Here's a conversation I have almost every week. A client sends me a rendering — glass tower, infinity edge, a chef's name attached to the lobby — and the message says: "Agu, should I get in early on this?" Then three days later the same client sends me a resale listing in a building two blocks away that's been sitting for ninety days and asks why it's forty percent cheaper per foot. Both questions are the same question. And the honest answer is that most people are choosing between preconstruction and resale based on how a rendering makes them feel, not on what the two purchases actually are.
So let me lay it out the way I lay it out at my kitchen table with a client, because Miami is one of the only cities in America where these two markets are running in completely opposite directions at the same time.
The Split Nobody Explains to You
Right now, Miami-Dade is carrying close to 13 months of existing-condo supply, and resale condos have been closing around 93% of original list price. That is, by any textbook definition, a buyer's market. You have inventory. You have sellers who priced to last year's optimism and are now watching their listing age. You have room to negotiate.
Meanwhile, the preconstruction side of the same city is behaving like there's a shortage. In just the first half of 2026 we watched 619 Brickell by Nobu and Anantara Miami launch sales, The Lincoln Coconut Grove and 14 ROC Miami break ground, and at Colette Residences in South Brickell a single buyer spent roughly $15 million combining four homes into two custom duplexes. Nobody in that world is asking for a discount.
Both of those things are true in the same market on the same day. That's not a contradiction — it's the tell. Resale is a market of units. Preconstruction is a market of scarcity. And you negotiate very differently against each one.
Miami's resale condos sit near 13 months of supply and close around 93% of original list — that's where you negotiate. Preconstruction is where the developer sets the price and the best lines go first — that's where you commit early or not at all.
What Preconstruction Actually Costs You
This is the part the rendering never shows, and it's the part I make every client sit with before they get excited. Miami preconstruction runs on a staged deposit schedule tied to construction milestones — and the numbers are far bigger than most buyers assume walking in.
Take the structure on a marquee Brickell tower launching this year: roughly 40% of the purchase price due before you ever close. A refundable reservation deposit up front. 10% at contract. Another 5% around ninety days later. 15% at groundbreaking in 2027. 10% at top-off in late 2028. Then the remaining 60% at closing — with delivery projected for 2030.
Read that again. On a $2 million residence, that's $800,000 of your capital committed and largely non-refundable, spread across four years, in a building you cannot walk through, cannot rent, and cannot sell in the meantime without the developer's blessing. I'm not saying don't do it. I've had clients do exactly this and do very well. I'm saying you'd better know that's the trade you're making.
| Preconstruction | Resale |
|---|---|
| Developer controls the price sheet | Seller's motivation controls the price |
| Little to no room on headline price | Real room — closings near 93% of list |
| ~40% of price committed before closing | Standard deposit, close in 30–60 days |
| Delivery 3–4 years out | You have keys this quarter |
| Brand-new reserves, code, insurance profile | Existing reserves and assessments to vet |
| Buying tomorrow's Miami | Buying today's leverage |
Where Resale Quietly Wins
Everybody wants the new tower. Fewer people notice that the boring resale unit is often the better trade — and I mean that in the most respectful way.
With resale, you're negotiating against a human being with a reason. Someone's relocating. Someone's carrying two mortgages. Someone's unit has sat past eighty days and every week of silence is chipping at their conviction. That's leverage you can actually use, and in this market I use it constantly. You also get to see what you're buying — the actual light at 4pm, the actual noise from the street, the actual neighbors. No rendering ever told the truth about a hallway.
And you get the thing preconstruction can't give you at any price: time. You own it now. It's appreciating now. If you're relocating to Miami, your family is living in it now instead of renting for four years while your deposits sit in escrow earning nothing for you.
The Question I Ask Before Either One
Now let me put my insurance hat on, because this is the fork where I've watched smart people get hurt on both sides.
On the resale side, the danger is the association. The exact conditions creating Miami's condo leverage — reserve-funding requirements, rising master-policy costs, deferred maintenance coming due — are the same things that turn a "great price" into a five-figure special assessment eighteen months after you move in. I don't let a client celebrate a negotiated number until I've read the reserve study, the pending assessments, and the master insurance coverage. A discount in an underfunded building isn't a discount. It's a bill with a delay on it.
On the preconstruction side, the danger is your own balance sheet. Tying up 40% of a purchase price across four years is a liquidity decision before it's a real estate decision. I've sat with clients who could absolutely afford the condo and still shouldn't have made that particular commitment, because it left them with no cushion if their business had a bad year. Buying the home is step one. Protecting the family is step two. If step one eats step two, we did it wrong.
Pick preconstruction when you're placing capital on Miami's next decade, you can carry the deposit schedule without straining your liquidity, and you believe in the developer's track record more than the rendering. Pick resale when you want a home this year and want the market's leverage in your pocket. Just never confuse which one you're doing.
How I'd Sum It Up
Preconstruction is a bet on Miami. Resale is a negotiation in Miami. I'm bullish on both — the capital pouring into new towers is telling you exactly where the smart money thinks this city's next decade lives, and the companies and executives that keep relocating here aren't slowing down. But a bet and a negotiation require completely different temperaments, different timelines, and different amounts of cash sitting still.
The buyers I watch win in Miami aren't the ones who guessed right on the market. They're the ones who were honest about which game they were playing before they signed. Know your timeline. Know your liquidity. Then let me pull the real numbers on the buildings on your list — the supply, the closed sales, the financials, the developer's history — before anybody names a price.
That's the whole philosophy: buy the home at the right number, protect the family inside it, build something that lasts. Whether that's a resale you negotiated hard or a tower that doesn't exist yet, I'll tell you the truth about which one is actually yours.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is preconstruction or resale better in Miami right now?
They answer different questions. Resale is where the leverage lives today — Miami-Dade is carrying close to 13 months of existing-condo supply, and condos have been closing near 93% of original list, so a prepared buyer can negotiate. Preconstruction is where the scarcity lives: a developer controls the price sheet, the best lines sell first, and you're buying a building that doesn't exist yet at tomorrow's design standard. If you need a home this year and want negotiating room, resale wins. If you're placing capital on Miami's next decade and can wait three or four years for delivery, preconstruction can make sense — as long as you can carry the deposit schedule without straining your liquidity.
How do Miami preconstruction condo deposits work?
Miami preconstruction runs on a staged deposit schedule tied to construction milestones, and the totals are far higher than most buyers expect. On a marquee Brickell tower launching in 2026, the structure runs roughly 40% before closing: a refundable reservation deposit, 10% at contract, another 5% around 90 days, 15% at groundbreaking, 10% at top-off, and the remaining 60% at closing — with delivery years out. That money is committed and generally non-refundable once you're past the rescission window. So the real question isn't whether you like the building. It's whether you can commit that capital for four years and still sleep at night.
Can you negotiate the price on a Miami preconstruction condo?
Rarely on the headline price — developers protect the price sheet because every closed contract sets the comp for the next release. Where there is room is everywhere else: unit and line selection before the good ones go, incentives on deposit structure or closing costs, developer credits, and the timing of when you get in relative to price escalations. Early buyers in a building the market believes in are usually paying the lowest price that building will ever see. That's why the work happens before you sign — vetting the developer's track record, the delivery timeline, and the projected carrying costs, not haggling after the fact.
Agu Ukaogo
South Florida Luxury Realtor & Wealth Protection Strategist. FL Real Estate License SL3588365 | Insurance NPN 22138920. One of the few advisors in Miami licensed in both real estate and insurance. HomeWithAgu.com · (305) 791-0812