In about a month, many of us will be giving thanks and eating turkey and mashed potatoes — a pleasant tradition started by pilgrims at Plymouth Rock a few hundred years ago. At that point and time in history the expression “land grab” must have been used a lot. Hard to believe such a phenomena still exists and, of all places, in Miami.
One of the most vibrant cities in the world, with a future as bright as any imaginable, Miami is still attracting people, while New York City is losing its population. Miami is soon to be ranked number three in population in the United States, people want to be here, and yet, WE ARE GIVING MIAMI AWAY.

The “land grab”, or maybe now we should call it the “condo grab”, is on and people are once again coming from foreign shores to gobble up some of the most beautiful condominiums in the world at fire sale prices. The “turkeys” that are allowing this debacle to occur are the lenders repossessing buildings with “friendly foreclosures” and allowing inexperienced real estate brokers and marketers to sell off assets at or below replacement cost. If this continues, Miami will be set back a decade and continued economic growth will stagnate.

As I said in The Real Deal on Oct. 24, “we haven´t seen conditions like this in 25 years. This is an old business that has just reared its head again. We´re going to see a bloodbath, but we don´t have to give away real estate to work our way out of this situation. We need to keep cool heads.”

This Thanksgiving won´t be a happy one for many of Miami´s best developers, as well-meaning but inexperienced lenders allow our fair city to be given away.

It´s time for lenders to get better advice and draw a line in the sand on pricing.