Daniel de la Vega is the president of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their thoughts on some of housing’s most pressing issues. This week, we talked with Daniel de la Vega, president of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. 

Miami Agent (MA): While a strengthening U.S. dollar is good in many ways, it’s detrimental in terms of foreign investment, as it dissuades international buyers from putting their money into American real estate. How has a stronger dollar affected Miami’s market and ONE Sotheby’s business, and do you expect the trend to continue?

Daniel de la Vega (DV): The weakening global currencies have certainly affected the real estate market in South Florida, but we still have a lot to look forward to. Our city’s growth, contrary to the last cycle, has attracted buyers from all over the world who are planning on making Miami their primary residence. With more residents, comes more infrastructure, restaurants, museums and parks – all of which are creating what we will look back at and call “the new Miami.” As a company, we are still traveling to these foreign feeder markets. Our approach is a bit different than others, in that, when we travel – we care more about quality than quantity. When we travel to Venezuela, Brazil or Argentina, our strategies are much more targeted. This benefits both us and our developers – we are able to make it much more cost effective. The demand for Miami still exists, it’s just the sales strategy that is fine tuned. It’s hard to say whether the trend will continue. You have so many different countries, all having their own independent issues. What we can say is that our philosophy is to stay ahead of the curve. We don’t wait for it to come to us, but rather, go out and get it.

MA: Miami’s luxury market is booming and the demand for more higher end living is spreading throughout the city. While this is good for luxury brokers, it threatens the area’s overall affordability. Do you see this as a problem, why or why not?

DV: I do. I think we need to stay cost conscious to those that can’t afford what we are selling. I am very bullish on affordable housing and love to read or hear about new affordable housing projects. Miami is a city that is in a development craze. We need to make sure to not forget about those that need the help of others and rely on our city’s government programs. I hope the minimum wage gets raised as it’s been in petition for some time now.

MA: For new agents entering the market or veteran agents looking to switch brokerages, what makes ONE Sotheby’s stand out among a dense field of local brokerages?

DV: I love this question: The bottom line is that we are the only true interconnected luxury real estate network in the world. We know our different Sotheby’s offices around the globe, as do our agents. Our agents leverage the fact that whatever major city in the world they may visit, they could make a contact with an agent at the local Sotheby’s office and build a referral relationship. It’s a powerful brand and when agents make the move to ONE SIR, their business sky rockets. Also, we aren’t like other firms that hire any agents – we have minimum productions. We are one of the top three firms in South Florida (depending on how you look at the numbers) and we are doing it with a third of the amount of agents as our other two competitors. We are very proud of that.