A lender has already done diligence on the project you are considering, at greater depth and expense than you can. Whether they proceeded is information.
This page covers the signal. The financing status of a specific project comes from the desk. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
Before a construction lender funds a tower, it underwrites the developer, the budget, the contractor, the presales, the market and the exit. That process is thorough because the lender’s capital is at risk for years.
A closed construction loan means a professional institution examined the project and proceeded. That is not a guarantee, and it is a far better signal than a rendering or a sales gallery.
A project with no construction financing is being funded by buyer deposits and developer equity. That can work. It also means your deposit is doing a job that a lender declined to do.
Ask the sales gallery directly whether construction financing has closed, who the lender is, and what the loan amount is. Some will tell you, some will deflect, and the deflection is itself informative.
Construction loans on Miami towers are commonly recorded and frequently reported in the local commercial property press. This is public information.
Ask what presale threshold the lender required. Most construction loans condition funding on a minimum level of presales, which tells you how much of the building had to be sold before the money moved.
Financing closed, construction underway. The strongest position. The project has cleared a serious external test and has capital that does not depend on continued sales.
Financing not yet closed, presales still building. Common and not alarming in itself, particularly early. The question is how long it has been in that state. A project that has been selling for two years without closing financing is telling you something.
Developer states no financing is needed. Sometimes entirely true, for a well capitalised developer building on owned land. It also removes the external check that a lender provides, so weigh the developer’s record more heavily.
A lender lends partly on the sponsor. A developer who has delivered several towers in this market presents differently from a first-time sponsor with a licensed brand attached.
Ask what the developer has actually delivered in Miami, and when. Delivered, not announced. The gap between the two lists is the most useful thing you will learn about any sponsor.
Combine the two: financing status and delivery record. Together they answer the delivery question better than anything in the marketing.
A lender already underwrote the project more thoroughly than you can. Ask the desk at Miami Dossier and we will tell you what the position is on the building you are considering.
We hold no inventory of our own and we are not the developer. Ask the desk at Miami Dossier and we will tell you what applies to your situation, what does not, and where we would not proceed. Here that starts with financing status and delivery record, read together. Where the question is legal, tax or immigration, we will introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.