Florida Condo Market Not Projected To Normalize Until 2033
In this issue of the Miami Condo Market Intelligence Report™, we evaluate what the new Florida condo relief legislation - dubbed HB 913 - will mean for the South Florida market returning to normalcy.
Volume 2025, Issue 25 (Subscribe here)
For this week’s Miami Condo Market Intelligence Report™ newsletter, we provide an immediate reaction to the newly adopted Florida legislation designed to provide short-term relief for owners of condos, especially Vintage units that are at least 30 years old.
After weeks of delay, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally signed the legislation - dubbed HB 913 - this week on June 18, 2025. The legislation takes effect July 1, 2025.
The legislation is designed to provide immediate financial relief for cash-strapped owners of Florida condos who are struggling to pay rising maintenance fees, hefty special assessments and pricey insurance rates.
We have not yet analyzed the legislation - which we plan to do during the next two weeks - as we waited for the language to be finalized out of caution that it could change at the last minute.
To get a better understanding of what the legislation is expected to accomplish, consider the comments from Robert G. Smith, president of property management company FirstService Residential's South Region, published in a Newsweek story on June 20, 2025.
"The immediate impact is that condo associations now have much more flexibility and uniformity when it comes to reserve requirements,” Smith reportedly told Newsweek. “Instead of being required to fully fund reserves right away, they can now prioritize urgent repairs first—especially those flagged during inspections."
The Newsweek story explains that “HB 913 allows condo associations to use alternative funding methods, like loans or lines of credit, to meet reserve obligations.”
As part of this alternative funding approach, Newsweek states that “condo associations can temporarily pause reserve fund contributions for up to two years.”
In response to the 24-month pause in collecting reserves, First Service Residential’s Smith reportedly said: "That's a major relief for boards who are feeling the financial pressure.”
The new condo relief legislation is being viewed by some industry watchers as a compromise that will more compassionately advance Florida’s response to the June 24, 2021, Surfside condo collapse where nearly 100 people died and a $1 billion settlement was paid out to the families of the victims.
Prior to adoption of HB 913, we were projecting the South Florida condo association cleanup to take up until 2031 to be normalized.
We are now expecting the process to take an additional two years, extending our timeline to 2033 due to the 24-month pause provided by HB 913 for collecting reserves to fund the necessary construction to maintain and fix condo towers.
Before categorizing our projection as crazy, outlandish or even fearmongering to depress pricing, we ask you to consider our timeline for restoring normalcy to the South Florida condo market.
We define normalcy as an environment where buyers and sellers of condos can focus primarily on market conditions rather than concerns related to life safety, special assessments and the future lifespan of projects.
This is our projected timeline to return to condo market normalcy: