Property in USA

Yes, freely. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own US real estate, foreign buyers take the same full freehold title as Americans, and title insurance guarantees that title against defects — a protection most other markets do not offer. The one caveat in Florida is SB 264, which restricts purchases by buyers domiciled in seven listed countries; take advice if that could apply to you. Purchase taxes are low by international standards: Miami-Dade's documentary stamp tax is 0.6% and customarily seller-paid on resales, and a cash buyer's own closing costs typically run 1–2% on a resale or 2–3.5% on new construction including the developer fee.

No. This is the most common misconception about the US market: property ownership confers no immigration status at all, and it does not extend a visa-waiver or visitor stay by a single day. The investment route to residency is EB-5, which is a different thing entirely — a minimum of $800,000 in a targeted employment area, or $1.05m elsewhere, placed at risk in an enterprise that must create ten full-time American jobs. Passive property ownership does not qualify, and the thresholds are inflation-indexed and scheduled to rise, so confirm the current figure before planning around it. Buy US property because the asset works, not for a visa.

Budget roughly 1.7–2% of value a year in Miami-Dade property tax plus condominium association fees — in this market carry cost, not purchase cost, is what shapes net yield. Rental income defaults to 30% withholding on gross rent, but nearly all foreign landlords file Form W-8ECI to elect net-basis taxation, paying graduated rates on income after expenses and depreciation. Florida adds no state income tax, no state capital-gains tax and no state estate tax. Federal capital-gains tax still applies on sale, and non-resident estates face US estate tax above a $60,000 exemption — structure with specialist advice before you buy, not after.

FIRPTA obliges the buyer to withhold 15% of the gross sale price when a foreign person sells US property. It is a prepayment rather than a tax: you reconcile it against your actual liability on a US non-resident return and reclaim the excess, which on a modest gain is usually most of it. Two ways to avoid lending the IRS money in the meantime — the rate falls to 10% where the buyer will use the home as a residence and the price is between $300,000 and $1,000,000, and to zero at $300,000 or less on the same basis; or you apply on Form 8288-B before closing for a withholding certificate that cuts the withholding to the real tax due.

Only if four separate permissions line up at the same time. First, zoning: short-term letting is generally permitted in Miami's commercial and mixed-use transect zones, which covers most new towers but not every residential district. Second, the state licence: Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation requires a vacation rental licence for any whole unit let more than three times in a calendar year for stays under 30 days, or held out as regularly available — around $170 a year. Third, the local layer: Miami-Dade issues a Certificate of Use, roughly $140 and renewed annually, which must be in hand before you list or advertise, and the City of Miami additionally requires a Business Tax Receipt; you then collect the 6% Tourist Development Tax on top of 6% state sales tax and a 1% county surtax. Fines for operating without the full set start at $20,000 per violation and escalate from there. Fourth, and independently of all of it, the building: many Brickell condominiums impose a 30-day minimum or cap how often you may let, and the city ordered a Brickell building to halt unlicensed short-term rentals in August 2026. Get the declaration and the rental policy in writing before you underwrite nightly income.

Older towers are cheaper for a reason worth understanding. Florida now requires a milestone structural inspection at 30 years — 25 within three miles of the coast — and every ten years after that, plus a structural integrity reserve study every ten years, and associations can no longer waive reserves for structural components in budgets adopted from 31 December 2024. The effect is that ageing buildings face real repair assessments and rising monthly fees, which is why buyers have moved toward new, efficient stock with funded reserves. If you do consider a resale, read the milestone report, the reserve study and the last two years of board minutes before making an offer.

On a deposit ladder, and Florida law protects part of it. A new-build contract normally takes an initial deposit at signing, further instalments at construction milestones, and the balance at closing years later. Under Florida Statute 718.202 a developer selling a unit that is not substantially complete must place buyer payments up to 10% of the purchase price into escrow; payments above that 10% go into a special escrow account and may only be used before closing in the limited circumstances the statute allows, which your contract has to spell out. If you terminate in accordance with the contract or the statute, escrowed funds are returned to you with any interest earned. Read which side of the 10% line each instalment falls on before you sign — that is where the protection changes.

Yes. Foreign-national programmes exist that do not require a Social Security number, a US credit file, a US visa or US income, qualifying instead on overseas income and assets, or — for a rental — on the property's own income cover under a DSCR loan. The trade is leverage and pricing: expect a materially larger deposit than a US resident would put down, commonly around 30% and more where documentation is thinner, plus a higher rate and lender fees. Prepare international bank references, proof of funds and identification early, because they take longer than the loan itself. In practice many pre-construction buyers fund the deposit ladder in cash and arrange financing only for the balance at closing.

Decide before you sign, because restructuring afterwards is itself a taxable event. The driver is US estate tax: a non-US person's US-situs assets are exposed above an exemption of only $60,000, at rates reaching 40%. A US single-member LLC does not fix this — it is disregarded for tax purposes, so the analysis looks through to the underlying US real estate and the interest remains in your taxable estate. Advisers therefore tend to reach for a non-US company, because shares in a foreign corporation are foreign-situs property, sometimes with a US entity beneath it; every layer adds income-tax cost and filing obligations, and a US LLC owned by a non-resident must file Form 5472 with a pro-forma Form 1120 each year. There is no universally correct structure — it turns on your domicile, any estate-tax treaty, and whether you intend to hold, let or resell. Take specialist US advice before contract, not after.

Because Florida closed two gaps at once after Surfside, and owners are paying for both. Associations may no longer waive or underfund reserves for structural components in budgets adopted from 31 December 2024, so buildings that had been deferring their reserve contributions had to start collecting them properly, and buildings with structural work identified in a milestone inspection or reserve study have had to fund it. At the same time association insurance premiums have climbed steeply, and Miami-Dade high-rise fees now commonly run into four figures a month. The practical consequence for an investor is that carry cost, not purchase price, is what decides your net yield. Ask for the current budget, the reserve study and the insurance renewal history, and model fee growth rather than assuming today's figure holds — newer towers with fully funded reserves carry far less step-change risk than ageing stock.