At the Douglas Enclave apartment building in Miami’s Little Havana, developer Henry Torres reduced rents for some of the 199 units without impacting his overall revenue. After completing the project in 2023, Torres lowered annual rates by an average of $3,000 per unit and compensated for this loss with approximately $4,500 in property tax breaks per qualifying unit through Florida’s Live Local Act. This resulted in about $450,000 in savings from a total tax bill of $950,000 for the year.
Torres noted that this move also accelerated leasing at the property during a period when affordable housing remains scarce across South Florida. “It definitely got a lot more smiles on people’s faces. I can tell you that. People are struggling right now, especially the blue collar class,” said Torres, founder of Astor Companies. “It helped us tremendously to get units rented faster.”
The Live Local Act provides incentives to landlords who designate at least 71 units as workforce or affordable housing within projects completed in the past five years. The law offers a 75 percent property tax abatement for apartments reserved for households earning between 80 and 120 percent of area median income (AMI), and full tax relief for those earning less than 80 percent of AMI.
This year, at least 48 properties across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties qualified for these benefits. Many developers retroactively brought existing buildings under the program to access its tax advantages amid rising costs and slowing demand.
“Developers are looking at projects and saying, ‘Alright, property insurance is going up, property taxes are going up. How do we offset things?’” said Matthew Scott of Greenspoon Marder. “They run the math and Live Local gives the tax benefit, so that’s less money they have to pay.”
Coral Rock Development Group applied the law to its Metropolitan project in Coral Springs after originally planning it as market-rate apartments. By offering roughly 160 workforce units with rents about $350 below market rate, they achieved full lease-up this fall.
“We determined through metric analysis that we would accelerate leasing and not lose money,” said Michael Wohl of Coral Rock Development Group. “You need to lease-up faster and stabilize faster, so you can be eligible for permanent financing.”
Most properties benefiting from Live Local are located in suburban areas where rent differentials make participation feasible; out of 28 Miami-Dade recipients this year, 19 were outside central neighborhoods such as Hialeah.
Carlos Segrera of IMC Equity Group pointed out that higher-income areas like Coral Gables are less likely to see benefits from the program due to smaller gaps between market rents and workforce thresholds: “The income demographics are higher,” Segrera said. But “if the market [rent] is at $3,000 and you can lease it at $2,700 … now the pro-forma pencils.”
Nick Rojo from Affiliated Development reported receiving abatements on four properties without reducing rents since they were already priced below market rates: “It was necessary because of the dramatic spike in operating cost. Insurance doubled. Materials … skyrocketed,” he said.
Landlords say qualifying for these tax breaks involves administrative work such as verifying tenant incomes against program limits using documents like paystubs or tax returns. Additionally, lenders including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not currently recognize these savings when determining financing amounts.
“Fannie and Freddie … do not recognize Live Local savings,” explained Alex Ruiz from Prestige Companies.” If they were going to give me $10 million for a project … with Live Local I should be able to qualify for $14 million … They [still] give me $10 million.”
Some developers acknowledge that while local governments may lose some revenue due to these abatements, such measures help maintain service levels without raising rents further during South Florida’s ongoing affordability crisis.
At No. 17 Residences in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, Lissette Calderon reserved some apartments as workforce housing with one-bedroom units below $2,000 per month—a rare rate locally—thanks to Live Local support: “This has allowed us to continue to maintain the rents we were hoping to maintain and continue that aspirational living to the engines that drive our community,” she said.
Torres added: “I have a lot of sympathy for people struggling but I have to make sure our building makes money … We have a business to run too.”
