They are second in terms of the number of Latin American buyers. In an interview with TN, Argentine Edgardo Defortuna, CEO of a leading company in the peninsula's real estate market, detailed the area's attractions. Lionel Messi's move to the United States shook the football world with his arrival at Inter Miami , but it also had strong social and economic repercussions. One of them was the impact on the Florida real estate market, where the interest of Argentines in investing in luxury properties grew exponentially. Latin American buyers pumped $15.3 billion into South Florida's residential real estate market in the last fiscal year , up 12% year-over-year. Of that total, Argentines accounted for nearly 8.5% of residential transactions by foreigners in the state. In an interview with TN , Edgardo Defortuna, founder and CEO of Fortune International Group, a leading company in the luxury real estate market in South Florida, said that this interest is due to a combination of factors:
Climate
Lifestyle
Nature
Good infrastructure
Social and legal security
High educational and artistic level
Gastronomic offer
Connectivity with the world and the rest of the United States
In recent times, a special spice has been added for Argentines: the possibility of running into the world football star on the street.
“Messi is a symbol, wherever he goes he attracts attention, and it is clear that he chose a place where you can live well, so of course people are attracted. You see him doing sports activities, but you also see him doing art, in gastronomic activities or even going to the supermarket and you also see him very happy, Antonella is happy, the children are happy, and that helps Miami a lot ,” said Defortuna.
According to data from the Miami Realtors Association , between August 2022 and July 2023, in terms of residential transactions, international buyers accounted for 18% of the total in South Florida, with Argentina in second place after Colombia among Latin American countries. The combined share reached 29% of non-domestic transactions. Defortuna traveled to Buenos Aires to participate in Expo Real Estate Argentina 2024. It presented the eight developments “most appropriate for the demand of the Argentine investor” out of the more than 25 sales marketing projects it has in Miami, but also took the opportunity to learn about the local market.
As he explained, “ Miami’s luxury market has been growing almost exponentially, and especially since the pandemic, it has been magnified, because many people who were temporarily there decided to stay and move their businesses and activities to Miami.” “As all luxury hotel brands are developing residential buildings in the Miami area, this guarantees the buyer a lifestyle, a service, a level of attention to detail that is very important and allows us to improve and impact the way people live. We focus a lot on that and we try to listen to the buyer in what they need and what they want, and implement that in our projects,” he added.
Although he said that “ Argentina has always had a special love for Miami, because people feel at home there,” he acknowledged that Argentines’ investment diversification decisions depend “a lot on how the country’s economic and social situation impacts that type of investor.”
“ Argentines have always liked to invest in Miami and today they are looking for an investment property that can be rented in the short term; that can be put on platforms like Airbnb or Vrbo , among others, because they have the flexibility of being able to be rented with good returns and, eventually, they can be used when needed,” he explained. Something new that the businessman highlighted is the number of Argentine developers who moved to Miami to invest in the luxury real estate market, among them he mentioned “Eduardo Constantini, Sergio Roscoff, the Melo brothers, Jorge Pérez.”
“We have a very important community of Argentine developers, who help each other and who are somewhat the leaders of real estate promotion and development in Miami ,” he described.
Another great attraction he mentioned is that “ Miami’s values, in comparative terms with New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles, are still very attractive and interesting, so it has a very important future; so being able to base yourself or create a company or move part of the activity to Miami has become very fashionable and is something that is happening on a large scale.”
To meet high demand, Fortune International Group is expanding its market to the north of the peninsula.
Are there opportunities in Argentina?
In Argentina, Defortuna led some developments in Córdoba, but admits that it prefers to focus on Miami, which is the market it knows, but also because of the legal security provided by US legislation.
“ I am looking at the Argentine market much more closely and with potentially much more interest. I still think that the conditions are not 100% in place to attract foreign investors, but they are on the right track,” said the real estate magnate.
According to his analysis, in Argentina “ optimism is noticeable , people's intention to start doing things is evident and in terms of absolute comparative values there are many opportunities, because it is still very low in comparative values with other cities.” “Being able to do something would be ideal, but only if the rules of the game remain stable ,” he warned. For the luxury real estate developer, the problem is that since these are long-term investments, you cannot “start with one set of parameters or rules and end up with another.”
“ If this could be stabilized or we could try to assure foreign investors who come to invest capital here that it is stable, it would be a very important hub , because it is clear that the city is spectacular, it is a very good place to live, that the people are educated and cultured and of a very good level; hopefully this could happen in order to expand the market.”
Regarding whether money laundering can boost the real estate market, he stressed that “there have already been others, which work for a while and then sometimes work against you.” “ If this can be stabilized and something can be created that does not create conflicts in the future, you have one of the best countries in the world, with spectacular natural wealth and human wealth as well,” he confirmed.
Taking advantage of his presence in Buenos Aires, Fortune International Group celebrated its 40th anniversary this week at the Faena Hotel. “I hope my son Andrés can celebrate the next 40th in some project that we have completed here. It would be a dream come true ,” he concluded, and the idea excited his son, sitting next to him. Source: https://tn.com.ar/economia/2024/08/16/con-messi-en-miami-crece-el-interes-de-los-argentinos-por-los-departamentos-de-lujo-en-la-florida/
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