Buying Property in Miami as a Foreigner: The 2026 Guide

There is no citizenship or residency requirement to buy real estate in Florida, and no visa or immigration status comes with the purchase. What changes for a foreign buyer is everything wrapped around the transaction: a federal reporting filing on most all-cash entity purchases since March 1, 2026, no homestead exemption and a 10 percent rather than 3 percent assessment cap, a US estate tax exposure that begins at $60,000, FIRPTA withholding on the eventual sale, and one Florida statute that restricts purchases by certain foreign principals outright.

Updated 21 August 2026Published 19 August 2026

Miami absorbs more of this activity than anywhere else in the country. In the National Association of Realtors' report published July 29, 2026, foreign buyers purchased 67,100 existing US homes for $45.3 billion between April 2025 and March 2026, with Florida taking 20 percent of that volume — first among all states. Forty-eight percent of those purchases were all cash, at a median price of $465,000. The same report records the total down 19.1 percent year over year, which is the first thing an honest guide should mention.

What Florida actually restricts

Chapter 692 of the Florida Statutes, enacted as SB 264 in 2023, restricts the purchase of Florida real property by defined "foreign principals" of certain countries. The provisions in s. 692.204 reach the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party and their officials and members, and also any person domiciled in the PRC who is not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.

The statute carries a narrow exception. A natural person in that category may purchase one residential parcel of up to two acres if the parcel is not on or within five miles of any military installation in Florida, and the buyer holds a valid US visa or official documentation confirming asylum status. Separately, owners covered by the chapter must register with the Department of Commerce, with a civil penalty of $1,000 for each day a registration is late. Violating the purchase restriction is a third-degree felony, knowingly selling to a purchaser covered by the restriction is a first-degree misdemeanor, and the state may bring forfeiture proceedings.

This has been litigated hard. On November 4, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit decided the challenge to that law — Shen v. Simpson, No. 23-12737, also reported as Shen v. Commissioner, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — rejecting the argument that the law is preempted by federal foreign investment authority — the court found the effect on foreign affairs "minor or incidental" — and holding that the registration requirement, while an alienage classification, survives rational basis review. The core provisions remain enforceable.

Two practical points. Every buyer of Florida real property now signs an affidavit at closing regarding chapter 692; that requirement applies to all purchasers, not to a subset. And this is a question for a Florida real estate attorney before a contract is signed, not a question for a real estate licensee. Fair housing law applies in full to how I work with buyers; chapter 692 is a statutory closing requirement, and the correct response to it is competent legal counsel, not guesswork.

Paying for it

Most Miami condominium purchases by foreign buyers are cash, and the NAR figure above is a fair proxy for why: financing a US property without a US credit file is possible, but it is a different product. Conventional conforming financing generally assumes a Social Security number and a domestic credit history. Foreign national programs are portfolio products, priced by the individual lender, and I will not quote a rate or a down payment percentage on a web page — those move, and a stale number in a guide is worse than no number.

What does not move is the documentation set: passport and visa, a foreign credit report or international bank references, two years of foreign tax returns or their equivalent, verified reserves, and often a US bank account opened before application. Build four to eight weeks into the timeline for it.

Financing also adds two Florida taxes a cash buyer never sees. Documentary stamp tax on the note runs 35 cents per $100 of the obligation under Fla. Stat. s. 201.08, and a nonrecurring intangible tax of 2 mills per dollar — $2 per $1,000 — applies under s. 199.133. On a $600,000 mortgage that is $2,100 plus $1,200, or $3,300 in tax that exists only because you borrowed.

Transfer tax: Miami-Dade is its own animal

Documentary stamp tax on the deed is 70 cents per $100 in every Florida county except Miami-Dade, where the rate is 60 cents per $100 plus a surtax of 45 cents per $100 that does not apply to single-family dwellings.

A condominium is not a single-family dwelling. The surtax applies. On a $1,000,000 Edgewater condominium that is $6,000 plus $4,500, or $10,500, against $7,000 on the same price in Broward. Local custom in Miami-Dade is for the seller to pay the deed stamps, but custom is not law and it is negotiable — read the contract rather than assuming.

Property tax: no homestead, and a 10 percent cap

This is the line item foreign buyers underestimate most consistently.

Florida's homestead exemption requires, as of January 1, that the applicant hold title, maintain the property as a permanent residence, and be a US citizen or permanent resident, per the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser. A buyer who does not meet those conditions gets none of it: not the first $25,000, not the additional $25,000 that excludes school board taxes, and not the Save Our Homes assessment cap that comes with it.

Instead, Fla. Stat. s. 193.1554 applies: assessed value on non-homestead residential property may not increase by more than 10 percent in a year. Ten, not three. And on a change of ownership the property is reassessed at just value, which means the seller's long-capped assessment does not travel with the deed.

The practical error follows directly. Buyers budget from the seller's current tax bill, which may reflect fifteen years of a capped assessment on a property now worth several times its assessed value. Budget from just value at your purchase price. On a bayfront condominium that difference can be five figures a year, and it is not a surprise anyone should be having in November of their first year.

The reporting rule that changed in March 2026

FinCEN's residential real estate rule took effect March 1, 2026, having been postponed from December 1, 2025 in an announcement dated September 30, 2025. It requires a report on non-financed transfers of US residential real property to a legal entity or trust, filed by a designated reporting person in the closing chain, unless an exemption applies.

Read the four conditions together — residential, non-financed, to an entity or trust, no exemption — and you have described the classic Miami purchase: an all-cash condominium taken in the name of a newly formed Florida LLC.

The consequence is worth stating plainly, because the market has not fully absorbed it. An LLC purchase is no longer a privacy structure. It now generates a federal filing that identifies beneficial owners. There remain good reasons to hold property in an entity — liability separation, estate planning, multiple owners — and they are unaffected. Anonymity is not one of them any more, and a structure chosen for that reason alone is now cost without benefit.

Estate tax: the $60,000 line

A US citizen or domiciliary has a federal estate tax exemption in the millions. A nonresident who is not a US citizen has an exemption equivalent of $60,000 on US-situated assets — and the IRS explicitly lists real estate located in the US among those assets. Above that threshold, the executor must file Form 706-NA.

Applied to a $1.5 million Edgewater condominium held personally by a nonresident, essentially the entire value sits above the line. Treaty relief exists between the US and a number of countries and can change the analysis substantially; whether one applies to you is a question of fact and citizenship, not of general reading.

Two things follow. Deal with this before closing, because restructuring ownership afterwards is itself a taxable transfer with its own doc stamp and tax consequences. And do it with a cross-border tax attorney rather than a company formation service — the structure that minimises estate exposure is frequently not the structure that minimises income tax, and choosing between them is the actual work.

FIRPTA: the exit cost, planned on day one

When a foreign person sells US real property, the buyer must withhold 15 percent of the gross sale price under section 1445 and remit it to the IRS by the 20th day after closing. The rate falls to 10 percent where the price is between $300,001 and $1,000,000 and the buyer will use the property as a residence, and to zero at $300,000 or less on the same residence condition.

Note "gross." A seller who sells at a loss still has 15 percent of the full price withheld. A Form 8288-B withholding certificate can reduce it, but the IRS normally acts on an application by the 90th day, which means it must be started at listing rather than at closing. The mechanics are set out in FIRPTA explained.

The carrying costs nobody quotes

The purchase is the easy part. In an Edgewater tower the annual figure is the association fee, plus your own unit insurance, plus non-homestead property tax at just value, plus any special assessment the building has voted.

Florida's reserve rules have made that fee less predictable than it was in 2019: for budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, associations may no longer waive reserves for structural items. I set out what that means and how to read a budget in why Miami condo fees went up, and the wider statutory picture is in the 2026 Florida condo law guide. If you are buying in a building delivered before 2010, read those before you write an offer.

What a purchase does not buy: status

Owning US real estate confers no visa, no residency and no right to remain in the United States. A buyer admitted as a visitor remains subject to the terms of that admission whether or not they own a condominium. The E-2 and EB-5 programs are separate and have their own requirements; a passive condominium purchase does not satisfy either. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.

A realistic sequence

1. Retain a Florida real estate attorney and a cross-border tax adviser before you make an offer. Decide the ownership structure first.
2. Apply for an ITIN if you do not have a US taxpayer identification number. It is needed for tax filings and often for the closing paperwork.
3. Open a US bank account. International wires into a closing carry compliance holds; build in time.
4. If financing, start the foreign national loan application before you go under contract.
5. Under contract: order the building documents — budget, reserve study, milestone report, twelve months of minutes.
6. Confirm who is filing the FinCEN report, if one is required, and confirm the chapter 692 affidavit.
7. Wire fraud is the single largest practical risk at closing. Verify wire instructions by telephone using a number you obtained independently, never one contained in an email.

The case against

A guide that only lists steps is advertising. Here is the other side.

Foreign purchase volume fell 19.1 percent in the twelve months to March 2026, on 14 percent fewer homes. Edgewater in particular is absorbing recently delivered inventory, and a buyer who needs to sell inside three years is taking a real risk on timing that no one can price for them. Carrying costs are the part that surprises people: association fee, unit insurance and non-homestead tax together frequently exceed what a buyer assumed, and none of it is deductible against income the buyer does not have in the US. On exit, FIRPTA immobilises 15 percent of gross proceeds unless the paperwork was started months earlier.

None of that is an argument against buying. It is an argument against buying on the assumption that the exit will be quick and clean, and against choosing a building before reading its budget. I do not make claims about future values, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

Frequently asked questions

Working with me

I work in English and French — there is a full French-language section of this site — and my core market is Edgewater and the bayfront corridor — including buildings such as Elysee Miami at 788 NE 23rd Street. If you are buying from outside the United States and want the tax and structural questions raised before a contract rather than at the closing table, see how I work with buyers or get in touch.

General information about US and Florida law, tax and published market data, not legal, tax or immigration advice. I am a licensed real estate sales associate, not an attorney, a CPA or an immigration adviser. Verify current statutes, rates and thresholds at the source and retain qualified professionals for your own transaction.