Foreign Investors Drawn to Luxury Real Estate in Miami

Luxury real estate within the United States has attracted the attention of foreign investors. Spending an amazing $7.5 billion dollars on real estate in the US – on homes averaging more than $1 million dollars in sales price – investors have focused most of their buying power in the cities of Miami, Los Angeles, and Manhattan.

Nearly 40 percent of all sales were done in those three cities, with Miami leading the pack with one-quarter of the total. Los Angeles came in second at 9 percent, and Manhattan was third with a much lower 3 percent.

Perhaps because Miami had the lowest price-per-square-foot in luxury homes and luxury condominiums, 80 percent of the luxury real estate is owned by foreign investors with a penchant for owning a piece of the United States. Comparatively, foreign investors own 20 percent of the luxury real estate in Los Angeles and 27 percent of the luxury real estate in Manhattan.

Miami seems to be the biggest attraction in the luxury market. 95 percent of all purchases were done so with cash, mostly from buyers in South American; 75 percent of the homes purchased had a purchase list price starting at $3 million dollars or more.

According to a new report by Luxury brokerages Beauchamp Estates and Leslie J Garfield & Co., along with the continued rise in home sale prices, purchases of lavish real estate rose nearly three-quarters of a percent between March 2016 and March 2017.

Beauchamp Estates said they expect Miami, the magic city, to see residents in the upper echelon of wealth to increase the super-rich by 40 percent through 2026, to the grand total of 1050. New York and LA will grow by 30 percent each, to 8,541 and 4,095, respectively. With the rate Miami is growing, it won’t be long before she is the elitist capital of the United States.

In LA, real estate square footage out sizes homes in Miami, where real estate is climbing rather than sprawling. The average luxury home purchased in LA was 11,211 square feet. The square footage may be smaller than Miami, but on average, the properties in LA came with two and a half acres of land. A huge plus to those looking for a bit of nature to go with their paradise. Miami luxury homes, meanwhile, had less than 1 acre of land. Manhattan’s luxury apartments came with 4,276 square feet of outdoor space, which is considered exorbitant for a city known for very little of the coveted outdoor space.

The most popular neighborhoods in New York were the Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, and Tribeca. In LA, Beverly Hills and Malibu topped the list. In Miami, Miami Beach, Palm Beach and North Bay Road were the most sought after.