Bank Exec: Miami Condo Loans Are Strong
We're not worried about our Miami condo loans. That's essentially what Bank of the Ozarks CEO George Gleason is telling investors. During a recent earnings call, George addressed questions about any concerns there may be on the bank's condo loans in Miami. "We have a number of condo projects in that market. The projects that we got are, I think, 65% to 85% pre-sold. They are pre-sold. The worst contract we've got has 30% non-refundable cash down at contract signing and nothing else until closing. Most of the contracts we've got are 20% cash down at contract signing, 20% cash down at groundbreaking, and 50% cash down at top-off," he told analysts during the April 12 call.
"So, I think, our leverage on those projects were about 35%. So, even if massive–even if I sell no more condos in massive quantities–the contracts that were existent fell out, we're still paid out."
No specific projects were named during the conversation, although George told analysts he recently spent several days in Miami, traveling from Brickell and Doral to Fort Lauderdale, examining "every asset we've got in that market." It's recently been reported that Chinese developer Vanke received a $33M construction loan from Bank of the Ozarks on its 251 First Park Slope condo project (pictured) that's slated to involve 11 stories and 44 luxury units. "So, we're doing very conservative stuff down there. It is heavily pre-sold with real contracts, with big deposits up and at very, very low leverage. So, as long as we can continue to find transactions with that risk profile in Miami, which is essentially a no-risk profile, we'll continue to do projects down there. And we are looking at others down there."
George does add one last note about Miami's condo market though: "Certainly, the velocity of sales on condo units has slowed there...from the data I've seen and talking with folks, probably sales velocity is about half what it was. But if you've got pre-sales and you've got the deposits up and you're very low leverage, the deals work. It's hard to see any of those loans ever becoming a problem loan."
