What sponsors should know about Florida.
Florida is one of the deepest institutional CRE markets in the country and the highest-volume Sun Belt state by transaction count and dollar volume. Six metros. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Naples-Fort Myers, and the broader Treasure Coast, each support meaningful institutional CRE pipelines, and the state has been the leading destination for domestic in-migration in the U.S. for the past five years.
South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach) combines a global capital story (sustained inbound investment from Latin America, Europe, and the Northeast U.S.), the Wynwood-Brickell-Edgewater financial-services migration that accelerated through 2020-2024, port logistics through PortMiami and Port Everglades, and one of the most supply-constrained urban geographies in the country given the Atlantic and the Everglades. Class A multifamily and trophy office are among the highest-priced product in the U.S. outside of New York and the Bay Area.
The I-4 corridor (Tampa, Orlando) is the workforce-housing and industrial heart of the state. E-commerce and retail distribution, theme-park hospitality, and a meaningful tech and financial-services growth story across both metros. Jacksonville is the logistics and operations-center metro, anchored by the Port of Jacksonville, a Class I railroad headquarters, and a deep insurance and financial-services base. Naples-Fort Myers is the high-end coastal market, with sustained institutional multifamily and grocery-anchored retail demand. Insurance availability and pricing, driven by Hurricane Ian and the broader Florida property-insurance crisis, is the central post-2022 underwriting variable on every Florida deal and has materially affected lender sizing on coastal product.
How each property type prices in Florida.
Multifamily Financing in Florida
Capital markets advisory for Florida multifamily properties. Agency, bridge, and bank financing in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Tampa, and Orlando.
Industrial Warehouse Financing in Florida
Capital markets advisory for Florida industrial properties. Port-adjacent, last-mile, and build-to-suit financing in Miami-Dade, Jacksonville, and Tampa.
Office Property Financing in Florida
Capital markets advisory for Florida office properties. Financing for Brickell, Wynwood, Tampa Westshore, and Downtown Orlando institutional office assets.
Hospitality
Orlando theme-park-adjacent and Miami trophy hospitality draw specialty hospitality lender competition. Coastal resort hospitality (Naples, Sarasota, Destin) is more selective post-Ian.
Retail
Grocery-anchored neighborhood centers across all six metros draw deep life-company and CMBS appetite. Power centers and lifestyle centers in higher-income coastal submarkets remain liquid.
Bridge debt by Florida city.
Each city page covers the working LTC band, spread to Term SOFR, term and basis ranges, the active local-and-regional lender options, common takeout paths, and the specific underwriting items lenders price as discrete line items.
Primary Florida cities
Tampa bridge loans.
Orlando bridge loans.
Active lender options, takeout paths.
Jacksonville bridge loans.
Active lender options, takeout.
Secondary Florida cities
Naples bridge loans.
Sarasota bridge loans.
Fort Myers bridge loans.
Pensacola bridge loans.
Tallahassee bridge loans.
Gainesville bridge loans.
Ocala bridge loans.
Lakeland bridge loans.
Daytona Beach bridge loans.
Active lender options, takeout paths.
How property insurance gates Florida CRE financing.
Primary perils: Named storm · Flood · Storm surge
Residual market
Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
Named-storm / catastrophe deductible band
5% to 10% tier-one coastal counties; 3% to 5% non-tier-one
Lender treatment
Citizens base wind + private excess wind to full replacement cost; excess flood required above NFIP. CMBS / agency may tighten DSCR floors 25 to 50 bps on coastal assets.
Notes
Confirm Citizens eligibility (admitted-market declination tests) and assessment exposure at LOI. Wind deductible buy-down policies common at 0.20% to 0.50% of TIV.
- Pillar: property insurance as financing gatekeeper →
- Tool: state insurance gating matrix →
- Hub: property insurance and CRE financing →
Educational only, not insurance, legal, or tax advice. Engage a state-licensed commercial property broker, lender's counsel, and (where applicable) a seismic engineer or wildfire-modeling specialist before LOI on every catastrophe-exposed deal. Bands and pool structures illustrative; confirm at the deal level.
Which lenders compete in Florida.
Florida is one of the deepest institutional CRE lender markets in the country. Every major agency originator, national life company, CMBS desk, bridge debt fund, and construction lender treats Florida as a core market and maintains active Florida origination teams. Sponsors routinely draw 8 to 12 institutional bids on a well-positioned $10 to 40M Florida multifamily or industrial deal, among the deepest competitive lender pools available in any U.S. market.
Florida-headquartered regional banks and a deep concentration of community banks across the state compete aggressively on smaller-balance and construction product. Insurance carrier appetite has been the central narrative since Hurricane Ian, premium pricing on coastal multifamily and hospitality has materially affected lender-sized debt service coverage and is the most important variable in current Florida underwriting alongside the agencies' DSCR floors. Sponsors with proven Florida insurance procurement processes draw materially better lender response than first-time-in-state sponsors.
Frequently asked questions
How is the Florida property-insurance crisis affecting CRE financing?
Materially. Hurricane Ian (September 2022) and the broader Florida property-insurance market reset have driven coastal multifamily and hospitality insurance premiums up 50 to 200%+ in many submarkets, and have caused several national carriers to exit or sharply restrict Florida coastal capacity. Lenders model the higher premiums directly into underwritten NOI, which has materially compressed sized proceeds on coastal product. Sponsors with proven Florida insurance brokers and policies in place at acquisition draw better lender response than those underwriting on placeholder premiums. Inland Florida product (the I-4 corridor and central Florida generally) has been less affected than coastal.
What is driving the Miami office market's resilience?
Sustained financial-services migration from New York, Connecticut, and the broader Northeast, hedge funds, private equity, family offices, and a meaningful concentration of crypto and Web3 firms have established or expanded Miami offices since 2020. The Brickell and Wynwood-Edgewater submarkets have absorbed materially more new office than the broader U.S. office market and continue to draw institutional lender competition on stabilized Class A product. The migration appears structural rather than cyclical at this point, though lender underwriting still incorporates conservative assumptions on long-term renewal.
What is the typical Florida multifamily LTV in the current market?
70 to 80% LTV for stabilized agency execution across all six major metros. Workforce-housing assets routinely support 80% on agency programs. Coastal product is more selective on the upper end of leverage given insurance-driven NOI compression, sponsors with proven insurance procurement and conservative underwritten premiums draw better leverage outcomes than those without. Bridge debt funds will go higher on value-add product where the going-in basis supports the stabilized refinance.
How active is Florida industrial financing?
Highly active. PortMiami, Port Everglades, Port of Tampa, and Port of Jacksonville logistics, combined with the Orlando-Lakeland I-4 distribution corridor, draw deep life-company, CMBS, and bank competition. The I-4 corridor in particular is treated by national life-company desks as a primary industrial market on par with the major Texas and Atlanta industrial submarkets. Sponsors typically draw 6 to 10 institutional bids on stabilized institutional Florida industrial.
Are Florida commercial loans typically non-recourse?
Yes for institutional executions. Agency, CMBS, life-company, and most national debt-fund executions are non-recourse with standard bad-boy carve-outs. Construction and bridge loans from Florida regional banks frequently require partial recourse during construction or lease-up.
What is Florida's transfer tax structure for commercial property?
Florida imposes a documentary stamp tax on deeds of $0.70 per $100 of consideration (0.70%) statewide, with Miami-Dade County imposing $0.60 per $100 plus a $0.45-per-$100 surtax on non-single-family transactions. Florida also imposes documentary stamp tax on promissory notes and intangible tax on mortgages. Total transfer-and-mortgage tax burden is roughly 1.0 to 1.2% of consideration plus loan amount on most commercial deals, meaningfully higher than most Sun Belt states and a real closing-cost input.
What construction debt is available in Florida right now?
Multifamily construction is most active across the I-4 corridor and inland Florida where the going-in basis supports stabilized refi and insurance underwriting is less acute. Industrial construction along the major port corridors and the I-4 distribution corridor draws bank, life-company, and debt-fund competition. South Florida coastal multifamily construction is more selective given insurance-driven cost increases. Hospitality construction is highly selective and concentrated in Orlando and trophy coastal product.