Inside Fort Lauderdale’s Luxury Condo Boom

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is having its own moment in the sun. New York developers are pouring money into luxury condos as buyers look beyond Miami for more space, lower prices and a different kind of pace. Mickey Naphtali is one of them. He is the chairman and CEO of the Naphtali Group, a New York based developer investing heavily in both cities. Make it great to see you. Thank you for having me. So what is driving Fort Lauderdale? I was telling you in the break, like my kind of thinking, when I think of Fort Lauderdale, I think of, you know, my grandparents who once lived there. They would go visit them. A retirement community whose going into Fort Lauderdale is this? The people in Miami getting pushed out. Is this New Yorker's coming down. What's behind the boom? So that's that's a great question because this is the story about South Florida. And we're going many years ago. That's how it it all started. But everything has changed. And and to me to a point of basically no return because, you know, between Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, they offer so much and the population is changing, getting much younger. You know, the lot of, uh, noise about the companies that are moving and people are moving, but they are not moving only from New York. We see buyers from California, we see buyers from Texas, we see buyers from Chicago. We see, yes, we see buyers from the tri state area. We have a very good reputation in New York. So we you know, by definition, we do see buyers that know us. And they want they are very interested in what we do in South Florida. But but they are not the only one. And it's a, it's a it's a really interesting and fascinating point of time because I think Fort Lauderdale is a little bit behind Miami and Palm Beach. But it's the location is is absolutely amazing. The airport is great. The transportation is great. The bright line connecting between Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Palm Beach, it's the capital, yachting of the world. You know, the beaches are amazing. Boats, yachts, everything is great. So that's where we see. And that's why we're building the Viceroy Residences in Fort Lauderdale. And notably, if you're coming from California and New York, the tax regime is much better, too. Well, what is the mix of what you're seeing of people moving for lifestyle reasons versus like political tax environment? So we see both of course, some of them are moving because of taxes and political. Absolutely. There's no question about that. But it's a lot about lifestyle. Again, you know, the change between those places many years ago where, you know, for retirees and that that moved. No. There's so they offer so much in the lifestyle is just fantastic. So we see both and the demand the demand is is growing. And we see the, you know, people migrating, you know, from other states to, to South Florida. And you're you're busy man Mickey, because you have your New York home. You have Miami, this growing area in Fort Lauderdale. How are you seeing capital split between the various regions, be it South Florida or like doubling down at home? So, look, we are very happy with, with, uh, our investments in, uh, in New York. New York is a different story. Everyone are trying to, you know, to ask me. Okay, so if you developing in Fort Lauderdale what you stop developing in New York? No, no, no, there is no, it's not about competition between, you know, human as human beings, we have different things that we like different. Some people like to be in to being in Fort Lauderdale. Some people like to be in, uh, in New York, also different, you know, age group and whatnot. It just different preferences. And the New York market is strong. You know, even with all the political, you know, environment. The in the South Florida, a market is very, very strong. Fort Lauderdale is getting there. And we're very excited to the political environment. Just how big of a difference has it made with Mayor Mamdani coming in? Because there was obviously so much noise at the beginning. There was a whole Ken Griffin saga to on the ground making what do things look like. So look, I mean, there are two things, right? The mortgage rates, which, you know, that's any not only in New York. Right. So that's really the more the mortgage rates. And that's not a political issue. That's really. Can I afford or not to buy something. And those are usually the entry point. A you know, the first time buyers regarding the the terror attacks. You know, it really depends. Some very wealthy people care about it. And some people say, look, I want to live in New York. Life is too short. That's where I want to be. And that's the end of the story. So there is not a lot of inventory in New York. So because of that, there is not a huge impact at this point of time. And listen, there are a lot of legal challenges out there. We'll see what how everything will pencil out. You know, the it might change. So we don't know at this point what is the biggest bottleneck right now from, uh, rates to construction costs. Diesel now heading higher with the war in Iraq around what is the biggest bottom and I would say rates. That's the biggest issue especially for buyers because look people the population is growing and is long. Where we are focusing is developing in in major cities. There is a huge trend in the last 20, 30 years of people moving from the suburbs to urban kind of cities, right? The problem is that if they can afford to sell their home, they have a mortgage with two, three, 4% and now commit to something to a new mortgage at 7%. What is very nice about new development and devices are in Fort Lauderdale. This is a project that is going to be complete in two and a half to three years. So you don't really need to focus on the mortgage rates today. Now okay. What the mortgage rates will be in two and a half years. Three years I don't know. I don't know if any. I don't think anyone knows. Okay. Maybe before we end, can I ask you then about the other maybe looming threat, whether it is a threat or not in the 2 to 3 years? I mean, we had an analyst coming on today to talk about this idea that all the universe is a bubble. I wonder how much wealth and how much people moving, buying new places in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, New York. What what have you. Is because of the wealth effect. It's because of entrepreneurs, because of people who work for ie companies. How much of it is based on that and how fragile does that mean if some part of it becomes unwound? I, you know, wealth is not only created it through the eye boom. I think we see a tremendous amount of wealth, tremendous amount of wealth going after. And it's pushing the entire market because, okay, it's not only the 20, 30, 40, $50 million apartments and more. By the way, we were selling over $100 million. But not only that. So they're buying. So those that are selling them. So it's pushing the entire market. Right. So those that are getting more for their home or apartment than buying something else and and it goes down the chain, there is a tremendous wealth out there. And, you know, look at how many billionaires today compared to 5 or 10 years ago. And I think one billionaire. Right. Well, amazing story I think. Vicky, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you on. Miki Naftali of the Naftali Group.