Florida Banks on Condos to Flourish

Real estate management company The Continental Group will be conducting an educational seminar on ‘Maintaining a high-rise condominium: How to avoid costly repairs’ in Fort Lauderdale on Sept. 6.

The seminar, to be held at the Ocean Sky Hotel, is open to all community residents, condo association board members and property managers, a press release stated.

Tim O’Keefe, CEO of The Continental Group said the seminar was part of the group’s educational programs to help enhance board effectiveness and efficiency and save potential costly litigation and maintenance. It will provide tips for maintaining condominium building systems, unique ways to extend the useful life of common-area assets and legal advice to help boards avoid costly litigation.

The market for condos is upbeat in Florida, with both sales and prices increasing in July. According to the Florida Current, the sale of condos increased 2.8 percent and prices saw a boost of 10.9 percent.

Florida’s real estate resurgence, especially of condos, is largely due to increasing international investment in properties here. Foreign investors are largely from the markets of Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. "Foreign nationals who are accustomed to buying with cash have been reading about the distressed condo market in South Florida for a number of years," Peter Zalewski, head of the CondoVultures consulting firm, told the Sun Sentinel.

"Once they get off the plane in Miami or Fort Lauderdale, they tend to stay and buy in those areas."

For instance, Trump Hollywood, which has 200 units, is already sold out and only 10 of the 117 units are still available at the Strada. The case is similar in Jade Ocean and Icon Brickell, where all the units are either sold out or spoken for, the paper reported.