Florida is becoming the center of serious interest from international real estate investors. Starwood Land Ventures, an international real estate investment firm, has just completed a deal with one of the major developer in the USA, Lennar, for the development of more than 2,700 home sites in 38 communities across Florida. These are land parcels that constitute one of the most desirable portfolios come to market in years. Starwood Land Ventures had acquired the whole package at a bankruptcy auction last January and now it is planning to work with Lennar to develop first-time homebuyer, master planned, active adult and premier golf course communities in the Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Southeast Florida markets.

The biggest international real estate deal in Florida will create new development.

This means that development activity is beginning again with single-family homes, townhomes and garden villas priced in the low $100,000s of the above mentioned markets that are already rich in foreclosures and discount properties. The plan apparently is to undercut the offering from banks that provide repossessed or shortsale properties requiring various degrees of repair, and providing instead competitively priced single family homes that are brand new and ready to be purchased by first time home buyers.

Lennar hasn’t disclosed the timing of the project, but it is already remarkable that international funds are triggering new massive development efforts in the state of Florida.

Roberto Mazzoni