Buying a Miami Condo as an Investment: Rules, Resale Supply, Cash

A Miami condo works as an investment only if three things line up: the building's rental rules allow the income you are counting on, the carrying costs (dues, insurance, taxes, assessments) leave room for a return, and you can finance it. Most Miami buildings do not allow nightly rentals, the ones that do are mostly new towers with a lot of resale competition, and buyers there have been putting down 35% or more. Here is how to check each point, with what our records show as of October 13, 2026.

Step 1: read the rental rules before anything else

Rental rules are set building by building, in the condo declaration and the city's zoning. They fall into three groups:

• Nightly rentals allowed. Buildings approved for hotel-style or Airbnb-style stays, usually with an on-site rental program.
• Short leases, not nightly. Many buildings allow leases of 30 days or more, sometimes with a cap on leases per year. That is a furnished-rental business, not an Airbnb business.
• Restricted. Some buildings require longer minimum leases or limit renting in the first period of ownership.

Of the 233 published buildings Own.Miami tracks in Brickell, Downtown, Edgewater, Midtown and Coconut Grove, only 8 have a recorded policy allowing Airbnb-style stays. Six are finished or delivering: Natiivo Miami, The Elser, District 225, The Crosby, E11EVEN Hotel & Residences and NoMad Residences Wynwood. Two, Mercedes-Benz Places and Fouquet's Hotel & Residences, are still preconstruction. In September 2026 the City of Miami also ordered a report on short-term rental violations, with quarterly reports on condo buildings with repeat violations, so renting nightly in a building that does not allow it is a growing risk.

Step 2: check the resale competition

Nightly-rental towers are new and heavily owned by investors, so many units come up for resale at once. On October 13, 2026 the MLS showed 97 units for sale at Natiivo, 73 at E11EVEN, 67 at The Crosby, 63 at The Elser, 51 at District 225 and 27 at NoMad. Downtown as a whole had 923 condos for sale against 368 closings in 12 months, about 30 months of supply in Own.Miami's market report. If you may need to sell within a few years, that supply is your exit price.

Step 3: plan to put a lot of cash down

Lenders treat condo-hotel and nightly-rental buildings as non-warrantable: Fannie Mae's Selling Guide lists units in condo hotels as ineligible property, so conventional 10% to 20% down loans are generally off the table. Recorded mortgages bear this out. Over the last 12 months, from Clerk of Courts records:

| Building | Purchases with a recorded loan | Median down payment | |---|---|---| | The Crosby | 39% | 39.6% | | District 225 | 38% | 36.8% | | NoMad Residences Wynwood | 33% | 35.8% | | E11EVEN Hotel & Residences | 26% | 35% |

At Natiivo, none of the recent purchases carried a recorded loan. In plain terms, most buyers in these towers paid cash, and those who borrowed put down about a third.

Step 4: underwrite the full carrying cost

Income is rent minus vacancy and, for nightly rentals, the rental program's share. Costs are the mortgage, HOA dues, insurance and property tax. An investment condo does not get the homestead exemption: it falls under the 10% non-homestead assessment cap on non-school taxes, and its assessment resets near your purchase price the year after you buy. The nightly-rental towers are new, but in older buildings add the risk of special assessments from Florida's milestone inspection and structural reserve study laws, which can wipe out a year or more of net income.

A short checklist

• The exact rental clause in the declaration and any rules on lease counts or minimum terms.
• The building's current budget, reserves and any announced special assessment.
• The number of units already listed for sale in the building.
• How recent buyers financed: if almost nobody got a loan, plan for cash or a portfolio loan.
• Property tax at your purchase price, not the seller's bill.

This guide is general education, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm the specifics with an attorney, lender and tax professional before you act.