Condo buyers shunning older buildings after Florida collapse

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The collapse of the Champlain condo building in Surfside could reverberate through the real estate market in South Florida for months to come, real estate experts say.

The red-hot condo market could cool as buyers might hesitate to buy in older buildings, worried that the buildings have put off maintenance and that mammoth repair bills could be coming, brokers say.

Sellers, meanwhile, might discover they can’t find buyers as quickly as they’d hoped — and can’t get the price they were looking for. Over time, their investments in their condos could shrink.

“I can see property values falling in buildings until they renovate them to put them into a safe structure, not just something that is cosmetically nice to look at,” said Bobbi Ocean, executive vice president at Galleria International Realty in Fort Lauderdale.

The Champlain South Tower collapsed June 24 after numerous engineering reports had warned of concrete deterioration and $9 million in needed repairs. The exact cause could take years to determine, but cities across South Florida are scrambling to ensure their buildings are safe.

It’s too early to say whether condo buyers are setting their sights elsewhere, but experts say fear could douse a condo market that had been boiling.

As of May, condos had reached their highest sales prices since 2012, according to data from RedFin, a national real estate brokerage. The median sale price for a condo in Palm Beach County was $225,000 in May, compared with $180,000 in Broward and $325,000 in Miami-Dade.

Real estate experts say the condo market could slide for six months or so before stabilizing.