Developers bought a plot of land to build apartments in a Florida metropolitan area where rent growth has topped the rest of the country.
The Altman Cos. announced it bought roughly 9.5 acres from Baptist Health South Florida in Miami’s Kendall neighborhood to build a 342-unit mid-rise apartment property to be name Altra Kendall.
It will be Boca Raton, Florida-based Altman’s second apartment development in the area. The developer opened Altis at Kendall Square about 2 miles away in 2014. Altman has two others under construction in South Florida, one in Miami and the other farther north in Lake Worth.
Altman, 50% owned by Fort Lauderdale-based BBX Capital Real Estate, plans to add to the more than 23,500 apartment units CoStar shows under construction in the Miami metropolitan area, or 13% of the total number of existing units. That would be on top of the 22,000 units that have been added the past three years.
Miami’s rents have been among the highest in the country over the past couple years with job growth paving the way. The pace hit a record for the region at 18.4% annual growth in the first three months of this year, when average vacancy fell to record low of 2.8%.
Rent growth has cooled to 7.8%, according to CoStar data. That’s still roughly more than double historical averages.
In the third quarter, a record 3,904 units were added to the region to help push vacancy higher. But it is at just 4.4% so far this quarter, lower than the national average of 5.9%.
By Richard Lawson
CoStar News
