Question 1

What does the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone mean for a new build in Miami-Dade?

Accepted Answer

Broward and Miami-Dade are the only two counties in the state inside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, and it is the strictest wind-design regime in the Florida Building Code. Windows, doors, shutters, roofing and other exterior components on your new build must carry either a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or a Florida statewide product approval specifically listed for HVHZ, which requires the full impact-test battery, and the NOA numbers have to appear on your permit application. We don't have a citable dollar premium for HVHZ-rated products over standard Florida-approved products, so budget the requirement into your scope, not a percentage: this is a structural design constraint before it's a cost line, and a contractor's bid from outside Broward or Miami-Dade will usually miss it.

Question 2

Does sea level rise change site work on a Miami-Dade lot?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Miami-Dade County maintains its own Flood Criteria that sets the minimum finished-grade elevation for developed sites, and it is built around a forecast of two feet of sea level rise expected by 2060. The criteria is applied basin by basin against 25-year and 10-year storm events, not as a single countywide number, so we don't have one elevation figure to hand you here. What that means for underwriting: fill, drainage and grading cost on a Miami-Dade lot can run higher than an inland Florida site with the same footprint, and a marginal parcel can end up undevelopable at its existing grade. Confirm your parcel's required elevation with the county before you finalize a site budget.

Question 3

What are Miami-Dade's impact fees on a new single-family build?

Accepted Answer

Miami-Dade's countywide impact fees are published and quotable, and they're due in full before the building permit is issued. For a single-family detached home: Mobility runs $9,275 to $10,625 per unit depending on the parcel's context zone, Fire is $527.55, Police is $688.42, the school fee is $612 plus $0.918 per gross square foot, and Parks runs $3,084 to $4,903 per unit depending on district. As an illustration only, a 2,000 sq ft house in Context Zone 2, Parks District 2, where the county collects mobility, fire, police, school, and parks, works out to roughly $16,399 in county impact fees before any city permit fee. Which fees actually apply depends on your municipality: Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah, Coral Gables and Key Biscayne run their own fire departments and aren't charged the county Fire fee. We don't have city-level permit fee schedules to add on top, so confirm those with your local building department.

Question 4

How long does permit review take on a new build in Miami-Dade?

Accepted Answer

Florida sets a statutory floor, not an observed timeline: 30 business days for a single-family permit under 7,500 sq ft, 60 business days for a larger single-family or multifamily project up to 50 units. The local government has to notice you of anything missing within 5 business days, and if it blows the deadline the permit fee drops 10% per business day of delay. We don't have Miami-Dade's, or any Miami-Dade municipality's, actual observed review times to cite, so budget to the statutory clock and confirm the working timeline with your specific building department before you set a draw schedule.

Question 5

Is new single-family construction actually picking up in Miami-Dade right now?

Accepted Answer

Single-family permits are up while the metro's total housing permits are down, and that split is the story for a builder here. Across the three-county Miami MSA, total housing units authorized fell 21.2% in the first half of 2026 versus the first half of 2025, while single-family (one-unit) permits over the same halves rose 13.9%. That's consistent with the rest of the market: attached, condo product is repricing under the state's milestone-inspection and reserve rules, while detached single-family sits at an all-time high on the Case-Shiller Miami index. If your exit on a completed build is a long-term rental rather than a sale, our DSCR rental loan program can take you out of the construction loan once the certificate of occupancy is in hand.

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