For today’s luxury condo buyers, a roof and four walls aren't enough — not when they’re shelling out $10M or more for their units.
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Buyers of ultra-luxury units are showing up with cash in hand, engineering reports and interior designers, scrutinizing every inch of their units and common areas. Anything short of perfection can trigger pushback and sometimes litigation, lawyers, developers and property managers said at Bisnow’s South Florida Condo Summit event last week.
“These are the types of buyers that notice absolutely everything,” Greenberg Traurig Litigation Lawyer Robert Galbo said onstage at the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach. “They have the best inspections, have their designers come in and everything is looked at, just at another degree from the typical unit.”
In the first 42 days of 2025, 48 ultra-luxury units — defined as those priced at $10M and up — sold in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County, a 37% rise from the same period last year, according to a March report by David Siddons Group.
Developers are hustling to meet the moment — 84 new condo projects are in the pipeline between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, 75 of which are priced between $1.5M and $100M, ISG World CEO Craig Studnicky said in the report.
What qualifies as luxury has shifted from about a decade ago, when a $600K condo earned the badge. By 2018-2019, it had climbed to $1M, and today, the threshold starts at about $2.5M, according to a fourth-quarter 2024 report by Condo Blackbook.
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As buyers fork over ever-higher sums for their units, even minor issues toward the end of the process can spark litigation, and what might seem insignificant can escalate quickly, Galbo said.
“I’ve seen buyers come back and really kind of go after the developer in the sense that they don’t think that things are in tip-top shape," Galbo said.
Jake Maya, acquisitions director at Property Markets Group, one of the developers behind the luxury Waldorf Astoria Residences Miami, said that the number of cash buyers at luxury properties in Miami has doubled since 2021. The shift puts more pressure on developers to deliver perfection, he said.
“While our margins are kind of more compressed today than they've been historically, the buyers aren't really concerned with that,” Maya said. “They are expecting world-class product and they have very specific expectations as it relates to what you’re delivering within your unit, within your amenity package.”
Not only is there an intense focus on units and amenity packages, but concerns over structural safety have led buyers to commission their own inspections, Maya said.
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Buyers want to see the reports and risks with their own eyes, Maya said. It has been a difficult transition, as PMG has worked with the same contractors and subcontractors for 20 years, but the stakes have been raised.
“We’re sitting side by side with our partners and our contractors and our subcontractors that are behind these projects, and we spend twice as much time as we used to behind these deals,” Maya said.
In response to rising expectations, developers are placing greater emphasis on the resident experience — creating emotional connections and involving property management teams early in the design phase, said Robert Smith, president of the South Region for FirstService Residential.
Buyers’ expectations and demands have changed rapidly since the pandemic, Smith said. It’s no longer just about delivering a finished product — the experience is now crucial for success.
“We’re moving away from a tactical model, where you just talk about, ‘How do you turn on the boiler, how do you do the HVAC system,’” Smith said. “It's more about an emotional connection within the association. How do you make the resident feel?”
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Now buyers aren’t just looking for finishes, they’re looking for seamless technology with smart locks, smart thermostats and more that works the second they walk through the door.
Developers are building residential units that replicate the feeling of a five-star hotel — that matches the expectations of condo buyers who have their choice of Waldorf Astoria, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons and other luxe brands that have lent their names to major projects, Smith said.
“People are going into luxury, five-star hotels and coming home the next day, on Monday, and they want to feel very similar that they were just on vacation,” Smith said. “That’s the condo market.”
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