Condo rule adjustments: A gamechanger for the Florida market?
A practical reform that could make a meaningful difference, she said, is providing brokers and buyers with upfront access to condo questionnaires: the documents that reveal whether a building meets agency guidelines.
Currently, HOAs charge fees to provide these questionnaires, creating both a cost burden and a timing problem.
“If we had access to a library of questionnaires up front and could figure that out, then we could be in a much better place,” Cohn said.
“We’d be able to do a better job of doing our homework and understanding ‘What lender can I take this building to,’ without having to have a buyer pay the money for the questionnaire and get all the condo docs to find out it was never going to be a warrantable project.”
The longer-term outlook for condos in Florida, though, isn’t likely to take a hit. Lifestyle demand for condo living isn’t going anywhere, Cohn said, even despite the tightened lending rules.
