Residential rental demand in Miami stays hot

Overall, the Miami residential rental market remains very hot and housing is still in high demand, according to local real estate experts.

Inventory levels are continuing to remain low because Miami-Dade is a beneficiary of both domestic and foreign immigration, said Carlos Villanueva, district sales manager and broker for The Keyes Company.

“We have our own little kind of micro-economy here in South Florida,” he said, “as a result of the demand from being the Wall Street of the south, with Citadel moving here out of Chicago, Goldman Sachs and several other very important financial companies.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s initiative to make the city the FinTech capital of the world has also contributed to home rental high demands, Mr. Villanueva said.

“We have a high absorption of property even with low inventory, and therefore you end up with higher prices,” he added. “What we’re seeing is that the absorption or the vacancy rates across the board are all quite low, all under 3% and 6%, roughly.”

In areas that are agglomerated, which means to live, work and play in close proximity, those activities command higher pricing, Mr. Villanueva explained, citing areas such as Miami Beach, Coral Gables and Doral.

“In the near future, inventory is going to remain low,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who have decided to stay in their homes much longer because of the refinancing during the boom of the pandemic.”

There are currently 25,459 homes in Miami-Dade County listed as rentals. The median rental rate for a one-bedroom home is $2,373, a two-bedroom is going for a median rate of $2,962, and three-bedrooms are listed at around $3,700, according to a Miami Association of Realtors update-to-date statistics data report for the Miami rental market.

In November, there were 39,238 active rental home listings in Miami. A one-bedroom median rental rate was going for $2,101, a two-bedroom for $2,606 and three-bedroom rates were at around $3,235, according to the association’s Miami rental market data report.

Even though inventory will remain low, overpriced homes on the market may remain listed a little bit longer because renters, as well as buyers, are putting up resistance when it comes to certain pricing they are not willing to pay, Mr. Villanueva said.

“Miami has grown up as one of the bigger metropolitan cities in the world, not just in the United States,” he said. “But, if you live in London, in New York City, San Francisco, or LA, you’re definitely paying a higher cost of living. It’s just a natural part of the city growing up.”