David Siddons is a Realtor with EWM International in South Florida.

Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before.

This week, we talked with David Siddons, a Realtor with EWM International who, with sales production levels in excess of $20 million, is a “Diamond Level” Chairmans Club member. With offices in Brickell, David also covers a number of markets in Miami-Dade, and is well-noted in the industry for his in-depth real estate reports.

Miami Agent (MA): Miami home prices continue to post double-digit increases every month; what do you think is behind their extraordinary, post-bubble growth?

David Siddons (DS): Miami has become a legitimate business core for the Latin America markets, and what we are seeing is, there’s a lot of safety and belief that the Miami real estate market is one of the best places to put your money right now. So we’re seeing huge amounts of people enter Miami.

If you track specific markets, we’re seeing the population of Miami increasing by about 70 people a day – it’s absolutely astronomical, and we’re seeing them come from Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Europe, and we’re seeing many corporations relocate as well, bringing with them the employees and the staff. There’s a constant desire to live in Miami. It’s not just this tourist destination anymore. It’s a real metropolis, and that continues to draw people.

MA: Demand from foreign homebuyers has been huge in propelling those price increases; do you anticipate that foreign demand continuing into 2014?

DS: Right now, yes. There are certain neighborhoods where we are going to see a continued flow of people into Miami. I think that there are certain things going on behind that. For example, in Brazil, there’s a lot of fluctuation and concerns about the safety and the economy stability of the country, so people are moving from Brazil to Miami. And I’m seeing large amounts of people deciding that they would feel safer economically and physically.

I think the challenge now is not the people coming in, but getting them the right product. Of course, the condo market is very different from the single-family home market – they’re completely different animals – in that the supply curve shifts, because there is always new inventory becoming available. The single-family market, though, it doesn’t vary that much, so in certain markets, I think you’ll see the sales drop off or slow down, and not because there’s less desire to live here. The reality is, there is less inventory available. You can’t find what isn’t available.

I also think we’re going to still see investors coming into Miami, but we’ll see new kind of investors. We’ll see people from China. We’ll see people from the Middle East, including many investors from Dubai. We’ll see investors from countries that we haven’t really seen on our shores before, and I’m seeing that already.

MA: Finally, we often hear from industry groups that lending remains tight; do you still see that in Miami’s marketplace, or have lending standards loosened somewhat?

DS: I think we’re going to see a situation where people who need to buy mortgages are pushed out of the market. I’ve seen it in the single-family market in Coral Gables, but I’ve also seen it in condos.

Mortgage buyers are going to have a difficult time in this market; the locals will be pushed out by the foreign investors. I’m seeing people coming from places like Brazil and Venezuela who have no qualms paying all-cash for the deal, and then you have buyers with a mortgage who put in five or six offers, and they haven’t had luck with any of them. I think that’s going to be a challenge, and with that in mind, even increased interest rates are not going to impact this market much.

My advice to mortgage buyers is: try to avoid jumbo mortgages; try to leverage as much as possible, in the 30-40 percent range; and be prepared that when you come in on an offer, such as a single-family home, you’ve got to be prepared to offer the highest price that you can, or get as closest to the asking price as you can, because the chances are that you’ll be competing against cash buyers.