Seller Patience

Sellers need to be patient because the worst time to sell is right after a building opens, especially in “decorator-ready” projects where owners must install flooring and finishes and “elevators are overused, there is construction traffic, etc.,” said Jorge Perez, founder of Miami-based Related Group, one of South Florida’s most prolific developers. So far, only a couple Icon Bay owners have sold units without making a profit -- probably due to personal financial circumstances, he said.

“When this happens, pricing is affected, particularly in a market that is not booming,” Perez wrote in an e-mail. “Miami’s market has slowed down (but is definitely still active) and sellers need to have the necessary patience to let the project mature and the market to rebound as it has always done in the past.”

The strong rental market is giving many would-be sellers the opportunity to cover their costs. But there’s also a flood of new, professionally managed apartments under construction. And apartment vacancies in the downtown Miami area rose to 11.8 percent in the first quarter, double the rate two years earlier, according to property-data provider Reis Inc.

“The ticking time bomb is based on rental rates,” said Peter Zalewski, owner of CraneSpotters. “When some of the foreign investors sitting on the sidelines have to dig into their pockets and subsidize renters, that’s the fuse that will lead to a correction.”

Black, Griffin

At Faena House, the new Miami Beach tower known for its billionaire residents, those with units on the market include Apollo Global Management LLC founder Leon Black, investor Ken Griffin and former Saks Inc. Chief Executive Officer Stephen Sadove, who recently lowered his asking price by almost 11 percent to $12.95 million.

Some sellers still will make a profit after cutting their prices, said Mark Zilbert, managing broker at the Miami office of Brown Harris Stevens. The exchange rate provides a buffer for some foreign investors. In the past three years, the Brazilian real has fallen 43 percent against the U.S. dollar, and the Venezuelan bolivar declined 37 percent.

Many owners are viewing the new towers with a sense of disappointment because they may not look as fabulous as they did in renderings, and prices haven’t risen as much as they expected, Zilbert said.

“There’s always a glitzy selling process that happens, and they believe it,” he said. “They don’t think about the economy -- they think about the building and how wonderful it will be.”