Rents in Doral, Florida, have dropped to their lowest point in three years as the area’s vacancy rate climbs to 6.5 percent. While the broader Miami rental market is slowing, Doral is experiencing a sharper downturn due to recent immigration policy changes.
According to the Wall Street Journal, about 40 percent of Doral’s roughly 80,000 residents are Venezuelan or of Venezuelan descent. Many of these families are leaving the city amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back temporary legal protections such as humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which had been expanded under the previous administration.
Since January, the Trump administration has moved to revoke these permissions, launching several legal actions that have left more than one million people uncertain about their immigration status. This uncertainty is affecting local housing stability.
“They’re all telling me, ‘No, I can’t stay, my [temporary status] is expiring,” said Maria Eugenia Nucete, a Venezuelan-American broker who has worked in Doral for decades. She noted that she lost a client in March when they relocated to Italy.
Doral Mayor Christi Fraga also acknowledged seeing families leave: “I do personally know of some families that have self-deported. Their status was unsure and they didn’t want to be here illegally,” she told the Journal. “I’m sure it will affect the housing market to a certain extent.”
Some departing residents are moving back to Venezuela or heading for Spain or Italy. Gabriela Hernandez, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in the U.S. for nearly ten years, said her boyfriend already left Doral out of concern for his protected status and that she plans to leave soon as well. “All of our plans here have collapsed,” she told the publication.
The rise in vacancies poses new challenges for landlords in Doral. Some property owners now ask prospective tenants about their immigration status and may turn away those with only temporary protections due to concerns over potential rent delinquencies if court rulings change their residency rights. However, attorneys warn this could violate federal law.
“It could be viewed as a race-discrimination case or it could be viewed as a case involving allegations of discrimination based upon national origin,” said Courtney Cunningham, an attorney based in Miami.
Despite current challenges in its rental market, Doral has attracted significant investment recently—including from the Trump family itself. In January, city officials approved plans by the Trump Organization for up to 1,500 luxury condominiums at Trump National Doral Miami.
