It’s fair to say that the state of Florida is booming. The state’s economy continues to grow after the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and is consistently outperforming the nation as a whole. As well as being home to a robust tourism industry, Florida is also a hub of new technology, aerospace, digital media and medical research.
All of the economic signs mark cities like Orlando out as flourishing vacation destinations and investment locations. More Canadians purchase property in Florida than anyone else and over 500,000 Canadians own homes in Florida – that’s approximately 1 in every 72 Canadians. Canadians accounted for 37.0% of all foreign purchased real estate in Florida. In fact, Canadians purchased $7.03BN of real estate in Florida between April 2016 and March 2017, which represents an increase of 227% against $3.09BN invested in 2015-2016.
This level of investment is creating ample opportunity for shrewd Canadian investors to bolster their portfolios, but for some reason the appetite to capitalize doesn’t seem to exist. “We don’t think that Canadian investors are taking full advantage of the opportunities, which is strange given the fact that so many Canadians are buying properties here,” says Garry Walmsley, Senior Global Real Estate Advisor at The Orlando Agency, a Division of Global Real Estate Services.
Seeing a gap in the market, Global Real Estate Services launched the Orlando Agency to help out-of-state and foreign nationals in the buying and selling of investment properties for short-term or long-term rental.
“We aim to build select, strategic partnerships with real estate investors who are eager to expand their horizons and look beyond the Canadian market,” Walmsley says. “Each partnership will be developed over time, allowing the investor to get to know the Central Florida real estate in the manner which they feel to be the most informative and practical. We provide continuous "on the ground" support for our partners at every stage of the process.”