As reported in The Real Deal.

After months of skyrocketing luxury single-family sales, condo developers are starting to reap the benefits of the surge in ultra-wealthy out-of-towners moving to South Florida.

Until recently, much of the luxury sales and rental activity has been concentrated in waterfront single-family homes, as residents of the Northeast have flocked to South Florida during the pandemic. But as inventory dwindles, some buyers are now turning to new luxury condos projects, scooping up multimillion-dollar units, with a desire to close quickly, brokers and developers say.

Last year, the region’s condo market was saddled with high inventory, and developers offered a slew of incentives to boost deals. By the fourth quarter, condo/townhomes sales in Miami-Dade jumped more than 30 percent compared to the same period in 2019, to 282 sales, according to the Keyes Luxury South Florida market report.

And demand for condos shows no sign of slowing in the new year, brokers say.

At the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum in downtown Miami, two units sold in January. A tech investor from San Francisco bought penthouse 5001 for $16 million, and a hedge funder from New York bought a half-floor unit on the 47th floor for $6.3 million.

Both are relocating for tax purposes and quality of life. The deal marks the second most expensive condo sale to ever close in the city of Miami, following David and Victoria Beckham’s nearly $20 million purchase at One Thousand Museum last year.

Other deals are in negotiations, according to Louis Birdman, a co-developer of the 62-story, 84-unit luxury condo tower along with Gregg Covin, Gilberto Bomeny, Kevin Venger and Todd Michael Glaser. Buyers are hailing from California, the Midwest and the Northeast.

Farther north, at the Sapir Corp.’s Arte by Antonio Citterio in Surfside, the developer sold the penthouse for $33 million in December, and recently sold two other units for $16 million and $10.2 million each, said Giovanni Fasciano, a co-developer of the building.

A buyer from the West Coast purchased the larger unit, a furnished, six-bedroom duplex condo, for its $16 million asking price. Unit 202, with nearly 7,000 square feet of interior space, includes two kitchens, a master suite overlooking the ocean, and a nearly 1,500-square-foot wraparound terrace. Dean Bloch of Douglas Elliman represented the developer in the sale.

The smaller unit, 501, sold for $250,000 above the asking price to a private equity executive from New York, according to Fasciano, who declined to name the buyers. In many cases, the buyers work in tech or finance and are increasingly requiring confidentiality on their deals, often buying in trusts or hidden LLCs.

Fasciano said that buyers are “realizing the convenience of living in a luxe building” versus a single-family home. The building is 50 percent sold, with eight units remaining.

At the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Miami Beach, Lionheart Capital secured a buyer for one of its penthouses for $15 million, CEO Ophir Sternberg said. An unnamed hedge funder from Chicago and his family, who are relocating, paid cash for the unit, which spans 6,300 square feet with an additional 8,500 square feet of terrace space.