Macklowe paid $32M for the property, financed the deal with a $39M loan
Harry Macklowe
New York developer Harry Macklowe is looking to sell one of his development sites in Miami, The Real Deal has learned.
The 1.7-acre sliver of land, fronting U.S. 1 between Simon Property Group’s Dadeland Mall and Jeff Berkowitz’s Dadeland Station, marked Macklowe’s first major purchase in South Florida when he acquired it about two years ago.
The property is approved for 770 residential units in two 25-story towers. A number of new apartment towers have been recently built or are planned in the area.
Macklowe tapped a Berkadia team led by Jaret Turkell, Roberto Pesant and Omar Morales to list the site near Dadeland Mall unpriced, according to the listing. The brokers declined to comment. Macklowe did not respond to requests for comment.
A company tied to Macklowe paid $31.9 million for the Dadeland site in April 2022, and financed the deal with a $39.2 million loan from Fortress Investment Group.
A number of developers and investors have listed their development sites for sale in recent months, in part because of high interest rates, construction costs and soaring expenses like insurance. Land prices peaked between 2021 and 2022, and started falling in the second half of 2022.
Macklowe, CEO of New York-based Macklowe Properties, has had his share of troubles in New York. In the fall, he avoided foreclosure of his personal residences at 432 Park Avenue after putting the entity that controls his equity stake in the units into bankruptcy protection. He’s also been fighting a Hamptons zoning board over more than 20 code violations against his East Hampton home. The property, which the developer recently listed for $38 million, is uninhabitable because it has no certificate of occupancy.
In South Florida, Macklowe is also partnering on a joint venture development with Miami-based Related Group in North Bay Village. Macklowe’s involvement in assembling the waterfront land, including the purchase of a waterfront co-op and units at an older condo building that was deemed unsafe, have been mired in litigation. The Pérez family’s Related is leading the planned development of the assemblage, which is expected to include hundreds of luxury condos.
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Estate agents have bolstered for sale stock levels by nearly 20% in some counties in England as overall market conditions continue to improve.
Research from eXp UK reveals that during the closing stages of last year (Q4, 2023), the total number of homes for sale across England sat at an estimated 665,986 – a 5% increase on the previous year, with almost 34,000 more homes listed for sale on Rightmove across the nation.
HOMES LISTED
The number of homes listed by the nation’s estate agents increased across 90% of English counties, with just Surrey, London, Berkshire, Durham and Bristol seeing a reduction.
Both the East Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire sit top of the table in this respect, with both counties having seen an 18% increase in the number of homes listed for sale on an annual basis.
Across Herefordshire, there were 16% more homes listed for sale on the market, while Shropshire and Northumberland saw a 15% increase. Other areas to make the top 10 include Cornwall (+14%), Derbyshire (+14%), Devon (+13%), Staffordshire (+13%) and Rutland (+13%).
CYCLICAL NATURE
Adam Day (main picture), Head of eXp UK, says: “Any estate agent worth their salt will know that times of uncertainty and downturn are part and parcel of working within the property market. But due to its cyclical nature, these times of hardship don’t last forever.
“It’s fair to say that the last year has been a testing one, but all things considered, the market remains in a very strong position and we’re now starting to see conditions improve with mortgage approval and house prices on the up.”
And he adds: “The very best agents will have been anticipating this return to form and rather than sit tight while the market was quiet, they will have been hard at work building their for sale stock portfolio.
“Now that buyers are starting to return, it’s these agents that are ready to hit the ground running and take advantage of improving market sentiment, rather than playing catch up.”
The number of rental listings throughout the country has slipped to historic lows, and vacancy rates remain tight across the states and territories. However, micro-markets chart their own path, and regional economic factors can cause localised fluctuations that may see rental availability open up at a certain point in time.
The firm has released a list of the top 10 suburbs with the greatest year-over-year change in new rental listings, finding that inner-city areas that have recently been home to some major building are now starting to bear fruit in terms of added rental supply.
These were the suburbs with the greatest increase in rental listings between December 2022 and December 2023:
1. Haymarket, NSW – 118.2 per cent
2. Morayfield, Qld – 79.2 per cent
3. Newstead, Qld – 76.2 per cent
4. Zetland, NSW – 71.6 per cent
5. Spring Hill, Qld – 68.8 per cent
6. Redbank Plains, Qld – 50.8 per cent
7. Palm Beach, Qld – 50 per cent
8. Hurstville, NSW – 48.4 per cent
9. St Leonards, NSW – 48 per cent
10. Pakenham, Vic – 47.2 per cent
Haymarket, right in Sydney’s bustling centre, led all suburbs nationally, more than doubling the number of rentals available from December 2022 to December 2023.
Newstead in inner north Brisbane was also a standout performer, experiencing a 76 per cent surge in rental supply.
Renters in Zetland, situated in the inner south of Sydney and Spring Hill, located in inner north Brisbane, also saw a healthy uptick in stock, experiencing increases of 71 per cent and 61 per cent respectively.
As Megan Lieu, economic analyst at REA Group, highlighted many of these suburbs have also benefited from the resurgence of central business districts, and forecast the kind of growth that is often attractive to investors.
But she noted, however, the causes behind overall rental supply decline are widespread factors that will hamper this kind of growth if not enough is done to stimulate change.
“The pace of new home construction is insufficient for the current level of demand. High material, labour and financing costs are contributing to decade-low rates of dwelling approvals and commencements,” Ms Lieu said.
“While investor lending and buying are trending upwards, investors are still selling at higher rates than in pre-pandemic times, putting pressure on stock availability,” she added.
As these trends persist, the economist warned that the likelihood of seeing significant growth in rental supply in the near term is low, and that even with minor fluctuations, renters will continue to face challenging conditions in the long term.