South Florida’s luxury housing market is heating up. In July, sale prices in Miami surged 18% year-over-year, with Tampa close behind at a 15.4% increase. Both have surpassed sales in the U.S. luxury market overall.

On Oct. 8, Bisnow is bringing together commercial real estate professionals in the luxury single-family home market to discuss the ultra-luxury segment, which comprises properties that typically have price tags greater than $10M. 

Bisnow’s South Florida Ultra-Luxury Home Summit will dive into how buyers, sellers and builders are navigating today’s trends and the process of developing and delivering these exclusive spaces. Click here to register.

Anastasia Cucu, chief operating officer and partner at MILAS, will share her insight on the What It Takes To Sell a Mansion panel. The Miami-based real estate investment and development company delivers luxury single-family homes and townhomes that bring value to South Florida’s communities. 

In a conversation with Bisnow, Cucu discussed how to build for today’s luxury buyer.


Bisnow: What Miami single-family home trends are on your radar?

Cucu: The single-family market and the condo market are no longer the same story. Luxury single-family sales above $1M are up significantly year-over-year, and inventory is tight. Condos are a different conversation entirely and vary from one building to another.

What interests me more, however, is who is buying. The new buyer coming to Miami is sophisticated and well-traveled. They have seen it all, and they understand quality and design. This buyer will pay more to get the standard they are used to. They want space, a garden and privacy. This is who we are currently building for.

Most buyers, with the exception of the New York buyer, understand the single-family home far better than the condo, and it is what they want. While they are not willing to wait three or four years to move in, they are comfortable waiting one or two.


Bisnow: Can you explain more about your role at MILAS?

Cucu: I oversee all of the operations, acquisitions, asset management, design-development and construction of MILAS assets. I also manage marketing and branding, sales, legal, and the capital structure. 

My background is in business development. I have started and run several successful businesses, including a project management and owner's representation firm. That is where I learned the execution side of this industry, and it is still how I look at every deal. I care about what actually gets built, not about what looks good on paper.


Bisnow: What is MILAS currently working on?

Cucu: We will be announcing our first neighborhood project soon. While we can’t announce the neighborhood yet, what I can say is that this is a full neighborhood redevelopment with single-family homes and townhomes, delivered as one vision. 

We put together a top-tier team across every discipline: architects, interior designers, general contractors, brokers and branding. A project of this scale means every partner has to be experienced.

We are excited to be working on a project of this magnitude and to share the vision soon. It is the first of many for us, and we are proud of it.


Bisnow: What do you think will be the hottest topics of conversation at Bisnow’s South Florida Ultra-Luxury Home Summit?

Cucu: I think the event will get into how to deliver excellence in every project. I’m expecting an honest conversation about what quality actually requires, and what it truly takes to sell a luxury home in today's market, because it is not what it was three years ago.

One important topic is carrying costs. Between insurance, taxes and maintenance, the annual bill on a luxury home is substantial, and it shapes both what gets built and who can afford to hold it.

Another is time. From acquisition to delivery, the runway is long, and every developer in that room is living with it.

The last is whether architectural style and desired locations are shifting. I believe they are, and that is worth debating.

Bisnow: What do you hope attendees will take away from the event?

Cucu: The luxury market sits in a completely different place than it did before the pandemic. Not only in the level of demand but in the nature of it. The buyer has changed, and that changes everything downstream.

But adjusting to the new buyer is only half of the work. The other half is building for Miami itself: better infrastructure, a stronger canopy and neighborhoods designed to function and not only to sell. We are not here to import a city from somewhere else. We are here to make this one better, for everyone who lives in it.

We are all adjusting to this new market. This is collective work between every professional in the real estate space, and all of us need to raise our bar.

This article was produced in collaboration between MILAS and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.