Real estate experts at The Real Deal’s Miami Real Estate Forum have challenged the idea that Miami is on the verge of a housing bubble. Ana Bozovic, founder of Analytics Miami, addressed concerns raised by a UBS report that labeled Miami as the most vulnerable city to a bubble. “This market is built on cash,” Bozovic said during a panel moderated by Stuart Elliott, Editor-in-Chief of The Real Deal. She called the UBS report an “egregious misrepresentation of truth” due to the prevalence of cash transactions in Miami.
Bozovic explained, “Usually when assets collapse, it’s because there’s a collapse. The bubble pops when the underlying assets can no longer sustain the debt, and it all goes away, kind of like a flammable house of cards. We don’t have this setup.”
Dan Kodsi, CEO of Royal Palm Companies, also participated in the discussion and argued that current market conditions differ from those leading up to 2008. “The issue is we’re building product that’s expensive, and because of construction costs, when you’re building high-rise especially, you have to sell it at a very high price per foot,” Kodsi said.
Kodsi noted that rising prices are pushing local residents toward more affordable areas such as Orlando. “Every part of Florida, you’re seeing grow,” he added.
Panelists discussed migration trends following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s mayoral race and how they might affect South Florida real estate demand. Brad Meltzer, president of Two Roads Development, commented on expectations about immediate population shifts: “I think the expectation that you’re going to see something immediately, like, the press keeps kind of glorifying like, ‘oh, tomorrow, there’s gonna be a million people moving here.’ That’s not going to happen, but it’s going to happen after a matter of time. Some people have families. They have kids. You don’t just pick up and move tomorrow, but the investigation process is going to start to happen.”
Legal challenges facing developers were also addressed during the forum. For Two Roads Development’s Biscayne 21 project in Edgewater Miami—where holdout owners successfully contested changes to condo termination requirements—Meltzer expressed optimism about reaching an agreement: “It’ll take a little bit more time,” he said regarding Edition Residences planned for the site. “There’s been discussions behind the scenes with that, but it’ll get resolved. It has to resolve itself. When something is valuable enough, parties have to compromise like anything else in life, and there’ll be a compromise that takes place, and everybody will feel that they can get a good deal, and we’ll move on.”
Kodsi faces foreclosure litigation over his Legacy Hotel & Residences project at Miami Worldcenter but told the court earlier this year he was working on refinancing efforts totaling $390 million for its completion.
While restricted by court order from discussing details about his lawsuit publicly, Kodsi remained optimistic: “That ugly dumpling, let’s say, is going to be a beautiful swan when she’s built—a great project.”
