Seven Of The Nation's Top 10 Luxury Listings Are In Florida – But Trouble Brews For Landlords

As waterfront mansions and luxury penthouses dominate Florida’s high-end listings, a brewing crisis threatens the state’s rental property owners.

The real estate data paints a tale of two Floridas. One is where a $45 million Golden Beach estate with yacht access competes against a $38 million Jupiter Island oceanfront compound for wealthy buyers. Another is where landlords face plummeting rents and soaring costs that squeeze their returns to the breaking point.

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Fort Myers leads the rental market decline with a 13% drop since last November, while Naples, North Port/Sarasota and Jacksonville show similar downward trends in rental rates, according to data from ApartmentList analyzed by Reventure Consulting CEO Nick Gerli. The decline comes as Florida grapples with its most aggressive construction boom since the mid-2000s housing bubble, with builders pulling permits for over 200,000 new housing units at the 2022 peak.

The surge in development comes as operating costs spiral upward. Property insurance premiums, HOA fees and tax assessments have all jumped sharply over the past three years, Gerli said in a thread on X, formerly Twitter, creating a storm for landlords who bought at market peaks expecting continued rent growth.

“Some investors are already dumping properties in Florida as a result of these declining rents,” Gerli said. Vacancy rates have climbed across all Florida markets, rising as much as 5% in Fort Myers and North Port/Sarasota.

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Meanwhile, the luxury market appears unfazed. Seven of the nation’s ten most expensive property listings now sit in Florida, spanning from Palm Beach to Naples, according to a report issued by Realtor.com. Among them, a 10,421-square-foot Key Biscayne penthouse asking $33.9 million and a Lantana estate offering 283 feet of Intracoastal frontage for nearly $35 million.

Only three properties outside Florida cracked the top ten – a $45 million Aspen ranch complete with horses and alpacas, a $24.5 million Wyoming mountain retreat and a $22.5 million Manhattan penthouse.

The contrast points to Florida real estate’s increasingly cyclical nature. Pre-pandemic landlords still enjoy rents 20% to 30% above 2019 levels. However, those who entered during the 2021-2022 boom face mounting pressure from their high-leverage purchases amid declining revenues.

With another wave of apartment completions expected in 2025, industry experts anticipate more investor sell-offs, particularly among recent buyers struggling with debt payments. The situation echoes previous Florida real estate cycles, where timing often determined whether investors struck gold or went bust.

“Florida is a very cyclical market,” Gerli said. “Many investors made a fortune buying into this market from 2008-2019 when it was undervalued. But others stand to lose quite a bit if they bought during the boom when it was overvalued.”

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