, with Surfside and Bal Harbour a few minutes north.
A Paris household will ask about schools, French-speaking doctors and a church or synagogue within walking distance. Those are address questions, and the desk answers them by address rather than by neighbourhood; Jewish life near Miami's new towers answers one of them for this coast.
Ocean House Surfside suits the family that wants a small building, private elevators and the Shops within a walk, in Surfside's quiet. You give up a published price and a large amenity program. Read whether Ocean House is worth it.
Rivage Bal Harbour suits the family that wants the largest home and the most land on this coast, with house cars and marina services. You pay the highest entry here. See the Rivage dossier and buying at Rivage Bal Harbour: how it works.
The Perigon suits the household that wants private entry and a resident-only restaurant, with the bay on one side and the ocean on the other. You give up the quiet of a building of 25. See The Perigon dossier.
Ocean Terrace suits the family that wants the lowest entry on the ocean, a park at the door and a hotel on the site. You give up a residents-only address. See the Ocean Terrace dossier.
The Bal Harbour and Surfside zone page maps the coast; where a European buyer should look widens the search, and relocating from Dallas to Surfside or Bal Harbour is the same move made from inside the country. A household buying through its own office should read which Bal Harbour or Surfside condo suits a family office. The desk walks a French household through the sequence from notaire to recording before the first wire.
Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current plans, pricing and availability as the developer releases them, discussed one to one.
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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. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.
The Miami Dossier team works for the buyer, not the developer. Every agent on Samuel Strauch’s team represents buyers in Miami pre-construction.
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