Buying Property in Miami as a Foreign Investor — The Complete Guide

Miami is, in absolute terms, the most internationalized residential real estate market in the United States. In any given year, roughly a third of the dollar volume transacted in Miami-Dade County originates with a foreign buyer — Latin American families restructuring out of currency risk, European investors seeking USD exposure, and increasingly Middle Eastern and Asian capital following the same logic. According to the Miami Association of Realtors, foreign buyers transacted approximately $5.1B in Miami-Dade residential alone in the last reporting year, with Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico leading the league table.

What surprises most first-time foreign buyers is how procedurally open the market is. There are no residency requirements, no nationality restrictions, no minimum thresholds, no notification to the federal government for standard residential acquisitions. A Colombian family can close on a $12M Coconut Grove house in 30 days with a wire transfer and a Florida title company; an Italian family can do the same. What requires more thought is the structuring around the acquisition — the choice between personal name, LLC, or foreign-blocker corporate ownership has tax consequences that compound for decades and is almost always cleaner to put in place before signing than after.

This guide walks through what we tell every first-time foreign buyer: the acquisition mechanics, the closing-cost math, the ownership structure decision, the carrying costs (which have repriced sharply since 2022), and where serious international capital actually concentrates inside greater Miami.

What foreigners can buy in Miami

Practically everything. The United States places almost no restriction on foreign ownership of real estate. A foreign individual or company can acquire residential property, commercial property, raw land, or multifamily buildings on the same legal terms as a US citizen. There is no equivalent of Australia's FIRB approval, Switzerland's Lex Koller, or New Zealand's Overseas Investment Act for ordinary residential property in Florida.

The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA) governs the tax treatment on sale, but it does not restrict acquisition. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reviews certain transactions near military installations or critical infrastructure, but standard urban residential acquisitions are not subject to CFIUS review. Florida has enacted limited restrictions on real estate ownership by buyers from a specific list of countries (notably the 2023 SB 264 affecting certain Chinese, Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Cuban, Venezuelan-government, and Syrian buyers within prescribed distances of military bases and infrastructure); for almost every Western European, Latin American, and most Asian buyers this is a non-issue. Always have counsel confirm whether SB 264 touches a specific buyer before signing.

The acquisition process — step by step

A typical Miami residential acquisition follows this sequence, which is mechanical and well-trodden for foreign buyers:

• Property identification — through a licensed Florida realtor, often a specialist working with international clients. Buyer's agents in Florida are typically paid by the seller side; the buyer does not pay the agent directly.
• Offer (AS-IS Residential Contract) — submitted with a binder deposit, typically 1% to 5% of purchase price held in escrow.
• Inspection period — usually 10 to 15 days, during which the buyer may walk away for any reason and recover the deposit.
• Financing contingency — if applicable. Most foreign acquisitions are cash; foreign-national mortgage products exist but typically require 30% to 40% down with rates 100 to 200 bps above conforming.
• Title search and title insurance — handled by a Florida title insurance company or real estate attorney.
• Closing — title transfers; the deed is recorded with Miami-Dade County. Funds are wired to escrow ahead of closing.

From accepted offer to closing typically takes 30 to 45 days for a cash transaction, and 45 to 75 days where a foreign-national mortgage is involved. Foreign buyers should plan on opening a US bank account (or a private bank relationship with US wire capacity) before the closing date — wires originating from non-US banks can be flagged for additional source-of-funds review and create avoidable delay at the title company.

Acquisition costs — what closing actually costs the buyer

Florida closing costs for the buyer are modest by international standards, typically 1.5% to 3% of purchase price all-in. The split between buyer and seller is partly customary and partly negotiated.

There is no transfer tax payable by the buyer in Miami-Dade (the documentary stamp is customarily on the seller). There is no equivalent of Spain's 10% ITP or Mallorca's 11.5% top transfer tax, no equivalent of the UK's 17% top-rate SDLT for non-resident corporate buyers — Miami is structurally cheaper to enter than most European luxury markets.

Ownership structure — the single most important early decision

Foreign individuals owning US real estate directly face two structural problems: estate tax exposure and FIRPTA withholding on sale. Both are significant; neither is intuitive to most first-time foreign buyers.

On the estate side: the US federal estate tax exemption for non-resident aliens is only $60,000, with rates running 18% to 40%. On a $5M Miami house owned personally, the death-time exposure is in the seven figures. There is no equivalent of the $13M+ exemption that US citizens enjoy. Several US tax treaties modify this (notably with France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK) but the treaty relief is rarely complete, and many of the largest source countries of Miami capital (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico) have no estate tax treaty with the US at all.

On the FIRPTA side: when a foreign owner sells US real estate, the buyer is required to withhold 15% of the gross sale price (not the gain) and remit it to the IRS, against eventual capital gains tax owed. The withholding can be reduced or eliminated through withholding certificates and through proper structure.

Most sophisticated foreign buyers structure ownership through a US LLC owned by a foreign corporation (a 'foreign blocker' structure). This insulates against US estate tax (the family's asset is shares of a non-US corporation, not US-situs real estate) and simplifies the FIRPTA position on exit. The trade-off is annual filing complexity and ongoing administrative cost — typically $2,500 to $7,500 per year per property in compliance fees plus Form 5472 filings.

For trophy assets held by a family for multigenerational use, the blocker structure is almost always worth the overhead. For smaller acquisitions below roughly $1.5M, direct ownership may be acceptable — but the decision should be made before signing, not after. Re-titling a property already in personal name into a structure can trigger documentary stamp tax and complicate the FIRPTA position; doing it once, at the start, is materially cheaper.

Ongoing carrying costs — the real shock

Carrying a Miami property is more expensive than most foreign buyers anticipate, and the gap has widened sharply since 2022. The two most significant moves have been in property insurance (windstorm and flood) and in condominium master-association assessments post-Surfside.

For condo buyers the master-association line is now the dominant variable. Post-Surfside (Champlain Towers, 2021), Florida statute requires structural integrity reserve studies on most coastal condos above three stories and three decades old. Many older buildings have issued multi-million-dollar special assessments. We do not underwrite condo product built before 1990 without a full structural review and a clear read on the master insurance policy.

Where serious foreign capital concentrates

Miami is not one market. The neighborhoods where international investor capital genuinely concentrates are narrower than the headlines suggest, and each has its own buyer profile:

• Coconut Grove — old-money Miami, oak-canopied streets, walkable village feel. The single most defensible long-hold residential submarket in greater Miami.
• Coral Gables — Mediterranean revival, deeply zoned, generational holdings. The only fully master-planned premium municipality in South Florida.
• Key Biscayne — a barrier island with a Latin American buyer base; limited inventory, high carrying costs.
• MiMo (Miami Modern, Upper East Side) — the architectural value-add story; midcentury hotels and small-lot residential along Biscayne Boulevard.
• Edgewater and Brickell — vertical, high-rise, transactional. Different thesis than the above; the institutional product where foreign buyers most often get their pricing wrong.
• Design District and Wynwood — emerging mixed-use; institutional pricing in the core, private opportunity in the adjacent fabric.

Outside this list — South Beach, Bal Harbour, Surfside, Sunny Isles — there are pockets of real value but also significant carrying-cost exposure and pre-1990 condo product that requires specific diligence.

What we wish every first-time foreign buyer knew

Three practical things, in roughly the order they matter:

• Set up the ownership structure before you sign. Re-titling later is expensive and can trigger FIRPTA complications.
• Underwrite the carry, not just the price. A $6M house in Miami at $180k/year all-in is a different decision than a $6M house in Madrid at $40k/year all-in.
• Open a US banking relationship before closing. Source-of-funds review on non-US wires is one of the most common closing-delay causes we see.

Frequently asked questions