Miami condos are "for sale" for foreign buyers

By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - Canadian retiree Sheldon Kovensky felt the lure that attracts so many foreign buyers to sunny Florida these days -- falling prices for luxurious oceanfront condos that can be bought with weak U.S. dollars.

Kovensky has been scouring south Florida from Miami Beach to Palm Beach in search of a three-bedroom apartment on the sand. Armed with a Canadian dollar that has gained 25 percent against the greenback in the last two years, he is expecting a big bargain.

"We're hoping to get an apartment worth about a million (U.S. dollars) that I can purchase for about 20 percent less," he said by phone from his home in Unionville, Ontario, as he faced digging out from a snowstorm.

"The Canadian dollar is on par and the Florida market has dropped 20 to 30 percent, so you get a lot of bang for your buck," he added.

Realtors, analysts and buyers say the strength of the Canadian dollar, the euro and other foreign currencies, on top of a falling real estate market, is making the United States an enticing place for foreigners looking to buy property.

In fact, they say, the combination of the weak dollar and the allure of Miami as a cosmopolitan, multilingual city may be helping to prop up a faltering, overbuilt condo market that had been expected to crash but has seen, to date, only a small drop in prices compared to other Florida cities.

In a study by the National Association of Realtors last year, Florida was the top destination for foreign buyers, accounting for 26 percent of all transactions, ahead of California at 16, Texas at 10 and Arizona at 6 percent.

More than 7 percent of all Florida homes were sold to foreigners, the study found, and 65 percent of realtors said they had brokered at least one foreign deal.

Online property auction site FastHomeAuction.com in December reported a record number of foreign visitors, citing the weakness of the dollar as a key contributor.

FOREIGN SHOPPING SPREE

Jan de Vetten, a Dutch toy trader who has built a side business helping friends and business associates buy Florida homes, said that in some cases they are getting properties at half price.

"They negotiate typically 25 to 30 percent off the asking price and the euro is almost a dollar and a half now, so they probably have another 10 to 15 percent in value," he said.

Foreign buying was also reported brisk in Arizona, New York and elsewhere.

In New York, Manhattan's average sales price soared to a record $1,439,909 in the fourth quarter last year as foreigners pushed up demand.

In Phoenix, cash-toting Canadians are snapping up second properties, mostly high-end homes on golf courses as refuges from the harsh winter, agents said. Many hail from Calgary, Canada's oil boomtown.