Real estate professionals in Miami are disputing claims that the city is facing a real estate bubble that could soon burst. At The Real Deal’s Miami Real Estate Forum, Ana Bozovic, founder of Analytics Miami, stated, “This market is built on cash.” She participated in a panel discussion moderated by Stuart Elliott, Editor-in-Chief of The Real Deal.
Bozovic challenged a UBS report that labeled Miami as the most vulnerable city to a bubble, calling it “an egregious misrepresentation of truth” because of the large volume of cash transactions in the market. She 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, said current development patterns differ from those before 2008. He commented, “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 also noted that rising housing costs are causing local residents to move to other Florida cities such as Orlando. “Every part of Florida, you’re seeing grow,” he said.
Panelists also discussed migration trends following Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s mayoral race. Brad Meltzer, president of Two Roads Development, said: “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.”
Both Kodsi and Meltzer addressed ongoing legal challenges related to their respective projects. For Two Roads Development’s Biscayne 21 project in Edgewater Miami—where the Florida Supreme Court recently denied a request for rehearing in a condo buyout case—Meltzer expressed optimism: “It’ll take a little bit more time,” he said. “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…”
Kodsi discussed his involvement with Legacy Hotel & Residences at Miami Worldcenter amid foreclosure proceedings and efforts toward $390 million refinancing for the project. Although under court order not to discuss details about the lawsuit publicly, he remarked: “That ugly dumpling…is going to be a beautiful swan when she’s built, a great project.”
