Jennifer Leong, Principal of The Opulent Group and Sotheby’s Director of International Developments Shares Her Predictions and Expertise on the Booming Fort Lauderdale Market

Jennifer Leong, The Principal of The Opulent Group (aka The OG's) has a distinctive and one-of-a-kind team that specializes in consulting new construction developers, architects, and clients on the purchasing power in new developments in Miami, Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach, and internationally in The Caribbean, as the only exclusive team that sells Rosewood Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas and Solterre in St. Kitts/Nevis for the U.S Sotheby’s. Jennifer was recruited from the Chicago Jameson Sotheby’s last quarter of 2021 to personally lead the entire expansion of ONE Sotheby's Development Division's venture into the international Caribbean market of developments by her EVP and Chief Economist. Jennifer’s team has become the necessary force among the top players in new construction development in South Florida. As a trailblazer with her OG team, that were partnered exclusively with The Bahamas, Damianos Sotheby’s, they took on selling the five-star brand of Rosewood Baha Mar and SLS residences in Nassau, Bahamas. 

Jennifer’s team sales have not slowed down in Fort Lauderdale as Haute Living's exclusive Fort Lauderdale experts. Fort Lauderdale continues to be one of the most dynamic and desired areas in South Florida," Jennifer states. In recent years, developers have taken a considerable stake in the city by elevating the luxury condo market and going vertical where there was not any land left in Miami. The interest in new luxury developments in the Fort Lauderdale area continues to be strong. Many current luxury new developments in Fort Lauderdale have sold rates between 75%-85% even before breaking ground. Jennifer is an insider consulting developers invested in Fort Lauderdale sharing that there are even more exciting new development projects coming to change the skyline of Fort Lauderdale, showcasing developer confidence in the future real estate market of Fort Lauderdale. Buyers want in and if they can’t afford a home, they move to a less maintenance condo or invest in new construction pricing and are willing to wait a few years at the lower price with pre-construction. Buyers just want to be in South Florida. Fort Lauderdale, also known as the 'Venice of America, had waterways that saw a surge in tear downs to build new construction homes. The luxury home buyers up to the $3M range still face extremely low inventory levels, especially on the waterfront. Buyers in the upper mid-range of  $4 to $10 million are where they are seeing an increase in inventory. 20% of active listings above $4 million have had price reductions, or what Jennifer shares is “corrections” from sellers expecting they are still in the same market from one year ago.

Las Olas River House #2607 - $950,000

Photo Credit: Florent at Wild Blue Productions

Jennifer Leong's predictions have always been on point in her almost 20-year career as a broker and involvement in closing out over 15 luxury high-rise developments. Her predictions, "We are seeing a correction and not seeing as many aggressive multiple offer situations, if any.”  A rise and fall of empires is seen every 80-100 years and the United States has been on top for the past 79 years. The BRICS collective, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is currently working on a common currency in an attempt to ditch the US dollar and push back against America’s superpower. Moscow and Beijing called for DE-dollarisation in the face of Western sanctions. In 2001 it was the dot-com bubble. Jennifer was a part of e-Loan.com and partook on bringing the company public on the NASDAQ while living in Silicon Valley, she saw many young entrepreneurs become overnight millionaire's with companies going public. In 2008 the mortgage crisis and in 2020 we were on lockdown. These lockdowns made the GDP go negative for two quarters resulting in a “recession”. America took on more massive debt and trillions of new dollars flooded the US system. Her prediction is that the influx of tech companies moving South, baby boomers continuing to retire and looking for the sunshine lifestyle and the amount of people moving from states that were shut down completely during covid will not affect her area as there is a scarcity of developable land and the current addressing of safety with older condo buildings is demanding redevelopment of existing older condos bringing a huge influx of new development dollars to South Florida. Many Residents will not be able to afford high special assessments assessed in the older building which will push existing older condo owners to purchase further North and West of Fort Lauderdale to more affordable areas.

"South Florida needs between five to 10 years' worth of new housing construction at the pace homes are being built and the demand today. The influx of buyers from states like Illinois (Chicago), California, Texas, areas of Canada and South America is creating a consistent movement in new housing." Jennifer has seen buyers from states that do not have the benefits that Florida offers– between the no state tax and the lifestyle – people never want to be "stuck” inside again if there were ever to be another pandemic, but there is no doubt that the rocket-fueled sales of the post-pandemic are gone.

Jennifer and her team, The Opulent Group, have been ranked #1 in luxury sales in Fort Lauderdale by setting record sales for their waterfront listings and also catering to buyers at their Sotheby's new developments that include the famous, Pier 66,  St. Regis Residences in Miami and sold units at Selene on Fort Lauderdale beach and Aria Reserve in Edgewater, Miami.

Mary Gibson

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