In Doral, the vacancy rate is up to 6.5 percent, and rents have hit a three-year low.
Yes, the Miami market is cooling, but Doral is facing more than just a slowdown. About 40 percent of Doral’s 80,000 residents were born in Venezuela or have Venezuelan heritage, and these families are fleeing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Wall Street Journal reports.
In some Doral buildings, vacancy rates are reaching 10 percent or more as residents contend with uncertain immigration status, according to the Journal. Many Venezuelans are living in the U.S. with temporary legal status, the result of programs like humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which were expanded under the Biden administration.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has sought to revoke these permissions, launching a bevy of legal actions in recent months and leaving more than 1 million people in immigration status limbo.
Leasing agents have a close-up view of how this uncertainty is playing out in Doral.
“They’re all telling me, ‘No, I can’t stay, my [temporary status] is expiring,” Maria Eugenia Nucete, a Venezuelan-American broker, told the publication. She has worked in Doral for decades. In March, she lost a Venezuelan client who relocated to Italy.
Christi Fraga, the mayor of Doral, said she’s seen the exodus as well.
“I do personally know of some families that have self-deported. Their status was unsure and they didn’t want to be here illegally,” she told the Journal. “I’m sure it will affect the housing market to a certain extent.”
Self-deporting residents often have plans to move to Spain or Italy, or return to Venezuela, according to the Journal. Gabriela Hernandez, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who has lived in the U.S. for nearly a decade, has been living with her boyfriend in a one-bedroom apartment. Her boyfriend, fearing the loss of his protected status, has already left Doral, and she has plans to depart in the coming weeks.
“All of our plans here have collapsed,” she told the publication. They plan to emigrate to Spain.
Flighty tenants represent a new risk to building owners. Doral landlords now say they want to know immigration status before renting, and some are turning away potential tenants with temporary status, unwilling to face a rent delinquency if a court ruling strips their legal residency. But lawyers say these denials could amount to a violation of the Fair Housing Act.
“It could be viewed as a race-discrimination case or it could be viewed as a case involving allegations of discrimination based upon national origin,” Miami-based attorney Courtney Cunningham told the Journal.
While Doral now faces a contracting rental market, it has attracted millions of dollars in investment in recent years, including from the Trump family. In January, the Doral City Council greenlit the Trump Organization’s plan to develop up to 1,500 luxury condos on the Trump National Doral Miami property.
–– Kate Hinsche
