The information resource for Luxury Oceanfront Condominiums in Miami, Sunny Isles, Bal Harbour, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach. (954) 632 3266

As reported in the Sun-Sentinel, the W Fort Lauderdale will feature the first Bliss Spa in Florida. The upscale spa founded in 1996 has nine locations including New York City, San Francisco and London. Its beauty products are found at 23 W hotels. The 517 room W Fort Lauderdale is set to open this fall.

We are seeing more and more of a presence of upscale spa and wellness facilities at condos and condo hotels in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Buyers of oceanfront condos are looking for the next level of amenities and they are getting it!

Construction at Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach is in the final stages. Residents are occupying the South Tower and the North Tower and Carillon will begin closings shortly. The hotel is taking reservations for October.

There is a great deal of excitement in the air about the opening of the amazing spa facility. Here is a little blurb that appeared in this month’s INSTYLE magazine ……

Canyon Ranch Spa

The economy and housing situation has been very well documented in all forms of the media. However, Many people see this as a time of opportunity, especially in the luxury oceanfront condo market.

In the luxury oceanfront condo market in a first class building, there have been some incredible opportunities. We recently worked with a buyer at the Diplomat in Hollywood and were able to negotiate an oceanfront condo at an incredible price. This was a high floor direct ocean views. Regardless of what the market does over the next few months, this was a great deal.

There are some very shrewd buyers out there taking advantage of spectacular opportunities.

At this point in time, I wanted to take a look at pending contracts in south Florida in Miami, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles, Hollywood, Hallandale, and Fort Lauderdale. There are 55 luxury oceanfront condos listed above $1million under contract. There are buyer’s out there seizing the moment…….

Here is a list of oceanfront condo’s over $1million under contract as of today, July 30, 2008:

We are periodically contacted by the media for our opinion’s on the South Florida Oceanfront Real Estate market.

Modern Luxury-Miami July/August 2008, published a very interesting article on celebrities attracted to “Mid-Beach”. The mid beach area will be host to the W South Beach, Ritz-Carlton, Cipriani and Gansevoort.

Modern Luxury contacted blogsouthflorida for our comments and opinions. Below is the excerpt.

Recently, our data, statistics and analysis has been helpful to other media sources as well including The Real Deal, and Wall Street Journal.

As reported in the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel, The Related Group announced plans to build a luxury hotel and condominium complex in South Beach with the Orient Express hotel company.

The $150 million South Beach project will have 100 hotel rooms and 28 condos priced from $2 million and is expected to open in three years. The South Beach hotel will bring the number of Orient Express U.S. properties to eight.

This addition will be in good company. The Cipriani, Ritz Carlton, St. Regis, and Canyon Ranch are just some of the luxury hotel condo projects underway. The demand for luxury South Florida Properties continue to be supported by visitors world wide.

As, reported by the Wall Street Journal, a growing number of rich Russians are house-shopping and buying in costly U.S. enclaves. The WSJ states, the “Miami area in particular is drawing Russians with its upscale shopping, hip nightlife and an escape from Moscow’s harsh winters.”

Donald Trump;s $100 million mansion in Palm Beach was recently purchased by fertilizer mogul Dmitry Rybolovlev.

South Florida attracts second, third and fourth home buyers from around the world.  Visitors to blogsouthflorida.com come from every country imaginable.

In the last 6 months there were 10 reported closed sales in the ultra luxury condo market, over $5 million. The most expensive reported sale was at Fisher Island. A 5 bedroom 8900 square foot trophy property sold for $12,360,000. The asking price was $15,500,000. That is a 21% price reduction! As we have written before, there are buying opportunities in this market in all price ranges.

In the ultra luxury market, prices are well over $1000 a square foot and can easily step into the $2000 per square foot range.

There are a few ultra luxury oceanfront condos in pre-construction stages that are also selling in this market. The St. Regis in Bal Harbour, for example, offers a magnificent direct oceanfront 3 bedroom plus media room totaling 3,884 square feet. The St. Regis Bal Harbour Residences, offers the unique Bal Harbour location, all the outstanding amenities and services the St. Regis has to offer, and direct magnificent South Florida Oceanfront views. Asking prices offered for these premier units run around $1,800 square foot. Developers are also somewhat negotiable as well. The St. Regis Bal Harour will be a total of 268 Residences and 36 condominium hotel suites, as well as 183 hotel rooms. The condo-hotel units are sold out. The St. Regis Bal Harbour Information.

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The Ritz Carlton Residences in South Beach, another luxury property offers several floor plans ranging from under 1000 square feet to over 2000 square feet. The penthouse recently sold for $17 million. This is a much smaller project with only 86 private residences. Prices are well over $1000 a square foot. At the Ritz Carlton Residences buyers will enjoy the unprecedented services the Ritz Carlton is known for worldwide as well as the direct ocean South Beach location. Ritz Carlton South Beach Information.

There are other ultra luxury pre-construction projects underway in Miami and South Florida and they are selling to buyers from all over the world.

As we come to the end of June, a 6 month marker for the year, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at the data. We pulled statistical data for Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles, Hollywood-Hallandale, and Fort Lauderdale (which includes Lauderdale by the Sea and Pompano Beach). Each city has its own statistical identity which you will see in the charts.

We used the following criteria for the data:

• Oceanfront Condo
• Built after 2002
• Units with over 1500 square feet under air
• Minimum of 2 bedrooms

We are looking at average asking price, average closed sale price, average percentage sold to asking price and the number of condo sales with this criteria. This information was sourced from the MLS of South Florida.

On average, Miami Beach commands the highest price per square foot.

Bal Harbour, a much smaller geographic area has the highest percentage of selling to asking price. Sellers are less negotiable.

Sunny Isles had the highest number of closed sales. Sunny Isles also has a dense concentration of relatively new oceanfront condos built after 2002.

You can see that Hollywood and Hallandale offer the best prices per square foot.

Fort Lauderdale does not have that many newer oceanfront condos.

A footnote to add, there is always a delay of reporting on closed sales so additional closed sales data for June is expected.

In today’s market there have been great buying opportunities in luxury oceanfront condos as they go through their completion phase. Buyer’s/investors that bought in several years ago, that do not want to close will offer their units at deeply discounted rates. Furthermore the developer will take back some units that they do not want to keep in inventory and they will price these units aggressively as well. This scenario is exactly what transpired recently at One Bal Harbour and at Canyon Ranch. Timing was exactly right for savvy buyers that took advantage of these opportunities and bought in to magnificent oceanfront condos at very attractive prices.

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I anticipate that at the Mei, there will be similiar buying opportunities as well.

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Prices at the Mei Start at the low $700’s. There will only be a total of 134 residences, 8 per floor. with a total of 22 floors.

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The Mei located at 58th and Collins in Miami Beach is in the premium area of “Millionaire’s Row” . Nearby oceanfront condos include Bath Club, Canyon Ranch, Aqua and the Fountainbleu. Mei is midway between South Beach and Bal Harbour and minutes from the airport expressway.

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Mei is a contemporary Asian influenced design. Created by the world renowned Hirsch/Bedner team of interior design, creators of the Mandarin Oriental Hotels around the world. Mei’s elegant entrance lobby is complemented by a unique Tea Lounge and Library, as well as the resident’s Spa and Fitness Center which leads to the oceanfront pool.

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Detailed Information on the Mei In Miami Beach at 5875 Collins Avenue, click here.

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Trader Monthly, a magazine and online information resource, ranked the world’s best trading cities. In today’s world of connectivity, “where you trade matters less than what you trade.” The editors set out to rank 50 of the top cities constructing a matrix that combined a mix of business and lifestyle criteria. The factors included; entertainment, nightlife, recreation, weather, taxes and other factors. Miami ranked 5th in a list of very impressive cities. Here is the ranking of the top twenty:

1. 1. Chicago

   2. London

   3. New York

   4. Hong Kong

   5. Miami

   6. Sao Paulo

   7. Los Angeles

   8. Paris

   9. Toronto

   10. Dubai

   11. Boston

   12. Houston

   13. Dublin

   14 .Monaco

   15. Tokyo

   16. Sydney

   17. Las Vegas

   18. San Francisco

   19. Denver

   20. Dallas

   It is always interesting to read other views on what a great place South Florida is!!!