Today, the story of Miami and what it says about the future of a booming city on the Caribbean…
First, this week I’ve been telling you about the new Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) members-only deal in Playa del Carmen on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. This is an incredible chance to own in a unique, amenity-rich community in the heart of this cosmopolitan beach city.
With this deal, I expect gains of $201,600 five years after delivery and red-hot rental income—I’d say an annual gross yield of 13%. (That yield calculation allows for a lot of personal use by the way…)
Tomorrow (Saturday, March 8) at 1 p.m. ET, I’ll be releasing the full briefing on this opportunity to you.
Check your email then for all the details…
Today, let’s take a whistlestop tour through the story of Miami because what happened there illustrates the scale of the opportunity in Playa today.
Miami transformed from a quiet coastal city into one of the world’s most dynamic luxury, business, and tourism hubs. Its development is illustrative of what’s happening right now in Playa del Carmen, a booming beach city on Mexico’s Riviera Maya.
Before European settlers arrived, Miami was home to the Tequesta people for over 2,000 years. The Spanish settled there in the 16th century. But the city’s modern development didn’t really get going until around 1896…
“The Great Freeze” in the winter of 1894/95 killed much of Florida’s citrus crop. A widow named Julia D. Tuttle, known as the “mother of Miami,” owned land there and had been trying for some time to persuade Henry Flagler (a railroad magnate and partner of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.) to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to Miami. But to no avail.
After The Great Freeze, Tuttle reportedly sent Flagler a fresh orange blossom to prove that the freeze had not affected Miami.
Flagler ordered the extension of the railroad. And he got busy dredging the harbor, beginning construction of the Royal Palm Hotel, and promoting tourism in the area.
Modern Miami was born.
Modern Miami’s origins can be traced back to 1896, to work started by railroad magnate Henry Flagler at the repeated urging of landowner Julia D. Tuttle.
In the first half of the 1920s Miami’s population tripled.
A further population boom occurred in the 1960s and ’70s, following the Cuban Revolution of 1959. It is estimated that about half a million Cubans came to Miami in the 15 years after the revolution.
Crime and economic struggles challenged the city in the 1980s, something that the hit TV show Miami Vice tapped into.
But forward-thinking real estate developers saw its potential for high-end residential development, leading to a major revitalization in areas like South Beach, which became a hotspot for luxury living and nightlife in the 1990s.
Miami’s South Beach is a glamorous, oceanfront neighborhood known for its white-sand beaches, iconic Art Deco architecture, luxury nightlife, and celebrity-studded atmosphere.
Over the 2000s and 2010s, high-end condo developments soared in neighborhoods like Brickell, Edgewater, and Miami Beach, attracting investors from Latin America, Europe, and beyond.
Billion-dollar infrastructure projects—like the expansion of Miami International Airport, PortMiami, and Brightline high-speed rail—reinforced Miami’s position as a global gateway.
Today, Miami is an international luxury hub, blending ultra-high-end real estate, vibrant culture, and strong business opportunities.
And it’s all but played out for real estate investors. That’s thanks to a lack of developable land.
Take Miami Beach. Once a playground for developers, today it’s a textbook case of how land scarcity locks out all but the savviest (or luckiest) players. The city is nearly built out, and any remaining parcels are either tiny infill lots or require assembling multiple properties—often at astronomical prices.
Case in point, the Continuum South Beach, a luxury condo project sprawling across 12 acres of prime oceanfront land. Studio apartments here spanning just 699 square feet are listed at $1.85 million today. That’s because nowadays, no developer could replicate this community. The land simply doesn’t exist in large enough pieces anymore.
Developers who got in early could afford to build sprawling luxury resorts and condos with huge amenity decks.
Newer entrants? They’re cramming units into tight footprints just to make the numbers work.
Another case study: The Faena District. Billionaire Alan Faena pulled off a miracle by assembling multiple parcels to create his namesake district in Mid-Beach, but that process took years of strategic buying and deep-pocketed patience. Any attempt to replicate it today would require absurd amounts of capital—and landowners willing to sell, which they aren’t.
Now, let’s look at what’s happening today in Playa del Carmen…
Playa del Carmen has stunning Caribbean beaches and perfect year-round weather. Its transformation from fishing village to world-class destination has been swift…
Over the past few decades, Playa has transformed from a laidback beach town into one of the most sought-after destinations in the Caribbean.
What was once a stretch of sandy roads and modest beachfront properties has evolved into a high-demand urban core, packed with luxury condos, boutique hotels, and high-end restaurants.
Consider the pace of its transformation…
- Playa del Carmen’s population has surged from just a few thousand in the 1980s to over 300,000 today.
- Last year over 30 million people passed through Cancún airport, many millions of them destined for Playa del Carmen. The city’s short-term rental market is one of the strongest in the world, with occupancy rates as high as 90% year-round.
- Massive infrastructure investments—including the Maya Train and the new Tulum International Airport—are set to accelerate this growth even further.
Playa del Carmen is no longer a hidden gem. It’s a global destination…
Lido Beach Club in Playa del Carmen. When money rushes into a beach city, luxury beach clubs and rooftop amenities follow.
Playa is going increasingly upmarket, drawing ever greater numbers of the ultra-rich and spurring the construction of increasingly luxurious resorts to cater for them.
You can see this trend in its sleek new luxury condo communities. You can feel it in the energy of Fifth Avenue, where high-end boutiques, rooftop cocktail lounges, and classy restaurants now sit alongside the espresso bars and trattorias left behind by the Italians who first put their stamp on this place.
And you can measure it in the numbers—hotel occupancy rates consistently pushing 90%, luxury developments selling out before they’re even built, and an ever-growing community of full-time residents from every corner of the world.
Playa is currently at a tipping point. This isn’t a city in its infancy anymore—it’s a mature market with deep-rooted growth, where the most desirable locations have already been spoken for.
As development pushes outward, the historic downtown and beachfront districts only become more valuable, their scarcity driving up both prices and exclusivity.
The point being, the biggest barrier to entry in a place like Playa isn’t just the cost of land—it’s the land itself.
There just isn’t much of it left in prime locations. The beachfront and city-center parcels, the kind of sites that allow for expansive, high-amenity projects, have already been carved up, built on, or hoarded by players who aren’t in a hurry to sell.
The rooftops of Playa del Carmen…Playa is facing a scarcity of prime land to build on. The city will continue to sprawl but the town center will remain where it is—growing ever-more valuable. An ideal situation for investors who are getting in now.
Another point to consider…
When money rushes into a beach city—a Miami or a Playa—two things happen: People push out to the beach and up to the rooftops.
It’s a pattern that repeats again and again.
First, you’ll find luxury beach clubs popping up on the sand to cater to wealthy visitors. Then rooftop amenities surge in demand. Infinity pools, wraparound decks and private terraces…sky lounges and rooftop gardens…both in hotels and in residential communities.
It’s a pattern you saw in Miami. Now it’s happening in Playa…
Singular Dream has a stunning rooftop. RETA members could buy here in an exclusive, off-market deal in 2021 from $265,304. In early 2024, two-bed condos were listing there for as much as $574,322. It’s a stunning building but still, the rooftop is a fraction the size of what’s planned at The Landmark (where we have our latest RETA-only opportunity).
Put those two factors together—land scarcity and the demand for luxurious rooftop amenities—and it demonstrates why the latest RETA-only opportunity in Playa is so remarkable.
This opportunity is in a community called The Landmark. And it has a half-acre of rooftop amenities in the heart of Playa. That’s not just rare; it’s borderline unrepeatable.
The only reason it exists is because the developer my group is working with is a specialist—a master at assembling land, patiently negotiating deals over years to get a footprint large enough to create something on the spectacular scale of The Landmark.
Make no mistake…
Playa has never seen anything like The Landmark. Yes, you’ll find stylish rooftops with beautiful amenities. But nowhere near the scale and scope of The Sky Club at The Landmark…a half an acre of resort-level amenities!
Let me try to show you what I mean.
This photo is of the stunning rooftop at the Marila building…
Marila’s rooftop amenities are superb. I’m told they stretch to 4,843 square feet. But The Sky Club at the Landmark will be nearly four-and-a-half times bigger!
Marila is a stunning building delivered about a year-and-a-half ago. A two-bed condo here lists for over $700,000.
The rooftop at Marila is close to 5,000 square feet. It’s big and beautiful.
But it’s no Sky Club at The Landmark! As I say, it’s close to half-an-acre, that’s over 21,000 square feet.
The Landmark is going to have the standout rooftop in Playa—full resort level luxury. A whopping half-acre of gardens, spa amenities, yoga area, infinity edge pool with Caribbean views, co working, wellness…restaurant, bar… (Renders shouldn’t be considered final.)
To recap on this new RETA member-only opportunity…
- This is an exclusive deal to own stunning condos in a community called The Landmark right in the heart of Playa del Carmen, a short walk to the beach, the dining, the shows, gyms, stores…
- This community will be next-level, with a half acre rooftop amenity area called The Sky Club. This will be unique in Playa del Carmen. A half-acre of lushly landscaped luxury, with a sauna, infinity pool, gym, restaurant and Caribbean views. Resort-level amenities like this in Playa are a major premium, but nowhere has a rooftop amenities area as expansive and devoted to quiet luxury as Landmark.
- I expect gains of $201,600 five years after delivery and red-hot rental income—I’d say an annual gross yield of 13%.
- Prices to own in similar high-end communities in downtown Playa run in the mid-$400,000s and even $500,000s. For instance, some people will pay $485,000 for a 731-square-foot two-bed condo three blocks from Playa del Carmen’s famed 5th Avenue and farther again from the ocean.
- Yet the exclusive, RETA-only price is from just $318,400 for a luxury two-bed condo in The Landmark, in the heart of everything with that huge rooftop of resort-level luxury.
Tomorrow (Saturday, March 8) at 1 p.m. ET, I’ll be sending you the full briefing on this opportunity.
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. Take a short tour of The Landmark using the developer’s renders. While renders shouldn’t be considered final they give you a great idea.
Take a tour of The Landmark. The half-acre of resort-level amenities will be a huge draw for renters. Playa is a red-hot rental market where occupancy in premium buildings can get near 100%. With The Landmark. I figure on a gross rental income of over 13%. Full details coming tomorrow…
