How to Buy Pre-Construction in South Florida — 2026/2027

A developer’s sales gallery is a sales operation. The people in it are knowledgeable, often extremely so, and they are compensated by and accountable to the developer. That is not a criticism — it is simply the structure. They are not neutral advisors, and they are not obliged to tell you which line of units has the compromised view, which floor plan has consistently resold poorly, or which clause in the purchase agreement deserves a second reading.

An independent buyer representative occupies the other seat. On the transactions we take on, that means comparing projects on documented risk rather than finish level, reading the offering documents against what a lender will later test, coordinating with your attorney and lender rather than substituting for them, and managing the timing of the decisions so that you are not deciding anything in the final week.

Why first contact can matter

Developers commonly maintain a broker-registration process: a written procedure that determines whether an outside brokerage is recognised on a transaction, and therefore whether that brokerage is compensated. Depending on the project’s rules, an online enquiry form, a phone call, an appointment, an unaccompanied visit or an event registration may all be recorded as a first contact.

It is worth being precise about what this is. These are project policies. Florida’s Condominium Act does not set a statewide registration rule, does not require a developer to pay a buyer-agent commission, and does not provide that a buyer who walks in alone has forfeited anything. Registration windows, renewal terms, escort requirements and internet-lead handling vary by developer and can be changed by the developer.

The practical conclusion is not alarm. It is sequence. Because the rules are project-specific and written down, they can be obtained and confirmed before you act — and that is a far easier conversation than one that begins after a registration has already been recorded.

What to establish, in writing

Before you contact a project, your representative should be able to tell you what that project’s current written policy says about how an outside broker is registered, what constitutes first contact, whether accompaniment on the first visit is required, how long a registration remains effective and whether it can be renewed. Where a project will not put its terms in writing, that is itself information.

Compensation should never be assumed. Post-2024 changes to MLS practice removed offers of broker compensation from the MLS and made written buyer-broker agreements central to how representation is documented. Those changes apply to MLS participants; they neither prohibit a developer from negotiating compensation outside the MLS nor guarantee that a developer will offer any. What compensation exists on a given project is a question of that project’s written policy and your written agreement.

For the mechanics of how a rebate is calculated, when it is available and what can reduce or remove it, see the Florida Buyer Rebate Guide. For how this works specifically across Miami new development, see Miami pre-construction buyer representation.

Before comparing prices, establish which category the project actually falls into, because the category determines your ongoing obligations, your rental rights and your eventual resale market.

Branding is a contract, not a permanent condition

A brand name on a building is the product of an agreement between the developer or association and the brand. Those agreements have terms, standards, fees and, in most cases, circumstances in which they can end. A brand affiliation should not be assumed to be perpetual, and a brand name is not by itself a guarantee of a particular service level, of hotel-standard operations, or of rental income.

If service levels, amenity access, club membership or rental participation matter to your decision, they belong to the documents: the declaration, the master declaration, any shared-facilities or operating agreement, and the branded-service arrangement. Ask for them, and have them read.

South Florida’s current pipeline spans all of these categories across distinct submarkets — Brickell and Downtown Miami towers, Edgewater waterfront sites, Coconut Grove low-rise product, oceanfront Sunny Isles Beach and Bal Harbour, and Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach to the north. The full set of projects we cover is on the pre-construction hub.

The purpose of this work is not to find a reason to walk away. It is to replace impressions with evidence, so that the risk you accept is a risk you chose. Some of it your representative can do; some belongs to a real-estate attorney or a title company; a little of it you can do yourself in an afternoon.

Where the records live

There is no single database. Miami-Dade County publishes a public-records service covering permits, plans, certificates of occupancy and use, code cases and zoning; the county property appraiser handles parcel and assessment data; and the Clerk of Court handles recorded instruments and litigation. Broward maintains its own official records and a separate permit search. Palm Beach County operates its own systems again.

Municipalities complicate this usefully. Many projects are permitted and inspected by a city rather than the county — Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura and Fort Lauderdale all run their own building and zoning processes. For any specific project, the applicable city portal is the one that matters, and identifying it is part of the work.

Construction financing deserves a caveat. It may be recorded, it may be private, it may have been amended, and it is not always inferable from a simple search. Where it matters to your decision, a title or real-estate attorney should review the recorded instruments and, if necessary, ask the developer directly for evidence.

In a pre-construction purchase you are wiring substantial sums to an entity that has not yet delivered anything, sometimes years in advance. Florida’s Condominium Act addresses this directly, and the framework is worth understanding precisely rather than approximately.

The first 10% is escrowed

For a condominium that is not substantially complete, the developer must place payments up to 10% of the sale price in escrow. A purchaser can request an escrow receipt. This is the core statutory protection, and it is real.

It is also bounded. “Escrowed” addresses who holds the money and on what terms. It does not eliminate developer credit risk, completion risk, or the possibility of a dispute that has to be resolved before anyone sees a refund.

Amounts above 10% are treated differently

Deposits beyond the initial 10% are ordinarily held in a special escrow account and may not be used before closing — but there is a defined statutory exception permitting use toward construction costs where the required contract disclosure and conditions are satisfied. Whether you are exposed to that mechanism depends on your contract language and the escrow instructions.

This is the single most commonly misstated point in pre-construction marketing. It is not correct that all deposits stay untouched in escrow until closing, and it is not correct that a developer can never access deposits before closing. Which is true for your transaction is a question your attorney answers by reading your documents.

Reservation payments are a separate regime

A statutory reservation agreement carries stronger refund mechanics than a purchase contract. Reservation payments must be paid to the escrow agent and, on written request of either the prospective purchaser or the developer, must be immediately and unconditionally refunded in full. They may not be released to the developer except as a down payment simultaneous with or after execution of a purchase contract.

The caution: this applies to a statutory reservation agreement. Not every payment a project labels a “reservation” necessarily has that legal character. Read what you are actually signing.

Non-compliance has consequences

Failure to comply with the statutory escrow requirements renders the contract voidable by the buyer, and where voided, sums deposited or advanced are refundable with the statutorily specified interest. This is a remedy that depends on facts and timing and requires legal analysis — it is not an automatic refund button.

The cancellation right, stated carefully

Florida provides a statutory voidability period in connection with a developer sale of a residential condominium unit. The agreement must contain the prescribed conspicuous notice. The contract remains voidable until the documents required by statute have been furnished; once they are furnished, written cancellation may be delivered within 15 days. A developer ordinarily may not close during that period unless the statutory conditions for an earlier closing are met.

Note what the timing actually depends on. It is not simply “15 days from signing.” It runs from execution and receipt of all required documents, which means the date on which the clock starts is a factual question about what was delivered and when. Amendments to the offering materials can also matter. Cancellation generally must be in writing and delivered as the contract and statute require.

If you are anywhere near this window, the practical advice is unambiguous: get a Florida real-estate attorney onto the specific dates immediately, rather than reasoning from a general description like this one.

Florida’s Condominium Act does not impose a universal completion date, a buyer financing contingency, view protection, a fixed square footage, a non-substitution promise, an assignment right or a rental right. Whatever you have on those points, you have because it is written in your contract.

This section is issue-spotting, not legal advice. Its purpose is to let you recognise what deserves attention so that you engage qualified Florida condominium or real-estate counsel on the right questions.

For qualifying residential offerings, a developer must prepare and file a prospectus or offering circular before entering an enforceable contract and provide it to each buyer, together with required financial information. Developers must also submit condominium documents to the Division for review and approval before offering residential units. You are entitled to these materials; the question is whether anyone reads them.

The declaration is the centre of gravity

It is the recorded instrument that creates the condominium and defines what you own. Review it and its exhibits and amendments for unit boundaries, limited common elements, easements, phasing, developer reserved rights, voting, assessments, insurance obligations, leasing, use restrictions, parking and storage, and termination provisions. Use the executed and recorded version — not a summary, and not a brochure paraphrase.

Articles of incorporation and bylaws govern the association and its board. Rules and regulations govern daily use and are usually the easiest of the three to change later.

Where mixed-use projects get complicated

Master associations, shared amenities, commercial and hotel components, leased amenities, branded-service arrangements and club memberships each create obligations. Map every mandatory payment, ownership right, operating agreement, termination and renewal right, and use priority. Who controls the amenity deck, and can that change? Is club membership mandatory, and what does it cost?

This matters beyond lifestyle. Lender project review may examine commercial and hotel characteristics of a building, and separate master-association assessments above a defined monthly threshold can bring the wider master development plan into a lender’s review.

Developer control and turnover

Developers typically control the association during the sell-out period, appointing the board and setting the budget. Understand when control transitions to owners, what triggers it, and what the association inherits at that point — including its financial position and any deferred obligations.

A proposed budget is a projection, not a cap

The budget in the offering materials estimates the first period of operation, often conservatively, and sometimes with developer subsidy or guarantee arrangements that end. Assessments can rise after turnover, after the first full year of actual operating experience, after an insurance renewal, or when reserves are funded properly. Nothing in the offering documents caps your future assessments.

Reserves deserve specific attention. Florida’s milestone-inspection and structural-integrity-reserve-study framework primarily burdens existing owner-controlled associations rather than a building still under construction — but it shapes the obligations your future association will carry, and it influences lender review. For the detail, see our guide to Florida condo financing rules and project review.

Most buyers obtain permanent financing near closing, not when signing a contract years earlier. That gap is the defining financial characteristic of a pre-construction purchase, and it produces several distinct risks that are worth separating.

Rate and lock risk

A rate lock lasts a limited stated period — commonly measured in weeks rather than years — and is contingent on closing and on no material change to your application. A multi-year pre-construction timeline cannot be treated as a long-term rate lock. Whatever the rate environment is at signing, you are underwriting the rate environment at delivery.

Your own qualification can move

Income, assets, credit, employment and existing debt are re-verified at the time of the loan, not at the time of the contract. A career change, a business downturn, a new obligation or a change in household circumstances between contract and closing can change what you qualify for. So can changes to underwriting guidelines that have nothing to do with you.

Appraisal risk

The unit is appraised near closing against then-current market conditions. If the appraised value comes in below a contract price agreed years earlier, the shortfall is generally yours to cover in cash, unless your contract provides otherwise — and most do not.

The building has to qualify too

This is the risk buyers most often overlook. A financially strong borrower can still be unable to obtain conventional financing because the project does not satisfy agency requirements. Fannie Mae identifies ineligible project conditions including unresolved critical repairs and special assessments and certain business-income arrangements. Freddie Mac evaluates critical repairs, litigation, delinquent assessments, reserves, commercial space, leased amenities and concentration.

Both agencies’ standards can affect lender appetite and, later, resale liquidity for the buyers who follow you. Agency eligibility is also not the same as loan approval: individual lenders apply their own overlays on top.

What changed recently, and what changes next

On August 3, 2026 Fannie Mae retired Limited Review and Freddie Mac retired Streamlined Review, so more transactions now require fuller project review. Fannie Mae’s Full Review reserve allocation rises from 10% to 15% for loan applications dated January 4, 2027 or later. Freddie Mac maintains its own project-review requirements, which should be verified against its current guidance at the time of underwriting. We cover this in depth, with the primary sources, in the 2026 Florida condo financing guide.

Foreign-national and developer programmes

Foreign-national lending exists but operates on different terms — typically larger down payments, different documentation and a narrower set of lenders. Some developers offer preferred-lender relationships or, occasionally, developer financing. These are project-specific and lender-specific arrangements; their existence and terms have to be confirmed for the project in question rather than assumed.

Cost structures vary enormously between projects, and particularly between conventional condominiums and branded or amenity-heavy buildings. What follows is a framework for building your own estimate from project documents — not a set of figures to apply generically, because generic figures in this category are worse than none.

Property taxes: why the current bill tells you nothing

This is the most reliably mis-modelled cost in a Florida purchase, and in pre-construction it is worse because there may be no prior residential bill at all.

A seller’s current tax bill is not a forecast of yours. Florida’s homestead exemption can reduce taxable value by up to $50,000 for eligible permanent Florida residences and brings Save Our Homes assessment limitation with it — but eligibility and timing are individual to the owner. The limitation applies after qualification and does not simply transfer with a sale. A long-held property may carry an assessed value far below market, and that advantage does not come with the keys.

Model it properly instead: use the county property appraiser’s tools and current millage, assume reassessment following the purchase, and treat homestead as applicable only if you actually qualify. The county property appraiser — not a sales gallery — determines assessed and taxable value.

Show your method, not false precision

The honest way to underwrite a pre-construction purchase is to build a range from the documents you have: the proposed budget for assessments, the fee schedule for parking and services, a current millage estimate for taxes, an insurance quote for your unit, and an explicit assumption for post-turnover assessment growth. A single confident annual number, produced without those inputs, is a guess wearing a suit.

Start with intended use, because it determines which risks are relevant. A primary residence tolerates illiquidity that an investment purchase does not. An income-oriented purchase depends on rental rights that may not exist in the form you expect.

Rental rights are contractual, not aspirational

What matters is what the declaration and the rules permit: minimum lease terms, how many times per year a unit may be leased, approval processes, and whether short-term rental is permitted at all. Local ordinances apply on top. A projection of nightly income is worthless if the building requires six-month minimum leases.

Where a rental or hotel programme exists, examine the terms rather than the headline: revenue split, mandatory participation, blackout or owner-use limits, management fees, and who bears operating costs. Guaranteed-income language that does not appear in binding documents is marketing.

Model the carry, not just the exit

Assessments, taxes, insurance, financing costs and management add up to a holding cost that runs whether or not the unit is occupied. Test whether you can carry it through a soft rental year.

Think about who you will be competing with

At delivery, a large building can produce a concentration of closings in a short window. Developer inventory may still be selling, and early investors may list simultaneously. Your resale competition at delivery is often other units in the same building — sometimes identical ones — and unsold developer inventory can set the pricing reference.

The financing environment at delivery affects who can buy from you. Currency movement matters for foreign buyers on both sides of the eventual trade. And there is opportunity cost: capital committed in staged deposits over several years is capital doing nothing else.

The normal progression of a South Florida tower runs roughly: sales launch, reservation phase, contracts, permitting, site preparation, groundbreaking, foundation, vertical construction, topping off, enclosure and façade, interiors, inspections, temporary or final certificate of occupancy, and closing notices.

That sequence is useful for orientation. It is misleading if it suggests every milestone carries equal weight.

The distinction that matters

Sales launch, the reservation phase and groundbreaking can be commercial milestones. A groundbreaking is an event a developer can schedule. It does not by itself prove the project is fully financed, and it does not necessarily mean meaningful vertical construction has begun or will begin promptly.

Milestones with genuine evidentiary value are the ones a third party has to produce: issued permits, recorded construction financing where it is public, engagement of a contractor, passed inspections, actual structural progress you can observe, and a temporary or final certificate of occupancy. A CO is a governmental occupancy milestone — not a developer target date, and not a statement that the building is defect-free.

Monitoring is straightforward once you know where to look. The permitting authority — county or, more often, the city — publishes permit and inspection activity. Recorded instruments appear in the county official records. And the site itself is visible: floors added over a quarter is a more reliable indicator than any newsletter.

Repeated revisions to a completion date, extended gaps in inspection activity, or a redesign that changes unit counts are all worth understanding rather than dismissing. None of them is proof of failure. All of them are questions.

We track construction and delivery developments across the South Florida pipeline in News & Intelligence, including where projects have encountered financing or delivery difficulty — for example our coverage of a branded pre-construction foreclosure action and a major construction permit issuance.

The developer issues a closing notice, and the contract sets how much lead time you receive — sometimes as little as a few weeks. Everything below needs to be ready when that notice arrives, not started because of it.

The pre-closing sequence

Financing finalisation. Application, updated documentation, appraisal, project review and clear-to-close. If the project requires a fuller lender review, this takes longer than a resale purchase.

Title work. Search, review of exceptions and encumbrances, resolution of objections within the contract’s procedure, and the owner’s policy.

Insurance. Your unit policy bound and evidence delivered to the lender.

Funds. Confirmed settlement figures and wire arrangements made early, with wire instructions verified verbally through a known number. Wire fraud in real-estate closings is a real and ongoing risk.

Entity documentation. If taking title in an entity, the formation, authority and signing documents must be in order in advance.

Remote closing. Where you cannot attend, arrangements for remote or mail-away execution — and for international buyers, apostille or consular requirements — take time to set up.

The walkthrough

Inspect the delivered unit against what was contracted: dimensions and layout, finishes and materials, appliances and fixtures, mechanical systems, windows and doors, and visible defects. Document everything in writing with photographs and dates.

Be clear about the legal position. A “blue-tape walkthrough” is not universally required by Florida law, and a punch list is not automatically a right to withhold closing. Walkthrough and punch-list rights are generally governed by your contract and the facts. What the contract says about inspection, punch-list treatment, the condition of the certificate of occupancy and your remedies determines what leverage you have.

Warranty and defect rights for new construction come from a combination of contract terms, statutory warranty principles, the building code and the facts of the defect — not from marketing promises. A certificate of occupancy means the authority permitted occupancy. It does not mean there are no defects.

Punch list and warranty. Track outstanding items to completion in writing. New construction reveals issues over the first months of occupancy, and warranty periods run from defined dates. Keep the correspondence.

Association transition. Early in a building’s life the developer typically still controls the association. Turnover to owner control follows defined triggers. If you intend to be involved, this is the period in which the association’s financial habits are established.

Tax reassessment. Expect the assessed value to be revisited following the purchase. The first full tax bill on a newly completed unit frequently differs from any estimate given during the sales process.

Homestead. If the unit is your permanent Florida residence and you qualify, the exemption must be applied for — it does not attach automatically — and filing deadlines apply.

Insurance. Review your unit policy against the association’s master policy once the association’s coverage is actually in place, so that the boundary between the two is clear.

Rental setup and management. If leasing, confirm the association’s approval process and lease-term rules before committing to a tenant, and engage management on terms consistent with the building’s rules.

Records. Keep the executed contract, all addenda, the offering documents, closing statement, deed, warranty documentation, punch-list correspondence and receipts for upgrades. These matter at resale and for cost-basis purposes.

Entity and estate planning. Where title is held in an entity or trust, or where the owner is not a U.S. person, ownership structure and estate planning should be reviewed with qualified tax and legal advisors. That is a referral, not something this page can resolve.

There is no prohibition on foreign ownership of Florida residential real estate of the kind discussed here. What differs is the surrounding machinery, and the issues divide usefully into those that arise at purchase and those that arise on disposition.

At purchase

Source of funds and wires. International transfers attract compliance scrutiny. Expect documentation requirements from the closing agent and the receiving bank, and allow more time than a domestic buyer would.

Financing. Foreign-national mortgage programmes exist through a subset of lenders on distinct terms. Availability should be confirmed early, because it constrains which projects are realistic.

Ownership structure. Individual, joint, trust or entity ownership each carry different tax, liability and estate consequences. This decision should be made with international tax counsel before contract, because changing it later can be costly.

Execution. Remote signing, notarisation, apostille and consular requirements vary by country and take time to arrange.

Screening. OFAC and anti-money-laundering screening is standard for the parties and the funds.

On eventual disposition

FIRPTA. When a foreign person later sells U.S. real property, the transferee may be required to withhold from the proceeds. Exceptions and reduced-withholding procedures exist, and the outcome is fact-specific.

Estate and gift tax. Federal estate and gift tax treatment differs for nonresident non-citizens, including a much lower threshold for U.S.-situated assets — the IRS discusses a filing threshold for U.S.-situated assets above $60,000. Treaties and exceptions matter. This is a genuine planning issue, not a formality.

Reporting rules are in flux

Federal reporting obligations touching residential real estate and entity ownership have changed repeatedly and remain subject to litigation. As of FinCEN’s published guidance during 2026, the Residential Real Estate Rule had been vacated by a federal court order and reports were not required while that order remained operative; separately, FinCEN’s beneficial-ownership framework was revised so that domestic U.S. entities are exempt while certain foreign entities registered to do business in the United States may remain reporting companies.

Both of those positions are time-sensitive and must be re-verified as at the date of your transaction. Do not rely on this paragraph, or any published guide, as a current statement of federal reporting obligations.

None of the items below means a project is bad. Each means a question is unanswered. The right response is to ask it, in writing, and to weigh the answer.

How to read the categories

The guide distinguishes throughout between four different kinds of authority, because conflating them is how pre-construction misinformation is manufactured:

Statewide law — Florida statutes and regulations that apply regardless of project. Federal lender guidance — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac requirements that affect financing but are not law and do not bind every lender. Tax guidance — IRS and Florida Department of Revenue material, general in nature. Developer policy and project documents — the contract, offering documents and registration rules, which are specific to your transaction and control the outcome.

What we deliberately did not resolve

Project-specific deposit schedules. We could not locate current, first-party, dated deposit schedules for the major South Florida projects we examined. Publicly available third-party pages disagreed with one another. Rather than publish an unverified schedule, this guide presents an illustrative structure and tells you to obtain the real one from the developer in writing.

Broker-registration windows. Developers’ published legal notices were available, but current first-contact triggers, registration durations, renewal terms and compensation policies generally are not public. They are collected per project, which is why this guide asks rather than asserts.

Rebate mechanics in detail. The presentation of a broker rebate at closing depends on brokerage compliance policy, closing-agent practice, lender and loan-programme treatment and applicable disclosure rules. We describe the framework and confirm the specifics in writing on each transaction.

Currency of this guide

Statutes, agency guidance and federal reporting rules change, and several of the areas covered here have changed more than once in the past two years. Project terms change too. This guide reflects the sources as at its publication date; your transaction is governed by the current law and by your own current written documents, and where the two diverge, the documents and the current law control.