Venezuela's miami property connection

When politics grow heated in Latin America, house buyers from the Panama Canal to Tierra del Fuego flock to Miami searching for a secure place to park their assets. In recent times, Venezuelans particularly have been coming to the town in throngs. Since the Miami Association of Realtors started to trace sales to foreign purchasers in 2006, Venezuelans have acquired more Miami property than Brazilians, Argentinians or residents of any other country globally. Related : Buy or hire? 10 major cities The purchasing commenced in earnest when Hugo Chavez started running the country in 1998. While the Socialist president was considered a hero among the working-class, many well off Venezuelans considered him a tyrant. The fears of disturbance surrounding his October 2012 reelection caused another infusion of Venezuelan cash into the Miami real estate market. Local realtors joked at the time that Chavez should have been named Miami's "Salesman of the Year," according to Matthew Martinez, a local property financier and principal of Beacon Hill Property Group. After Chavez died in March of the present year, the ensuing election that put his successor, Nicolas Maduro, in office also fired up fears -- and more home purchasing in Miami. Left-of-center congressmen elected in Bolivia and other Latin American states have encouraged wealthy subjects of those states to have a look for a safe haven in Florida as well. And, stockholders from Brazil and Argentina, where the economies are booming, are also putting their excess cash in safe Florida real-estate. Related : 10 big, booming towns As a consequence, Miami has become known generally as a "global gateway," much like New York and San Francisco, that pulls deep-pocketed investors from all over the world, recounted Neisen Kasdin, a real estate development lawyer and former mayor of the town of Miami Beach. The influx of consumers, combined with the industrial recovery in the U.S, has made a dramatic turn-about in Miami's home market. Sales of single-family homes in Miami climbed 10.3% during the first 3 months of 2013 compared with Twelve months earlier and prices jumped 23%, according to the Florida Organisation of Realtors. About Forty five percent of single-family home sales and 77% of apartment sales were made in all money, reflecting the heavy foreign presence. More than 90% of sales to foreigners in Miami are made in cash. "Two years back, Miami was the poster kid for distressed real estate in the United States," said Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, an estate valuer and expert. "It has now morphed into a luxury brand." All but Six hundred of the 23,000 bubble-era condos that once languished on the Miami market have been sold, in the opinion of the Miami Association of Realtors. "That old inventory is essentially gone," declared Kasdin. Related : Fastest-growing boomtowns During the 1st week of May, 5 new apartment projects in downtown Miami launched their pre-construction sales campaigns. Among them was the boutique condo building Le Parc at Brickell, where units range from 622-square-foot studios starting at $280,000 to 1,566-square-foot, 3 bedrooms for $699,000. The units have access to a rooftop pool and jacuzzi and out of doors kitchen and feature high ceilings and imported tile floors. "People who need to retire and play a round of golf, that is not Miami," said Alan Ojeda, a local developer and creator of Rilea Group who's building a 44-story condo in downtown Miami. "The city is stuffed with youth, with life, with music. The biggest difference now, is that the South americans are not just parking their assets here, they're parking their families as well."