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WED 07.15.202630-YR 6.49%10-YR 4.580.04HOMEBUILDERS 0.86%Newsletter
TOPIC / CONDO / 10 STORIES

Condo Development

The for-sale tower playbook: where new condos pencil, how presales and deposits fund them, and the entitlement and demand fights that decide which projects rise.

Condominium development runs on a different engine than rental. Buyers put down deposits years before a tower tops out, and those presales, often 40 to 60 percent of units, are what unlocks the construction loan. That makes the sales pace, the deposit structure, and buyer confidence as central to a condo pro forma as land cost or rates.

The action clusters where for-sale demand is deepest and most global: South Florida and New York lead, with luxury and branded product drawing cash buyers while attainable for-sale housing stays scarce. When rates rise or a market softens, condo starts stall first, because a project that cannot presell cannot fund, so the beat is an early read on where capital and buyer appetite are heading.

This hub tracks new condo projects, presale milestones, deposit and financing structures, and the entitlement battles behind for-sale towers. Every figure traces to a primary source.

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Frequently asked

Why do condo developers rely on presales before construction?
Lenders for a for-sale tower usually require a large share of units, commonly 40 to 60 percent, to be under contract with nonrefundable deposits before they release the construction loan. Those deposits and contracts prove demand and de-risk the loan, so presales effectively fund and gate the project. A condo that cannot hit its presale threshold typically cannot start, which is why sales pace matters as much as land or rates.
How is condo development different from rental apartment development?
A rental building is held and leased over time, underwritten to ongoing rents and financed against long-term cash flow. A condo is sold unit by unit, underwritten to a sellout at projected prices, and financed largely against presale deposits. That makes condos more sensitive to buyer confidence and rate moves in the short run: when demand cools, condo starts stall before rental starts do.