Miami Investment Sales Jump 35% As Investors Return From The Sidelines

After a quiet couple of years, investors have started to trickle back into Miami's commercial real estate scene, with sales activity reaching its highest level since 2022.

There were $9B of commercial real estate transactions in 2025 — a nearly 35% increase over 2024, when just $6.8B of sales were recorded, according to an Avison Young report. 

With more capital chasing commercial real estate deals, interest rates declining and a continued migration of wealthy people to South Florida, the dealmaking uptick is expected to continue through 2026, said Michael Fay, Avison Young chairman, principal and managing director in Miami.

“We've got a lot of tailwinds, and it's all positive,” Fay said.

Miami multifamily and retail sales nearly doubled from 2024 to 2025, according to Avison Young. Retail sales were up 88% over 2024 to $2.2B, and multifamily sales increased by 97% to $2.6B.

The uptick in overall investments stems from easing interest rates, which the Federal Reserve gradually lowered toward the end of 2025. While small changes, they gave some confidence to investors on the sidelines, Fay said.

The Federal Reserve voted last week to hold the target federal funds rate between 3.5% and 3.75%.

“This is an ongoing trend now that we're seeing inflation more controlled as well as the interest rates picture [being] much brighter,” Fay said. “We're seeing confidence in the market.”

Nearly two-thirds of the CRE purchases in the last six months of the year were made by private investors, such as high net worth individuals, one of the largest shares among major U.S. markets. 

In stark contrast, Miami had the lowest share of institutional buyers among major markets, making up only 12%.

The pause in institutional capital stems from a recent run-up in property values, the large firms' need to reassess, and the natural ebb and flow of the market, Fay said.

“It's always been that way with institutional money,” Fay said. “I can tell you with private investors being bullish, that also bodes well for any of the markets.”

Fay expects that positivity to lift the one asset class in Miami in which sales slowed: office. That contrasts with markets like New York, where investment in office properties surged, and even Miami's neighbors to the north. 

When factoring in Broward and Palm Beach counties, South Florida’s office market has bounced back following the slow period in 2023 and 2024. Office investment volume in South Florida increased by nearly 26% year-over-year to $3.3B, according to a year-end Colliers report.

That total was boosted by two office buildings in Fort Lauderdale that sold for a combined $429M in two days last February.

By contrast, Miami office sales posted a nearly 11% decline in transaction volume, according to Avison Young.

But owners of Miami office buildings are starting to feel more comfortable with the prices they might fetch for their assets, like New York-based RFR Realty, which has listed its 30-story, 310K SF 100 Biscayne Miami office tower for $130M, The Real Deal reported.

“There's interest now going to office, where [before] it was basically everybody was staying away,” Fay said.