The Two Kinds Of Risk Sunny Isles Beach Condo Buyers Keep Confusing In 2026

In 2019, the board at Winston Towers 700 hired a structural engineering firm and got back a number nobody wanted to see: $11.9 million in repairs, most of it for balconies that were beginning to shed concrete onto the pool deck below. Owners revolted. By June 2020, all nine board members had been recalled, and the new board scaled the plan down to $2.3 million. Then Champlain Towers South collapsed a year later in Surfside, and within a week city inspectors were back at Winston Towers ordering emergency repairs on the same balconies the recalled board had tried to shrink out of existence, a sequence Bloomberg documented in detail as the Surfside collapse rippled through Florida condo boards.

That sequence, cheap fix voted in, disaster nearby, scope forced back up, is the plot most people assume applies to every older Sunny Isles Beach tower. It is a real risk, and it is worth understanding. But it is only half the picture, and treating it as the whole picture leads buyers to relax exactly where they shouldn't: inside the newest, shiniest buildings on Collins Avenue.

The deadline that already passed

Florida's Structural Integrity Reserve Study requirement, born directly out of the Surfside collapse, had a real deadline that has now come and gone. Existing owner-controlled condo associations had to complete their first SIRS by December 31, 2025, according to state guidance published by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Starting with budgets adopted in 2025, boards can no longer waive or underfund reserves for the structural components that study identifies. As of January 1, 2026, that funding requirement is not optional and not up for a membership vote.

Sunny Isles Beach has a lot of buildings on the wrong side of that clock. Winston Towers alone is seven buildings built in phases, from Winston 100 in 1970 through 600 and 700 in the early 1980s. Add Coastal Towers from 1965, Marco Polo and Newport from 1966, the twin Arlen House buildings from 1968 and 1969, and Salem House from 1969, and you get roughly 2,348 units built before 1970 in this city alone. Every one of those buildings passed its 25-year coastal milestone-inspection trigger decades ago and has already been through at least one full 10-year inspection cycle. For this cohort, the SIRS deadline isn't a future event to plan around. It is a bill that's already due.

The new-building myth

Here's where most buyer checklists stop, and where the actual risk picture gets more interesting. The SIRS requirement is triggered by a building's height, not its age. Any residential condominium three habitable stories or taller needs one, regardless of when it was built. That means the Ritz-Carlton Residences Sunny Isles Beach and Estates at Acqualina, both firmly in the ultra-luxury 2020s cohort, are just as legally required to have a current, funded reserve study on file as Winston Towers 200. A buyer who assumes a five-year-old tower is exempt from this paperwork is simply wrong.

But the newest buildings carry a risk the SIRS was never designed to catch, and it showed up in Sunny Isles Beach this year in a way that's worth sitting with.

What Estates at Acqualina shows about the other risk

In a February 2026 filing in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, a buyer named Ruben Salama sued Trump Group over alleged construction defects and delays at Estates at Acqualina, the two-tower waterfront complex the developer completed in 2022 after a bitter dispute with its own general contractor, according to reporting from The Real Deal. Salama says he and his family couldn't enjoy their four-bedroom unit between 2023 and 2025 because of ongoing repairs, and that when he tried to sell, more than two dozen prospective buyers walked away after touring a building still wrapped in scaffolding. He'd paid $7.7 million for the unit in 2023 and sold it last year for $7.5 million, a loss he attributes largely to buyer hesitation over the visible construction activity. Trump Group has said it responded to unit-related matters professionally and that any outstanding concerns weren't raised through proper channels.

Whatever the courts eventually decide, the transaction lesson stands on its own. No SIRS, no milestone inspection, and no reserve study would have flagged this risk, because it isn't a structural funding problem. It's a developer-relationship and workmanship problem, and it can sit inside a five-year-old ultra-luxury tower just as easily as a maintenance shortfall sits inside a 1970s high-rise.

The three documents that actually decide whether you get a loan

Whichever cohort you're shopping in, the paperwork that protects you is the same, and the order you request it matters more than most buyers realize. Ask for the Structural Integrity Reserve Study, the Milestone Inspection Report if the building has hit its 25- or 30-year trigger, and a written estoppel certificate disclosing every current, pending, or anticipated special assessment. Florida law generally requires associations to produce official records within 10 working days of a written request. If a seller or their agent can't get you these three documents in that window, treat the delay itself as information.

The reason this matters beyond due diligence: a building without a current, properly funded SIRS risks being classified non-warrantable by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which takes conventional 30-year financing off the table entirely and shrinks your buyer pool, present and future, down to cash buyers and portfolio-loan borrowers paying higher rates. Nearby in Miami-Dade County, owners at Cricket Club in North Miami were hit with assessments up to $134,000 per unit, and at Mediterranean Village in Aventura some owners were assessed as much as $400,000, both in buildings from the same pre-1995 age cohort that defines a large share of Sunny Isles Beach's older stock. Those aren't Sunny Isles Beach numbers, but they're the same law applied to the same kind of building, which is exactly why the document request matters before you write an offer, not after. Miami-Dade County does run a relief program offering loans up to $50,000 to help owners cover special assessment costs, but that's a cushion, not a substitute for knowing what you're buying into.

Why sellers are suddenly more willing to deal

None of this means the older stock is unsellable, and the current market gives buyers real leverage to structure around it. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the most recently reported full quarter, Sunny Isles Beach condo and townhome sales totaled 408 closings worth $285.4 million, with sellers receiving 90.0 percent of original list price on average, a median 132 days to contract, and 21.7 months of supply sitting on the market against 1,161 active listings. That combination, longer time to contract and elevated supply, is a buyer's market by any standard reading, and it shows up directly in how older buildings are pricing pending assessments. Listings inside Winston Towers 500 have recently included language along the lines of the seller covering the special assessment at closing rather than passing it to the buyer, a negotiating pattern that becomes far more common when supply outpaces demand the way it currently does across this age cohort.

The governance side of this risk is worth remembering too. After the 2020 recall at Winston Towers, one departing board member explained his exit this way:

"good communication and free flow of ideas is absolutely essential within any organization"

That's not a legal disclosure. It's a human one, and it's the kind of thing you only find by reading board minutes rather than marketing copy, which is exactly why those minutes belong on your document request list alongside the SIRS.

What this means if you're underwriting an offer this month

Age is a useful first filter, but it isn't the whole underwriting model. A building's birth year tells you which of two very different risks you're buying into, deferred structural maintenance in the older stock, or unresolved construction and developer disputes in the newest one. Neither risk shows up in a listing photo, and only one of them shows up in a reserve study. Request the SIRS, the milestone report if applicable, the estoppel certificate, and the last two years of board minutes at the point of initial inquiry, not after you're already under contract with an inspection clock running.

Frequently asked questions

If a special assessment has already been approved, does it follow the seller or transfer to me as the buyer? Once an assessment is voted and recorded, it typically follows the unit, meaning the buyer inherits the outstanding balance unless the purchase contract specifically states the seller will pay it in full at or before closing. Get that term in writing rather than assuming it by default.

Can I still get a mortgage in a Sunny Isles Beach building that's been flagged non-warrantable? Conventional 30-year financing through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac generally isn't available. Buyers in that position are typically looking at cash purchases or portfolio loans, which carry higher rates and stricter terms, and which meaningfully shrink the pool of future buyers if you're the one selling later.

Does a brand-new Sunny Isles Beach tower mean I can skip the document request? No. The SIRS requirement is tied to building height, not age, so even a tower completed in 2024 needs one on file. New construction simply trades one risk for another, worth confirming through the developer's warranty terms, any pending litigation, and the condition of common areas at your own walkthrough.

If you're comparing a specific building in Sunny Isles Beach against this framework, whether it's a 1970s tower with a known repair history or a recent delivery still finishing punch-list items, Fajer International Realty can pull the actual SIRS, milestone status, and assessment history before you write an offer. Schedule a private consultation and underwrite the building, not just the unit.