NEW CONSTRUCTION
What do you see happening with new construction?
Claudio Stivelman: I think that it’s different from different cycles. We didn’t see in this cycle much more end users. Much more end users. Miami has lots of good points. Miami is metropolitan. Miami is a big city. Miami is one of the most important cities in the United States. Miami is in the lap of the world. Miami has the most shows, has art, has museums and it has all the teams of sports. It’s a place that’s a destination. It’s for retirees or for kids to come play in winter break or the Easter break or something like that. It’s a place that has developed itself in the last 10 years amazingly.
Agustin Cantens: New construction has been up this year. I think in certain areas it’s going to continue to grow where you’re going to get affordable housing. The high end market, which I know very well, is seeing a huge demand. Developers I remember have never been doing that kind of construction. They’re just looking to buy land and build more. That market is booming for kind of the same reason I feel the condo market is cooling off a little bit. People started realizing, “I’m not going to pay $1,000 per square foot to live on the 13th floor of a building when I could have a half acre home in Pine Crest for less.” You can live in a beautiful custom-built home for a lot less than what people pay for some of these condos. It makes sense. At the end of the day you’re sending your kids to the same school.
What new development trends have you seen in 2014 that will likely stick in the future?
Agustin Cantens: In the high end market I’ve seen the whole semicustom approach. Before, most developers just built a spec house. Now you’re seeing a lot of customization options, basically they allow the customer to feel as though they are building a custom built home. They pick out everything for the house. It’s not just stuff like there’s three or four colors of tile, it’s which tile do you want. Do you want marble or limestone? Just pick it and they’ll put it in. it’s a growing trend and for the buyer it’s an amazing opportunity to build the house the way you want. You shouldn’t have to settle for a million and a half. You should get what you want.
The other stuff in the lower price range is the track homes. We’re starting to see construction sprout up everywhere. There’s not a lot of land left in Miami Central. I don’t think we’re going to see any big developments in the center, but in the outskirts to the south you’re starting to see a lot of stuff go up.
Claudio Stivelman: I think there’s a major trend that’s going to continue. There is a trend toward differentiation. It’s going to come more and more from top architects, top designers, top landscape architects. You’re going to call attention by form, but also by amenities. The next thing is a yoga room or gym, and then it’s a yoga room, a gym, a peace room and a baby room. In one scalable area of the property it has to provide the most amenities possible. Some developers, they hear their buyers. They feel what their buyers need and the trend will be to answer to the buyer.
Will the market continue to be dominated by wealthy buyers?
Claudio Stivelman: Yes, definitely. The trend with most buyers is in a wave. In Miami, we have waves because of currency reasons, security reasons. For a time there was a Mexican wave because of currency issues or whatever and they were buying. And you have tens of thousands of Venezuelans because of [Hugo] Chavez. You have thousands of Columbians buying because of the upheaval in their country. Now you have thousands of Argentinians buying because of the instability of their economy. And you have tons of Brazilians buying. Brazilians are the biggest buyers because the population is getting so big in Brazil and you have a big bump in money power in the last eight to ten years, so a lot of those people are buying in Miami. Also, because of the currency and the [Brazilian] president being reelected, people looking for financial security are buying like crazy.