Does a different set of rules apply once a building passes 25% short-term rental?
Not as a matter of law. No Florida statute and no Miami-Dade or City of Miami ordinance changes at a 25% threshold. Florida preempts local governments from banning vacation rentals or regulating the duration or frequency of stays under Fla. Stat. §509.032(7)(b), subject to a grandfather for ordinances adopted on or before 1 June 2011. That preemption applies to governments — a condominium association's own authority comes from its declaration, under Fla. Stat. §718.110(13).
Where the percentages genuinely matter is mortgage underwriting. And there, the decisive test is not a percentage at all.
Where the thresholds actually sit
| Threshold | Set by | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| 25% of units, single investor | Freddie Mac | Concentration cap in projects of 21 units or more. Fannie Mae's equivalent is 20%. It addresses who owns the units, not how they are rented. |
| 35% commercial space | Fannie & Freddie | Share of total project square footage in non-residential use. The commercial building here carries roughly 2% of insured value — comfortably clear. |
| 15% reserve funding | Fannie Mae (2026) | Minimum annual reserve contribution as a share of budget. The 2025 approved budget allocates $1,259,697 of $7,186,541 — about 17.5%, above the line. |
| 15% delinquency | Fannie & Freddie | Units more than 60 days past due on assessments. |
| No percentage — hotel-like operation | Fannie & Freddie | A project operated as a hotel or motel, or one that manages daily or short-term rentals, falls outside agency eligibility regardless of how many units are involved. |
What this means for a buyer
Rental density does not disqualify a building by crossing a line — agency eligibility turns on how a project is characterised overall. In any Brickell building with meaningful short-term activity, the sensible sequence is to have your lender check the project's current status before going firm, and to know your alternatives if conventional terms are unavailable. Portfolio, DSCR and specialty condominium lenders are active in this market, typically at lower loan-to-value and higher cost than agency financing.
Cash buyers are unaffected by this question. Financed buyers should treat it as an early item, not a closing-week discovery.
Reading occupancy velocity from the association's budget
There is no published count of short-term rentals in the building. The approved budget does carry one line that serves as a useful proxy.
$1,196,500
16.6% of total association revenue, and the second-largest income line after owner assessments.
≈ 12
Estimated at Florida's $150 statutory cap on transfer fees, across 643 residential units. A conventional long-lease building runs closer to one.
This is an indicator, not a measurement. The line may combine sale and lease transfers, and the per-transfer fee is not disclosed in the budget — both worth confirming with management. Read alongside the fee schedule, it gives a buyer a grounded sense of how the building is used day to day, and a realistic expectation of front-desk activity.
What the governing documents permit, and how the building runs
The recorded Declaration of Condominium (CFN 2004R1038346, O.R. Book 22843, Page 722) contains no leasing restriction. The 2019 Rules and Regulations set out how occupancy is administered.
| Provision | What it means in practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Declaration §10 — Use restrictions | No minimum lease term, no annual cap, no board approval of leases. Use is residential and/or home office, with a maximum of two people per bedroom in permanent residence. | Favorable |
| Declaration §10(a)(6) | No use that violates any law or regulation — so holding the required licences is an association obligation as well as a municipal one. | Requirement |
| Rules §IX.A — Guests | A guest is capped at 21 days and makes no financial contribution; owners sign an affidavit confirming guests are not renters. Paying occupants are processed as tenants. | Process |
| Rules §X.A.3 — Leasing | Each incoming resident completes lease addendums, security and resident forms, with an application fee. Build the screening step into your turnaround time. | Process |
| Rules §II.B — Access | Guests register at the front desk with photo ID, and security cannot release keys to unregistered visitors. Plan for staffed check-in rather than a lockbox. | Operational |
| Rules §X.A.1 — Amenities | An owner who leases the unit does not use the pool, gym or recreation rooms during the lease term. | Note |
| Rules §IX.C — Pets | Pets are permitted for owners only; tenants and guests may not keep animals. Assistance-animal obligations under fair housing law continue to apply. | Listing |
| Rules §L — Moving | Move-in and move-out, and large deliveries, run Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with the elevator reserved 72 hours ahead and a deposit. | Note |
| Rules §XII — Enforcement | Fines of up to $100 per day and $1,000 per violation, following 14 days' notice and a hearing before a committee of owners. | Note |
One structural point worth understanding: a rental restriction must sit in the declaration and be adopted by owner vote — a board cannot create one by rule alone. That makes a permissive declaration more durable than a board policy, though a future amendment would bind anyone purchasing after it is recorded.
The permit stack, in the order it has to be built
Each step feeds the next. The county certificate is the pivot, because it requires the association's written authorization.
| Requirement | Authority | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vacation Rental — Condominium licence | Florida DBPR | Required for stays under 30 days more than three times a year. Approximately $220 in year one; expires 1 October annually in Miami-Dade. Group licences are available across a portfolio. |
| 2 | Sales tax registration | Florida DOR | State sales tax plus county surtax on transient rentals. |
| 3 | Tourist & Convention Development Tax account | Miami-Dade | Applies to any stay of six months or less. Confirm what the booking platform remits and what you remit directly. |
| 4 | Certificate of Use | Miami-Dade | Issued per unit, requires inspection, and requires written authorization from the association for a unit inside a condominium. In place before advertising on any platform. |
| 5 | Business Tax Receipt and zoning confirmation | City of Miami | Lodging use is governed by the Miami 21 transect. In the T6 urban core it is generally available by warrant rather than by right; verify the parcel and any building-level approval on the Miami 21 map. |
| 6 | Balcony inspection certificate | Building department | Required for buildings of three storeys and above, renewed every three years, and part of the DBPR file. |
| 7 | Licence numbers displayed in every listing | State and local | Checked by both booking platforms and code enforcement. |
Florida short-term rental tax disclosure
Short-term rentals in Miami-Dade County are subject to a combined 13% transient rental tax — 6% Florida sales tax, 1% county surtax and 6% Convention and Tourist Development taxes — on stays of six months or less. Any revenue or yield figure quoted for a short-term rental should be understood net of these taxes and of operating costs.
Assessments, reserves and insurance
Monthly assessment by unit type — 2025 approved
| Type C1 (52 units) | $363.92 |
| Type A2 (52 units) | $700.43 |
| Type A1 (262 units) | $706.43 |
| Type A3 (29 units) | $715.82 |
| Type B4 (30 units) | $1,012.97 |
| Type B1 (59 units) | $1,054.90 |
Reserve position
The pooled reserve analysis sets estimated replacement cost across all components at $25.7M, against roughly $3.6M reserved by year end and an annual contribution of $1.26M — leaving $22.2M to be funded over the remaining component lives.
At 17.5% of the operating budget, the contribution sits above the 15% minimum agencies now look for. Several major components carry shorter remaining lives, including the mechanical, HVAC and elevator group at $4.83M of replacement cost.
To size the magnitude: a 0.14592% ownership interest represents about $32,300 of the amount still to be funded. The association funds on a pooled schedule over time, so this is a sizing figure rather than a forecast of any single assessment — but it is the right order of magnitude to carry in an investment case, and the reason to read the reserve study and recent minutes before contracting.
Insurance
The master property programme insures $143.98M of building value with a $10,000 all-other-perils deductible and a 5% named windstorm deductible subject to a $50,000 minimum per occurrence. Coverage is written walls-out, so unit interiors are not covered by the association: an HO-6 policy with short-term rental liability cover is a requirement, not an option. Flood is carried on an RCBAP form at $179.5M in zone AE. Windstorm alone accounts for $1.63M of the 2025 budget — close to a quarter of total expenses, and the line most sensitive to market conditions in any forward projection.
The due diligence list for this building
- Recorded amendments since 2004A title search for Certificates of Amendment. The single item that can change the answer on rental rights.
- Written confirmation of the leasing positionA board response confirming minimum term, any annual limit and screening requirements, together with the association's standard vacation rental authorization letter for the county Certificate of Use.
- Lender pre-read on project eligibilityHave your lender check the project's current status before going firm, and price the alternative if agency terms are unavailable.
- Miami 21 zoning and lodging statusConfirm the transect for the parcel and whether the building holds a lodging approval or warrant.
- Board minutes, twelve monthsRead for any proposed amendment affecting rentals, and for special assessment discussion.
- Milestone inspection and Structural Integrity Reserve StudyBoth drive the assessment trajectory and a lender's view of critical repairs.
- Estoppel certificate for the unitConfirms the account is current and discloses any pending charge or violation attached to it.
- Unit-level dataType, square footage, view line, parking assignment and any existing Certificate of Use — none of which are established at building level.