When Florida lawmakers first approved the Live Local Act in 2023 in an effort to alleviate the affordable housing crisis, developers rushed to seize on its incentives and filed a slew of project applications.
Since then, they’ve completed nearly 3,200 below-market rental units in 23 projects across the state, according to a Florida TaxWatch, a nonpartisan and nonprofit research institute.
“It’s just how long real estate takes,” said attorney Anthony De Yurre, referring to the drawn out project approval and construction process.
The law incentivizes developers by allowing them to build bigger projects –– up to the highest density permitted in a jurisdiction and the tallest height permitted within a mile –– as long as they designate at least 40 percent of their apartments for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income. The apartments have to remain at below-market rents for at least 30 years.
Live Local’s other perks are that developers can bypass public hearings and only go through administrative approvals and tiered property tax exemptions: a 75 percent exemption for apartments for households earning between 80 percent and 120 percent of the AMI, and a 100 percent exemption for apartments for earners of less than 80 percent of the AMI.
The law was tweaked in the past two years, including to loosen floor area ratio and parking requirements. Those who jumped on projects right after the legislation was first passed have been working through site plan approval and construction drawing permitting, De Yurre said.
“I can tell you from my projects, now is when we are heavily engaged in discussions with lenders for early adopters of the law,” De Yurre said.
But developers still are betting big on Live Local. A total of 143 projects with 43,400 units, combined, are in various stages from proposed to approved under the state law, research from the nonprofit Florida Housing Coalition shows.
Nearly half of the planned units are in Miami-Dade County, while 11.2 percent are in Broward County and 6.3 percent are in Palm Beach County, the Florida Housing Coalition data shows.
Questions still loom over Live Local. For one, lenders are only now getting introduced to Live Local projects and analyzing their financials. And although developers continue to rush to file project proposals, questions remain whether Live Local will help alleviate the affordable housing crisis.
Across Florida, there were 25 affordable apartments available and attainable for every 100 extremely low income households, or those earning up to 30 percent of the AMI, last year, according to the Florida TaxWatch report.
AI woes
As South Florida developers feel the sting from higher construction costs and insurance premiums, as well as elevated interest rates, confusion and widespread misinformation about the law also is delaying projects.
Under Live Local, Florida counties that have a sufficient supply of below-market rentals that exceeds the demand from earners of less than 120 percent of the AMI can opt out of the property tax exemption. None of South Florida’s three counties, where the affordable housing crisis is most heightened, qualify for this, the Florida TaxWatch report shows.
“ChatGPT and AI has a very bizarre way of rearing its head in the legal world and usually creates a lot of misinformation,” said De Yurre, a Miami-based land use and zoning attorney who helped draft the act and represents developers pursuing Live Local projects. “It is creating a lot of misinformation with lenders in regards to the statute and property tax exemption.”
Generally, private equity is “always going to be more entrepreneurial” and open to Live Local compared with banks, which usually prefer to lend on programs once they become widespread, De Yurre said.
South Florida’s most advanced Live Local projects include Cymbal DLT Companies’ completed 341-unit Laguna Gardens complex in Miami Gardens. Completed last year, it was originally planned as market-rate rentals and Cymbal DLT retroactively converted it to Live Local, allowing the firm to use the law’s tax breaks.
Also, near North Miami, developer Daniel Abreu scored $16.5 million last year to build an 80-unit building, marking one of the first known construction loans for a Live Local project.
“Missing middle” v. extremely low income
The need for below-market rentals in South Florida is high.
In Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, there’s a deficit of 143,805 units for households earning less than 80 percent of the AMI, according to the Florida TaxWatch report, which cited a 2024 University of Florida study for the data. The deficit is 85,345 units in Broward County, and 37,699 units in Palm Beach County.
Many Live Local developers are marketing their South Florida projects’ below-market rate apartments for households earning up to 120 percent of the AMI, but few are dropping rents for the extremely low-income who earn 30 percent of the AMI.
But De Yurre argues it’s earners of 80 percent to 120 percent of the AMI, the so-called “missing middle,” whom Live Local is intended to help. Projects with lower rents generally would have to be subsidized by low-income housing tax credits and other public financing programs.
“People say this [Live Local] isn’t truly affordable. But if you do less than 80 percent [of the AMI], the teacher can’t qualify,” he said, arguing that the workforce such as educators, firefighters and police make too much to qualify for a unit targeting earners below 80 percent of the AMI. “This is the only program that helps out in that regard. This is the only program that helps out in that regard.”
