A Florida 'condo cliff' is coming as owners deal with fallout from 2021 Surfside collapse
After the deadly collapse of a 12-story condominium tower in the Surfside suburb of Miami in 2021, state lawmakers implemented new requirements for older condominiums.
After the deadly collapse of a 12-story condominium tower in the Surfside suburb of Miami in 2021, state lawmakers implemented new requirements for older condominiums. Buildings that are at least 30 years old, as was the Champlain tower that fell, have to undergo special inspections, make repairs and gather reserve funds for future maintenance. The deadline is at the end of this month.
With inspections now underway, the bills are coming due. For some associations, the costs are in the millions of dollars, and condo owners, many of whom are retirees on fixed incomes, are on the hook.
Roughly 1 million units are subject to the new capital-intensive rules. Some owners are hoping to sell their units rather than comply, others are walking away, and still others are looking to investors to bail them out.
Longtime analyst Peter Zalewski, founder of Miami-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures, calls it the condo cliff.
“I would compare it to what we saw in during the Great Recession, which is effectively zombie buildings. These are the units where a small minority are going to have to basically bear the cross or pay for everyone else who’s not able to pay, whether they can’t or they choose not to pay,” said Zalewski.
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