Villa Valencia in Coral Gables Magazine
April 16, 2019.
Villa Valencia was recently included in a feature in Coral Gables Magazine discussing the strength of the foreign market in development.
The Foreign Factor
As Developers Build Condos, and Real Estate Agents Stage Homes for Sale, a Critical Question is how Strong the Foreign Market Will Be
Included below are clips from the article;
Real estate developer Rishi Kapoor has yet to break ground on his luxury condo project Villa Valencia in Coral Gables, but his team already is preparing to make sales presentations this month in Mexico. Kapoor expects roughly 20 percent of buyers for his condos to come from overseas, each plunking down at least $1.65 million for a spacious, three- to six-bedroom unit.
It’s a common pursuit across the City Beautiful: Luring buyers from Latin America, Europe and beyond for residential real estate, augmenting the pool of South Florida and out-of-town U.S. customers for condos and single-family homes. “Foreign clients have, for years, been a big part of the pool of buyers for real estate in Coral Gables,” says Jeff Gross, who is in charge of real estate financing for Gables-based BAC Florida Bank. But these days, signing those contracts is not as easy as it once was.
Mexico ranks as “target No.1” for foreign buyers at the Villa Valencia project that Kapoor’s Location Ventures will soon build at 515 Valencia Ave. The group is developing a 13-story tower with 39 estate-sized condos, the kind of unit popular among offshore buyers who like room for family. One Sotheby’s International Realty is handling sales and starts presentations at its recently opened Mexico City office in April, says Kapoor.
“Many countries in Latin America, Europe and other regions go through cycles, when their economies are hot and they’re looking to deploy cash overseas, or when there’s political or economic stability and there’s capital flight,” says Kapoor. “In Mexico, the economy has been rising, and there’s a certain amount of political uncertainty, which are both driving affluent buyers to look in South Florida” Kapoor says his team also is talking with clients from the United Kingdom, as that country grapples with exiting the European Union. Plus, they plan to seek buyers from Colombia and Chile among other Latin American nations that have long viewed South Florida as a safe hub for businesses and homes.