The DeMarco Real Estate Group at RE/MAX 5 Star Realty serves owners across South Florida with commercial and residential brokerage and property management. Here is what is happening in the market right now and what it means for your property decisions.
Interest rates and financing
Financing is moving. Two large deals closed in the past 30 days that signal lender confidence in South Florida fundamentals. Walker & Dunlop arranged $238 million in refinancing for Landmark South Apartments in Doral. Greystone provided $167 million in construction financing for an affordable housing tower in Miami. These are not small loans from cautious lenders. Institutional capital is active here.
Borrowers with strong assets and solid income are finding lenders willing to engage. Owners considering a refinance, a sale, or a 1031 exchange should price their options now. Rates remain a factor, but deal velocity in South Florida is proving that motivated capital finds a way.
Commercial real estate: retail
Publix paid $83 million for a retail plaza near Miami International Airport. This is a deliberate strategy: Publix is acquiring shopping centers anchored by its own stores. That removes supply from the investment market and compresses cap rates on grocery-anchored retail. If you own retail with a strong anchor tenant, your asset is worth more attention today than it was a year ago.
Kava bars are expanding aggressively across South Florida. Kratom product offerings are driving traffic and differentiation for these concepts. Alternative wellness retail is filling spaces that traditional tenants vacated. Landlords with smaller inline vacancies have a new pool of credit-qualified tenants to evaluate.
Commercial real estate: office
Moishe Mana paid $89 million for a Fort Lauderdale office building. That is a significant bet on the Broward office market at a time when national headlines still question office demand. Ken Griffin’s $1 billion-plus acquisition of Mana Wynwood, tied to a Carnegie Mellon University campus, adds an institutional education anchor to Miami’s urban office and mixed-use pipeline. South Florida counties are also exploring leasing shuttered school buildings to developers, which could add repositioned office and mixed-use product to the pipeline over the next several years.
Commercial real estate: industrial
Industrial remains tight across Miami-Dade and Broward. Our current inventory includes 12 industrial listings, reflecting limited availability rather than limited demand. Owners of industrial assets continue to hold pricing power. Lease renewals are an opportunity to reset rents to market. Owners who have not reviewed their lease terms recently should do so before their tenant’s renewal window opens.
Commercial real estate: multifamily
The $238 million Doral refinancing and the $167 million affordable housing construction financing are the two most telling data points this month. Lenders are underwriting South Florida multifamily at scale. Doral, in particular, continues to attract institutional interest tied to its corporate and logistics employment base. Multifamily owners across the region should know their current asset value before making any hold-versus-sell decision.
Commercial real estate: senior housing
Senior housing is real estate built and licensed to house and care for older adults: independent living communities, assisted living facilities (ALFs), and memory care, along with the home health care agencies that serve seniors in their own homes. In Florida, assisted living facilities are licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration, so a sale involves the property, the operating business, and the license together.
The DeMarco Real Estate Group currently has six assisted living facilities and two home health care agencies listed for sale. See our senior housing listings.
South Florida’s senior population continues to grow. The region’s combination of climate, healthcare infrastructure, and in-migration from northeastern states sustains demand for senior housing product at all price points. Owners of properties that could be repositioned for senior housing, assisted living, or memory care use should request a broker opinion of value that includes alternative use analysis.
If you own an assisted living facility, buyers today are paying for operations as much as for the building. Occupancy, staffing stability, licensed bed count, and inspection history all drive value. Before you decide whether to sell, get a valuation that looks at the real estate and the business together, and start organizing your financials, census reports, and AHCA survey history now. Read our guide to selling an assisted living facility in Florida.
Residential real estate
The luxury segment is active. A $23 million Boca Raton estate sold as the buyers relocated to West Palm Beach. Larry Ellison quietly purchased homes near his Manalapan compound for staff. An auto insurance executive found a buyer for a West Palm Beach waterfront mansion. These transactions reflect continued demand from high-net-worth buyers who are making deliberate location decisions within South Florida, not exiting the region.
Our residential inventory currently includes 66 condominium listings and 55 single-family residences, along with 10 townhomes. Buyers remain selective. Properly priced properties are moving. Overpriced listings are sitting. Owners who last priced their home more than 90 days ago should request a current broker opinion of value.
What we are seeing in our own listings
The DeMarco Real Estate Group is led by John DeMarco, CCIM. The team has been recognized as the #1 RE/MAX Commercial team in Florida for 13 consecutive years, 2013 through 2025, and #1 RE/MAX Commercial team worldwide in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2026. Our current active inventory includes 241 listings: 96 commercial and 145 residential, with 143 for sale and 98 for lease. See the current listings here.
What this means if you own property
- Institutional capital is active in South Florida multifamily and retail at significant scale.
- Office is recovering selectively, with major anchors like Carnegie Mellon and large private buyers like Mana driving confidence.
- Grocery-anchored retail is being removed from the investment market by owner-users like Publix, tightening supply for investors.
- Industrial owners retain pricing leverage. Review lease terms now.
- Senior housing demand is growing with the region’s senior population, and ALF buyers are pricing on operations. Owners should know what their facility is worth before an offer arrives.
- Luxury residential demand is intact but location-specific within the region.
- Financing is available for strong assets. Refinancing may outperform a sale in the current environment for some owners.
Questions owners are asking this month
Should I sell my retail property now or wait?
Grocery-anchored retail is attracting strong buyer interest, as Publix’s $83 million acquisition shows. If your retail asset has a creditworthy anchor tenant, pricing conditions are favorable. A broker opinion of value will give you a current number to compare against your hold strategy.
Is the office market in South Florida recovering?
Selectively, yes. Large private capital and institutional education anchors are committing to South Florida office in a meaningful way. Asset quality, location, and tenant mix are determining which buildings benefit. Not all office is recovering equally.
My residential property has been listed for several months without an offer. What should I do?
Buyers in the current market are choosing carefully. Listings that are not moving are typically priced above what the current buyer pool will support. A fresh broker opinion of value, grounded in recent comparable sales, is the right first step before making any pricing or strategy decision.
What is my assisted living facility worth?
It depends on the facility’s income as much as the building. Buyers look at net operating income, occupancy, licensed bed count, staffing, and inspection history, then price the facility on that income and its risk. Two ALFs of the same size can sell for very different prices. We provide confidential valuations for ALF owners that cover the real estate and the operating business together.
Want to know what your property is worth in this market? Request a free broker opinion of value or call (954) 453-1000. The DeMarco Real Estate Group at RE/MAX 5 Star Realty, 1901 Harrison Street, Hollywood, FL 33020.
Sources: The Real Deal, Bisnow, REBusinessOnline, Commercial Observer, Connect CRE, and our own listings data as of October 1, 2026. This update was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by The DeMarco Real Estate Group. It is general market information, not an appraisal or investment advice.
