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Miami delivered more rental apartments in 2025 than at any point in its history. And for multifamily developers, the message is clear: Keep building.
Despite an avalanche of new supply — more than 10,000 units came to market last year alone — Miami rents haven’t cratered. Apartments are still leasing quickly, and the area was crowned (again) the most competitive rental market in the US, according to RentCafe.
“When a company like Citadel or Amazon or — you pick the company that just moved here — when that company moves down, they bring every tax bracket with them,” said Erik Rutter, whose firm, Oak Row Equities, has over 2,000 Miami rental units in various stages of development — including the new 2600 Biscayne a 41-story, 399-unit tower in Edgewater; and the sprawling mixed-use Wynwood Plaza with 509 units.
Developers are vying to house these new arrivals. There are currently 36,763 market-rate rental units planned or under construction in the county, according to Yardi Matrix. Of that, only 4,609 units are expected this year — the lowest annual total in nearly a decade.
But competition for available apartments remains fierce. Each vacant unit now attracts 19 prospective renters, the highest ratio of any US city at the end of 2025.
Apartments typically lease within 33 days, eight days faster than the national average. And once renters land a unit, they tend to stay: The typical Miami renter remains in place for 34 months, limiting the number of apartments that cycle back onto the market.
So even after a 4.2% increase in apartment supply last year, rents have held firm. As of October, average asking rents were down just 0.3% annually, according to RealPage. Looking ahead, Miami is forecast to post the strongest rent growth of any major US market in 2026, at 3.8%.
“We think that’s actually great that deliveries have peaked and that rents haven’t collapsed,” Rutter, Oak Row’s managing partner, said. “It’s a sign of resiliency and pent-up demand.”
Chicago-based Focus and Group Fox are making their South Florida debut with Brickell Starlite, a 39-story, 517-unit apartment tower rising in Miami’s financial district, where Citadel is building a new headquarters.
New York’s Namdar Group, long known for scooping up distressed US malls, has also set its sights on Miami, planning a trio of rental towers, with over 2,000 units between them.
PMG — a prolific Miami condo developer behind projects like Waldorf Astoria Residences — is also rolling out the rentals. It’s also actively leasing units at the just-completed Society Wynwood — a 318-unit apartment complex that allows tenants to rent an entire apartment or an individual bedroom within one — said Brian Koles, a senior director at PMG who oversees the firm’s rental portfolio.
A 1,222-square-foot, three-bedroom at the luxury property (where amenities include a rooftop pool, coworking space and an outdoor “fitness field”) is listed for $5,825 per month. Tenants can also rent a bedroom within a three-bedroom unit for $1,975 per month.
“The cost of ownership, especially for young professionals, is out of reach in Miami,” Koles said. “We want to provide housing to as many people as possible.”
At Oak Row’s under-construction 2900 Terrace, the aim is to give renters a condo-like experience, Rutter said. The 324-unit tower, expected to wrap up by the end of 2027, will include two padel courts, a coworking terrace and podcast studios. Apartments will run as one- to three-bedrooms and skew larger than typical rentals.
The new rental supply comes as Miami’s domestic migration picked up again in 2025 after a lull. Out-of-state driver’s license exchanges in Miami-Dade County rose 12% year over year to 23,878, nearly matching the pandemic-era peak in 2021, according to a report by the Miami Association of Realtors. Migration increased from several states whose residents have flocked to Miami in recent years, including a 7% rise in New Yorkers and a 12% gain from Californians.
“Miami tends to be this safe haven city,” Koles said. “When people are compelled to leave somewhere else, or an industry is falling apart and people want to reinvent themselves, they come to Miami.”
