Seriously. This guy is paying just the condo fees and taxes, which means that the landlord is eating about $3000/month on this.

He’s doing it because the complex is empty, so he can’t sell what he has.

Renters hold cards in today’s market

By Dick Hogan
Originally posted on June 18, 2007

Lee County’s burgeoning skyscraper condominium market is a renter’s paradise — but a landlord’s hell.

Experts say as increasing numbers of condo units pour into an already overflowing supply of residential real estate, renters can almost name their price for even the costliest luxury units.

Jim Simon, for example, recently moved into a condo in the 32-story High Point Place in downtown Fort Myers, where the owners of its 105 units typically paid as much as $600,000 for the convenient riverfront location.

But Simon, a commercial real-estate broker, is paying only $1,350 a month — barely enough to cover the taxes and condo association fees.

“It’s like living in the Ritz-Carlton,” Simon said. “It’s got great amenities, it’s clean, it’s safe, it’s got a beautiful view.”

With only about 20 people living there, he practically has the place to himself, and with a number of similar projects under construction around downtown, he expects the good times for renters to last for awhile.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see people get in for a little less than I’m paying,” Simon said.

The median condo resale price maxed out in February 2006 at $353,900, and by April 2007 the price had fallen to $244,100, down 31 percent, according to Florida Association of Realtors statistics.

As prices have fallen, so have rents. In late 2006 the average rent for a two-bedroom house was $940, down from an all-time high of $1,041 a year earlier, according to rental information service RealFacts.

Rents have continued to fall in recent months, as well, while the inventory of dwellings for sale stays at an all-time high of about 15,000, experts say.

Non-beachfront condos have been coming on line at an accelerating rate as well, in a trend fueled by speculators who bought pre-construction hoping to sell them quickly for a profit.

As a result, 829 new condo units in that category have been completed in the past 2€ years with another 1,769 under construction.

Owners are feeling the pinch on prices as renters have more to choose from.
A lot of people who bought condos as investments want to rent them out now because the market’s slow, said Joe Crimaldi of Rent SWFL in Fort Myers, who handles RENTALS leasing for condo owners throughout the area.

Not all equal

But not all skyscrapers are created equal, Crimaldi said.

For example, he handles leases in Riva Del Lago next to Lakes Park and Mastique on Bunche Beach Road, both in south Fort Myers, which he said are relatively easy to rent out. Riva Del Lago, which had three-bedroom units selling for more than $650,000, now has rentals around $1,500 a month. A three-bedroom condo in Mastique that sold for about $750,000 can be had for $1,750 a month.

…