What a Miami condo actually costs you in property tax

The most expensive surprise in Florida real estate is not a special assessment. It is the second property tax bill, and it arrives about fourteen months after closing. A buyer looks at what the seller pays, budgets for that, and inherits none of it — because the assessment resets to full market value on the January 1 after the property changes hands. There is a cap that limits how fast it can climb afterward, it is 10 percent rather than the 3 percent homeowners talk about, and it does not apply to roughly half the bill.

Published September 9, 2026

This page is about a second home, an investment unit or a pied-à-terre — any Miami condominium that is not your permanent Florida residence. If it is your homestead the rules are different and better, and this page will say where.

1. Why the seller's tax bill tells you almost nothing

An owner who has held a Miami condominium for eight years has eight years of the 10 percent limitation compounding in their favor, and their assessed value can sit far below what the unit is worth. That is a real, lawful benefit and it belongs entirely to them.

Section 193.1554(5) ends it at the closing table. Property assessed under the section is assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership or control — and the statute is broad about what counts: any sale, foreclosure, transfer of legal title or of beneficial title in equity to any person, or the cumulative transfer of control or of more than 50 percent of the ownership of a legal entity that owned the property. Buying the LLC instead of the condo does not avoid it.

2. The exceptions, which are narrower than people hope

Section 193.1554(5) lists the transfers that do not trigger a reassessment at just value:

• Transfers made to correct an error
• Transfers between legal and equitable title
• Transfers between spouses, including to a surviving spouse or on dissolution of marriage
• For a publicly traded company, cumulative transfers of more than 50 percent through ordinary trading of shares on a public exchange — not through a merger or acquisition

Estate planning, holding-company reorganizations and gifts to children are not on that list. If a structure matters to you, it is a question for a Florida attorney before the deed is drawn rather than after.

3. Improvements are assessed at just value too

Under 193.1554(6)(a), changes, additions or improvements to nonhomestead residential property are assessed at just value as of the first January 1 after they are substantially completed. A full interior renovation is capital work with a tax consequence attached, and it is assessed on its own rather than absorbed into the capped base.

There is one carve-out worth knowing: 193.1554(6)(b) provides a different treatment for improvements replacing property damaged by a disaster, which may be assessed using the prior year's assessed value under defined conditions.

4. The cap does not cover the school levy, and that is close to half the bill

This is the part that gets left out, and it is not a technicality. Section 193.1554(2) grants the limitation "for all levies other than school district levies." Every year the assessment climbs to full just value for school purposes regardless of the cap, and only the non-school portion is held to 10 percent.

The scale of it, from the adopted 2025-26 budgets:

A mill is one dollar per thousand of taxable value. Set the school levy beside the county levies and it is the single largest line, and the one the cap does not reach. A condominium inside a municipality carries that city's millage on top of the county's, which is why two units of the same value in different cities produce different bills.

5. What this changes about the carrying cost

Property tax is usually the second-largest fixed cost on a Miami condominium after the association fee, and unlike the fee it is not printed anywhere in the listing. It moves with the price you pay rather than with what the building charges, which means the tax on two identical units in one tower differs by whatever the two owners paid.

• Carrying cost calculator — run the tax at just value rather than at the current bill
• What the return on a unit actually depends on — yield, carrying cost, letting rules and assessment risk
• Why the association fee moves — the other large fixed cost, and the one with a vote behind it
• Insurance, and where the statutory line falls — the association insures the building as originally installed; your renovation is yours
• Special assessments — the cost that is neither fixed nor announced
• If you are letting it and not a US resident — 30% of gross, or the section 871(d) election on the net

What this page does not do

It does not compute your bill. The taxable value, the exemptions that may apply to you, the municipality and any non-ad-valorem assessments on the parcel all move the number, and the Property Appraiser publishes the millage tables by municipality and district for exactly that reason. It also does not cover homestead, portability or the 3 percent Save Our Homes limitation, which are a different section of law for a different situation.