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<\/p>\nWith tens of thousands of luxury apartments opening across South Florida and competing for the same tenants, rooftop pools and tricked-out fitness centers\u00a0are the\u00a0standard \u2014 and not enough to fill up a building.<\/p>\n
Virtual DJs, private event spaces, wine storage and karaoke rooms are all on the menu for developers looking to stand out from the crowd. But\u00a0high interest rates and construction costs and flattening rents present a math problem for lavish freebies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to look at amenities as a luxury product, but we also have to be financially responsible to see how we can build that in so that people will enjoy it, but also pay for it,\u201d\u00a0Cymbal DLT Cos. CEO Hector Delatorres said Tuesday at Bisnow\u2019s Multifamily Summit in Dania Beach.<\/p>\n
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\n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n
\n There has been a burst in multifamily development.\n <\/p>\n
Luxe amenities differentiate projects\u00a0among the thousands of apartment units set to deliver over the next two years, but\u00a0they are also\u00a0an opportunity to counteract the downward pressure on rent as a result of oversupply, panelists said.<\/p>\n
\u201cConverting the amenities to a profit center, and I’m not talking about a lot of money, but at least it’s not costing money,\u201d Delatorres said onstage at the Design Center of the Americas<\/a>. \u201cBecause the problem with developers is you build the amenity, but you don’t get paid for it. You can only get so much rent.\u201d<\/p>\n Cymbal DLT, which delivered the\u00a0341-unit Laguna Gardens<\/a> in Miami Gardens earlier this year, is\u00a0planning a 598-unit, 35-story<\/a>\u00a0multifamily tower in Midtown Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n Delatorres said new plans for a multifamily project include a market in the lobby powered by artificial intelligence, allowing tenants to access last-minute items like milk, butter, wine or beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe lobby mart is now a profit center,\u201d he said. \u201cThe event space is now a profit center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The concept of luxury is shifting from large units to lush amenities, Delatorres said, which allows developers to\u00a0shrink unit sizes<\/a>\u00a0and boost price per square foot. As rents are\u00a0softening<\/a>\u00a0and construction\u00a0costs are climbing<\/a>\u00a0nationally, developers who\u00a0are still looking to build need to find ways to juice revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Developers are spending more to charge more, which is almost necessary in a market where rent has decreased by almost 6% over the past year, according to an October Zumper report<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n \n Blue Stream Fiber\u2019s Sam Reynolds, Bazbaz Development\u2019s Albert Price, Cymbal DLT\u2019s Hector Delatorres, Kolter Multifamily\u2019s Jeff Quinlivan, W5 Group\u2019s David Storch and Shawmut Design and Construction\u2019s Alexis Leal.\n <\/p>\n Bazbaz Development, which is planning a 37-story, 364-apartment Live Local Act project<\/a> in Wynwood Norte<\/a>, is spending double on amenities now compared to five or six years ago, Chief Operating Officer Albert Price said.<\/p>\n Out-of-the-box features, like a robotic pool service arm or a virtual DJ that plays music on the weekends, can be enough to charge an extra $50 a month, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of developers who don’t do it find themselves offering three months to $1K to move in [tenants],\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n Miami apartment owners are offering on average six weeks of free rent, according to RealPage rental housing economist Jay Parsons<\/a>, and Florida markets make up nearly half of the 20 cities with the highest rates of concessions.<\/p>\n Parsons wrote that Florida, like many markets with high concession volumes, struggles with low rent-to-income ratios despite strong absorption trends, but \u201csupply volumes are significant, creating heavy competition for leases.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n \n Greenberg Traurig\u2019s Danielle Gonzalez, FCP\u2019s Bruce Gago, Dansker Capital Group\u2019s Andrew Dansker, Affiliated Development\u2019s Nick Rojo and Shoreham Capital\u2019s Doug Faron.\n <\/p>\n In Miami alone, more than 15,000 apartments have hit the market this year, Multifamily Dive reported<\/a>, putting it among the 10 most active cities for deliveries nationwide.<\/p>\n More is set to come. As of August, Miami-Dade had more than 23,000 units under construction, Fort Lauderdale had nearly 10,000 units under construction, and Palm Beach had just\u00a0over than 3,000 units under construction, according to Cushman & Wakefield data analyzed by Miami Realtors<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes me nervous is that there\u2019s so many submarkets \u2014 I\u2019m thinking of downtown Fort Lauderdale \u2026 and definitely Downtown Miami \u2014 there’s just thousands of communities that are still waiting to be delivered into an already concessionary environment,\u201d FCP<\/a> Senior Vice President Bruce Gago said. \u201cMakes me very nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n The supply cliff is looming, causing construction starts to drop 27% nationally since 2024, hitting a decade low in the U.S., according to an August report by RealPage<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Chloe Gallivan\n <\/p>\n \n Ivy Risk Strategies\u2019 Lisa Holt, Day Pitney\u2019s Steven Wernick, The Estate Cos.\u2019 Jeffrey Ardizon, Bozzuto Management Co.\u2019s Jessica Barnes and Bluenest Development\u2019s Salim Chraibi.\n <\/p>\n But\u00a0in Miami, apartment construction surged over the summer<\/a>, with 7,257 units permitted between July 2024 and 2025, more than any other place tracked by RealPage in its analysis of Census Bureau data<\/a>.<\/p>\n Investors are growing increasingly wary<\/a> of the region’s multifamily market \u2014 a national dynamic as they seek less risk and more guarantee<\/a> on returns \u2014 causing equity to dry up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n