A South Florida Sun Sentinel study found that less than 1% of vacant land can be developed in Broward and Palm Beach counties – mainly scattered individual lots.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Very little vacant land is left for building homes in South Florida, but just how scarce are the options? As the region struggles with a housing shortage, the amount of vacant land zoned for residences is down to less than 1% in parts of the region.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel requested the amount of all vacant land parcels that are currently zoned “vacant residential” or “vacant commercial” from the Palm Beach County and Broward County property appraiser’s office.
According to an analysis of the data, there are only about 20 square miles, or less than 1%, of land that remains vacant and zoned for residential use. For perspective, Palm Beach County is 2,383 square miles. On top of that, those 20 square miles are fractured into hundreds of lots all over the place.
It’s even worse in Broward County. Of the county’s 1,323 square miles, only 5 square miles, or less than 1%, remain vacant and zoned for residential use.
Miami-Dade County did not return the request for information.
Much of the vacant land in Palm Beach County is parceled in the western parts of the county, such as Belle Glade, Clewiston and in areas such as Westlake and Loxahatchee. For Broward County, the land is more scattered, with areas of remaining land concentrated in the areas of Southwest Ranches, Davie and west of Sunrise.
“Broward County is a sought-after place to live as people from all over the world are making it their home. Although impossible to say for certain, it is my belief that the lack of vacant land is a contributing factor in the increase in value for the existing homes and properties and likely will be for the foreseeable future,” said Marty Kiar with the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office.
South Florida is in the midst of a real estate boom fueled in part by record low inventory and an influx of new residents. One of the most important factors in the housing shortage, however, is the scarcity of land on which to build. Developers are having a hard time finding vacant land zoned for residential commercial use, as each county is braced by the ocean on one side and the Everglades on the other.
“Broward County is one of the most land-constrained markets in the country,” said Brent Baker, division president with Pulte Group, who builds homes throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County. “Palm Beach County is slightly better.”
Many of Pulte’s projects are reflective of the land constraints that South Florida is facing. They’ve had to turn to land-use conversions, building on areas that were once golf courses or flea markets.
Pulte isn’t the only developer turning to outlying areas in a quest to find land.
AKAI Estates turned to Southwest Ranches, out in the western part of Broward County, and Symphony at Jupiter, a new housing community, is built on one of the few remaining parcels of land in Jupiter, that was at one point a nursery.
Land scarcity and housing prices
Land scarcity will drive up land prices, explained Ken H. Johnson, real estate economist with Florida Atlantic University.
“It causes the price to be significantly higher. It’s pure supply and demand,” added Baker. “As the availability of land dwindles, that reduces the supply, and that ultimately makes it harder and more expensive for the builder and the developer to get housing on there.”
It also motivates developers to build costlier homes. “The more expensive land gets, the more value you need to put on it on the land,” said Michael Sochaczevski, a developer on the AKAI Estates team.
The AKAI Estates development sells custom homes built on about 2 acres of land ranging from $8 million to $13 million.
All of these factors help fuel South Florida’s affordable housing crisis.
Will agricultural lands and golf courses help?
Beyond vacant lots, there are other open spaces in South Florida, some held as nature preserves, while other areas consist of agricultural lands, golf courses or industrial lands. These could be rezoned in the future to accommodate residential developments.
Broward County currently has about 19 square miles of land that are golf courses, agricultural properties and other large parcels, while in Palm Beach County, around 684 square miles are zoned as agricultural or agricultural residential.
“We’re going to be looking for land,” said Johnson.
Case in point, former President Donald Trump announced plans to convert the Blue Monster golf course at Trump National Doral, one of four golf courses there, into a luxury housing, retail and commercial space.
And last year, Miami Dade County commissioners voted 10-2 to redevelop the Calusa Country Club into a 550-home development by GL Homes.
The land shortage is happening as population growth in the tri-county area is expected to rise over the next 10 years: Palm Beach County should see the population increase by 14% over the next 10 years, while Broward County should see increases of 12% and Miami-Dade 8.7%, according to numbers provided by Johnson.
Whether and how that land is rezoned remains to be seen.
Golf courses have seen a resurgence in popularity, preventing some of the courses that may have been converted from doing so, said Baker. There is a chance that some of the larger nurseries could be redeveloped. The rezoning process can take anywhere from 18 months to 24 months, Baker said.
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