Real Estate Views from St Pete

Condo hotels are springing up all along the Gulf Beaches, from St Pete Beach to Clearwater Beach, Florida. These condo hotels can range from hotel rooms to apartment/condominiums, and the owners are only allowed a limited stay each year, ranging from one month to three months, typically. The rest of the time the units are rented out, most commonly in a pool for that building/complex.  There are two reasons behind this: hotel developers are using this as a means of hotel financing, and are putting some or all of the rooms/apartments into a pool - there is a management contract for the hotel brand, without the ownership investment or risk.  The other reason is greater density of units for a condominium developer. The beach cities do not want to see their hotels torn down and condos built, for many of the condos would be second homes, or even third or fourth homes, and the cities see a lack of business for their restaurants, shops, and tourist attractions. So, many of the beach cities will allow greater density for hotel units than for condo units. Many of these projects are intended to be a break-even for the purchasers, with appreciation their only profit.  A prospective purchaser should certainly investigate a branded hotel project with full amenities vs a building with a front desk and a swimming pool that will be on its own for marketing. In some projects, the purchasers were primarily flippers, who never intended to be owners after they closed on the unit when construction was finished - so in our current market some of the buildings have dozens of units on the market.