MIAMI-1818 Meridian Avenue, a multifamily asset on South Beach, just sold for $2.7 million. The property traded for less than a 3% cap on in-place numbers.

Calum Weaver, co-chairs of the CB Richard Ellis Multi-Housing Private Capital Group in South Florida, negotiated the transaction on behalf of the undisclosed seller. The buyer was Domus Group, a Latin American investor.

“We had marketed this property several different times since 2007,” Weaver tells GlobeSt.com. “The market was flat, but over the last 18 months there’s definitely been an uptick, particularly on South Beach, from investors and more so foreign investors. If you look at all the apartment trades on the beach, more than half sold to foreigners.”

1818 Meridian offers 28 units in a garden style, two-story apartment community. The building is 89% occupied. High-end condos and hotels surround the property, which is adjacent to the Miami Beach Convention Center. 1818 Meridian is within walking distance to Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive.

As Weaver sees it, the sale of 1818 Meridian shows that the South Beach multi-housing market is still exceptionally strong. He points to multiple foreign investors aggressively competing for a limited number of multifamily opportunities here. He notes Italian, French, Israeli, Argentinian and Canadian buyers as specifically interested in South Beach.

“These investors are seeking value-add opportunities that will yield higher returns in the future by implementing a capital improvement program at the property,” Weaver says. “They are willing to pay a premium for a property that may not have strong financials, but provides significant upside potential. As such in-place cap rates on South Beach are extremely low.”