By Gay Cororaton, MIAMI REALTORS Chief Economist
Key Takeaways
- Rising rental occupancy lifts in-place rents by 2% in the Miami market area and 2.3% in the Port St. Lucie market area.
- However, completions coming into the market are putting a downward pressure on rent growth and on landlords offering concessions, with 10% of units offering concessions, equivalent to 9% of the rent.
- Asking rents in Southeast Florida are rising while asking rents in other major Sunbelt markets like Austin, Dallas, and Phoenix have fallen year-over-year.
Download the November 2025 Southeast Florida Rental Market Report HERE.
Rental demand is fundamentally strong, with occupancy rates up from one year ago in all Southeast Florida market areas, led by the Miami market area with an occupancy rate of 94.9%.
With strong demand, In-place rents on buildings with over 50 units in Southeast Florida’s market areas rose in November 2025 from one year ago. In-place rents rose 2.0% year-over-year in the Miami market, 1.6% in the Fort Lauderdale market area, 1.6% in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton market area, and a strong 4.4% in the Port St. Lucie market area.
Renewal rents rose at an even stronger pace of 2.2% in the Miami market area, 3.6% in the Fort Lauderdale market area, 2.1% in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area, and a searing 7.5% in the Port St. Lucie market area.
Rising in-place and renewal rent growth indicate that landlords are still perceiving strong retention among existing tenants, with 68% renewal rate, even as the renewal rate has declined from over 70% from one year ago.
However, completions are outpacing absorption, particularly in the Miami and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton market areas, putting downward pressure on new lease rents. Rents on new leases are at -0.1% from one year ago in the Miami market area, at -0.9% in the Fort Lauderdale market area, at -4.0% in the Port St. Lucie market area. There is a gain to lease with negative new lease trade-outs in all market areas.
With renewal rate declining from one year ago, tenants are attracting to new tenants and bolstering occupancy by offering concessions, with 10% of units offering concessions in the Miami market area and roughly 15% of units offering concessions in the Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, and Port St. Lucie market areas. The concessions amount to about 8% to 9% of rent and as high as 17% in the Port St. Lucie market area.
Intense construction activity underway is likely to put further downward pressure on rent growth and offering concessions as landlords try to maximize retention and attract new tenants. As of November 2025, Yardi Matrix tracks about 27,326 units under construction, accounting for 6,5% of existing units in buildings with over 50 units.
In contrast, asking rents rose at a slower pace or declined in Sunbelt metropolitan areas like Charlotte (-0.5%), Orlando (-0.6%), Houston (-0.6%), Dallas (-0.8%), San Antonio (-2.1%), Phoenix (-2.2%), Denver (-3.6%), and Austin (-4.6%).
Vacancy rates hover at 8% to 10% in several Sunbelt markets, with the highest vacancy rates in the metropolitan areas of Austin (9.7%), Port St. Lucie (9.4%), San Antonio (9.3%), and Charlotte (9.0%), according to Apartment List data.
Asking rents in November 2025 rose at the strongest year-over-year pace at over 5% in the metropolitan areas of San Francisco (5.9%), Chicago (5.8%), and New York Metro (5.3%). These metropolitan areas have some of the lowest vacancy rates hovering at about 5% compared to the national vacancy rate of 7.2%, according to Apartment List. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has vowed to freeze rents on New York City’s 2 million residents living in stabilized (not in lease-up stage) apartments, but a sustainable solution will entail enticing new development of units that are affordable to renters.
