Quick answer: Since 2022 buying a Florida condominium means buying a share of a building’s financial and structural position, not just a unit. Four documents decide the purchase: the milestone inspection status, the structural integrity reserve study and its funding percentage, 3 years of dues split into reserves and insurance, and the recorded declaration’s letting rule. The asking price is the part everyone looks at and the smaller half of what you pay.
Entry prices in the areas we cover
| Area | Buildings covered | Entry price from | Median entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brickell | 24 | 380,000 USD | 510,000 USD |
| Edgewater | 12 | 310,000 USD | 780,000 USD |
| Downtown Miami | 10 | 390,000 USD | 520,000 USD |
| Sunny Isles Beach | 9 | 480,000 USD | 1,950,000 USD |
| South Beach | 5 | 908,000 USD | 2,400,000 USD |
| Mid-Beach | 3 | 620,000 USD | 4,200,000 USD |
| Bal Harbour | 3 | 1,350,000 USD | 2,400,000 USD |
| Aventura | 2 | 450,000 USD | 800,000 USD |
| Downtown Fort Lauderdale | 2 | 285,000 USD | 492,500 USD |
Read the spread between entry and median rather than either figure alone. Brickell’s two numbers sit close together because the stock is deep and similar; Mid-Beach’s entry is a fraction of its median because a small number of older buildings sit beneath a market of very expensive oceanfront towers. A low entry price in an expensive area usually means older stock, and older stock is exactly where the inspection and reserve questions bite hardest.
The inspection schedule, by building age
| Certificate of occupancy | First milestone inspection, coastal 25-year trigger |
|---|---|
| 1998 or earlier | deadline passed; a completed report should exist |
| 2000 | around 2025 |
| 2005 | around 2030 |
| 2008 | around 2033 |
| 2016 | around 2041 |
| 2020 | around 2045 |
| 2024 | around 2049 |
The trigger is 30 years from the certificate of occupancy, or 25 years where the building sits within 3 miles of a coastline, and it repeats every 10 years thereafter. Buildings that had already passed the threshold when the statute took effect had until 31 December 2024 to complete the initial inspection.
That last line changes the question for older buildings entirely. At a building completed in the 1990s you are not asking when an inspection is coming; you are asking for a report that already exists, what it found, whether a phase two inspection followed, and what the board resolved to do about it. See the condominium safety guide and, for a worked example across nine towers of different ages on one site, Williams Island.
The funding percentage is the number to ask for
The structural integrity reserve study applies regardless of building age. It identifies the major components, prices them, and produces the reserve requirement that feeds the dues.
The number that matters to a buyer is what proportion of that requirement is already funded. It answers, in one figure, whether tomorrow’s roof is prepaid or whether it will arrive as an assessment.
| Ask for | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| The reserve study itself | scope and expected cost of the components |
| Current reserve funding percentage | how much is already collected |
| 3 years of dues history, split by line | whether the board funds or defers |
| Assessments levied, pending or discussed in 24 months | what is already in motion |
| Board minutes covering those discussions | how the board reasons about money |
A well-funded building with high dues is frequently a better purchase than a cheap one with low dues, because in the second case the money has not stopped being owed; it has only stopped being collected.
Dues are not comparable until you rebuild them
Two buildings quoting the same dues per square foot can be doing entirely different things with the money.
Some Florida buildings include cable, internet, water, sewer and trash in the association budget; others bill each separately. Some fund reserves fully; others have historically waived them. Some carry heavy amenity programmes, six floors of them in the case of Turnberry Ocean Club, where over 70,000 square feet of amenity divides across just 154 residences.
Before comparing any two buildings, rebuild both figures on the same basis:
- Add back the services one building includes and the other does not.
- Separate the reserve contribution from the operating budget.
- Separate the master insurance premium from both.
- Divide by the same unit of area, and confirm which area measure is being used.
Then ask the manager to split 3 years of increases into reserve contribution and master insurance premium. A rising line can mean prudent funding, insurance repricing, or both, and only the breakdown distinguishes them. See the insurance guide.
Warrantability removes lending for everyone at once
This is the risk buyers understand least, because it is not about the borrower.
Lender project eligibility rules test the building. A project can be declared non-warrantable for hotel operation, hotel-type services combined with rental pooling, a large non-residential share, insufficient reserve funding, or high investor concentration. When that happens the conventional 30-year loan becomes unavailable building-wide, to every owner, until the underlying position changes.
The effect on value is immediate and it works in both directions. A non-warrantable building’s buyer pool shrinks to cash and portfolio lending, which reprices resale for everyone in it. A branded building with no hotel component and a strict letting rule, such as Mr. C Residences, reads very differently to a lender than a building designed for short stays, such as Domus Brickell Park.
Obtain a written project eligibility determination before the contract, not after. Where the answer is unfavourable, the routes are cash, portfolio lending or a DSCR loan underwritten on rent at a larger deposit, and overseas buyers work through foreign national mortgage programmes.
The declaration sets the letting rule
Across the buildings covered on this site, recorded letting rules range widely and none of them is a matter of the owner’s preference:
| Rule | Example |
|---|---|
| 2 lettings a year, 6-month minimum | Quantum on the Bay, Echo Brickell |
| 3 lettings a year, 30-day minimum | SLS Brickell |
| 12 lettings a year, 60-day minimum | Paraiso Bayviews |
| 4 lettings a year, 30-day minimum | Kalea Bay |
| No occupancy longer than 6 months | Domus Brickell Park |
Note the last row. In every other building six months is a minimum; in that one it functions as a maximum, which makes it a short-stay operating asset rather than a residence.
The declaration binds the owner regardless of what any ordinance permits, and the city and county sit on top of it: a building rule allowing 30-day letting does not make 30-day letting lawful where the zoning forbids it. See the HOA restrictions guide and the county pages under regulations.
Two-tower and campus buildings need one extra question
Where a development has more than one tower, establish which association governs your residence. Florida structures multi-tower projects both ways, and the answer determines whose budget, whose reserve study and whose future assessment apply to you.
A reserve study for the wrong tower is worse than none, because it produces confidence about a bill someone else will pay. The four towers of the Paraiso campus in Edgewater, completed by one sponsor, carry four different letting clauses between them; the nine towers at Williams Island span 1985 to 2013 with nine separate associations.
Document checklist before you offer
- The completed milestone inspection report, and any phase two findings.
- The structural integrity reserve study and the current funding percentage.
- 3 years of dues history split into reserve contribution and master insurance premium.
- Any assessment levied, pending or discussed in the last 24 months, with minutes.
- The recorded declaration with all amendments, including the letting article.
- Confirmation of which association governs the residence in a multi-tower project.
- The master insurance policy: what it covers and what your HO-6 must bridge.
- A written lender project eligibility determination.
- The city and county position on letting, if letting is part of the plan.
Where to start on this site
The buildings section carries entry prices, dues, letting rules and inspection dates building by building. The area pages cover the markets: Brickell, Edgewater, Miami, Sunny Isles, Fort Lauderdale and Naples.
For the wider purchase decision, including single-family stock, see the Florida homes hub. For the yield comparison between the two, see condo versus single-family rental yield.
Frequently Asked Questions
Entry prices across the buildings covered on this site start near 285,000 dollars in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, 310,000 in Edgewater, 380,000 in Brickell and Miami Beach, 390,000 in Downtown Miami and 480,000 in Sunny Isles Beach, rising to 1,350,000 in Bal Harbour. The purchase price is the smaller half of the decision; the dues, reserves and assessment position are the other half.
At 30 years from the certificate of occupancy, or 25 years where the building is within 3 miles of a coastline, and every 10 years after that. Buildings that had already passed the threshold when the statute took effect had a completion deadline of 31 December 2024, so for older stock the question is what the completed report found.
A required study identifying the building's major components and the reserves needed for them, which then feeds the association's reserve funding. It applies regardless of building age, and the funding percentage it produces is the single most useful number a buyer can ask for.
Two drivers. Master insurance premiums on coastal buildings have repriced every year since 2022, and reserve funding requirements have tightened. Ask the manager to split 3 years of dues increases into reserve contribution and insurance premium, because the two mean very different things about the board.
A project that fails lender eligibility tests, commonly for hotel operation, hotel-type services with rental pooling, a large non-residential share, insufficient reserve funding or high investor concentration. The consequence is building-wide: the conventional 30-year loan becomes unavailable to every owner, not to one applicant.
Only if the recorded declaration permits it, and then only if the city and county also do. Declarations range from two lettings a year at a six-month minimum to 30-day minimums and, in a few buildings, weekly. The declaration governs the owner regardless of what any ordinance allows.
Send us the buildings you are weighing and we will pull the documents
Name two or three buildings and we will come back with each one's milestone inspection status, reserve study and funding percentage, 3 years of dues split into reserves and insurance, assessment history, the recorded letting rule, and a written lender project eligibility position.