Question 1

Is the Florida sales tax on commercial rent still in the model?

Accepted Answer

It should not be. HB 7031 repealed it. Signed on June 30, 2025, the bill repealed section 212.031, the sales tax on commercial rent, effective October 1, 2025, including the county discretionary surtax. The repeal keys to the occupancy period rather than the payment date, so rent for occupancy before October 1, 2025 remains taxable whenever it is collected. For permanent debt this is the most consequential Florida change in a decade. It lowers total occupancy cost for every commercial tenant in the state, which affects what gross rent the market clears and therefore what NOI supports at a long-term lender's coverage test. A pro forma still carrying the rent tax is understating the asset. Three concordant law-firm analyses back this. Have your Florida CPA confirm your lease periods.

Question 2

What does recording a large Florida permanent loan cost?

Accepted Answer

0.55 percent of the loan, uncapped, at recording. Mortgage stamps at 35 cents per $100 of indebtedness under section 201.08 plus the nonrecurring intangible tax at 2 mills on the secured obligation under section 199.133. On a $12,000,000 permanent placement that is $66,000 (12,000,000 x 0.55% = 66,000). The $2,450 cap commonly cited sits in section 201.08(1)(a) and covers notes and written obligations to pay money; section 201.08(1)(b), which covers recorded mortgages, carries no cap language at all. This is the single largest closing-cost surprise on Florida institutional debt, and it argues for deciding the permanent structure once rather than bridging and refinancing twice. Recording fees themselves are trivial, at $5.00 for the first page under section 28.24(13).

Question 3

How does the Florida assessment cap apply to a commercial asset?

Accepted Answer

Through section 193.1555, at 10 percent, and it will not save you the year after you buy. Section 193.1554 covers nonhomestead residential property with nine or fewer dwelling units; section 193.1555 covers everything else, so a 10-plus-unit apartment building, retail, industrial, and office all sit there. The limit reads that any change from reassessment may not exceed 10 percent of the prior year assessed value, applied for all levies other than school district levies. And the cap resets on any sale, foreclosure, transfer of legal or beneficial title, or the cumulative transfer of more than 50 percent of the ownership of the owning entity. On permanent debt held for a decade, underwrite the tax at just value in year one and at the capped path afterward, with school millage outside the cap. Millage stacks are county work: see Miami or Tampa for local conditions.

Question 4

Does Florida lending law reach a permanent loan on a multifamily asset?

Accepted Answer

Potentially, and the five-unit line is the one to watch. Section 494.001(25)(c) reaches a loan on improved real property consisting of five or more dwelling units if the borrower is an individual or the lender is a noninstitutional investor, and limb (b) does the same for commercial real property. Neither limb contains a purpose test, so business purpose does not take a Florida commercial or five-plus-unit loan outside Chapter 494 the way it does in some other states. Section 494.001(14) defines institutional investor broadly and section 494.001(28) makes everyone else noninstitutional. Our licensing is handled. Your part is to hold the asset in an entity, not personally, and to have counsel confirm the borrowing structure before documents are drawn.

Question 5

What does Florida condo law do to a permanent multifamily or condo file?

Accepted Answer

It creates a mandatory capital-expenditure regime, statewide, and it is not a Miami ordinance. Section 553.899 requires a milestone inspection for condominium and cooperative buildings three habitable stories or more in height by the year the building turns 30, or 25 where the local enforcement agency finds environmental conditions such as proximity to salt water warrant it, then every 10 years thereafter, with a phase two within 180 days if phase one finds substantial structural deterioration. Section 718.112(2)(g) requires a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years for the same buildings, and for budgets adopted after December 31, 2024 an owner-controlled association may not determine to provide no reserves or less reserves than required. Waiving reserves is no longer available, so a long-term file needs the milestone report, the SIRS, and a funded-reserve assessment forecast.

Question 6

Can I shop title on a Florida permanent placement?

Accepted Answer

Not on the premium, which the state fixes. Section 627.782 requires the Financial Services Commission to adopt a rule specifying the premium to be charged in Florida by title insurers, provides that the premium rates apply throughout this state, and requires review at least every three years. So for a given policy amount the premium is the same at every agency, and shopping carriers on price does not work here the way it does in a file-and-use state. What you are actually shopping is settlement service, endorsement availability, and whether the agency can handle an agency lender's document set and your entity structure. Who customarily pays the owner's policy is county custom rather than law, which is why a Sarasota deal and a West Palm Beach deal allocate it differently.

Question 7

How does judicial foreclosure affect long-term Florida debt?

Accepted Answer

It lengthens the front of a workout and shortens the back. Chapter 702 governs everything in Florida, commercial included, with no power of sale and no commercial exception. That is slower than a deed-of-trust state, and we will not publish a Florida day count because no reliable series exists. Three offsets matter to a permanent lender. Section 45.0315 permits a cure only until the certificate of sale is filed or the date the judgment sets, and otherwise there is no right of redemption. Section 702.10's order-to-show-cause track and its deposit remedy both point at non-owner-occupied property. And under section 702.06 the fair-market-value ceiling on a deficiency applies only to owner-occupied residential property, so an investment-property deficiency has no statutory value cap. That combination is why Florida prices better than its judicial label implies.

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