A pre-construction contract in Brickell lets you buy a unit in a building that does not exist yet, at a price locked in before construction financing closes, before the crane goes up, sometimes before the sales gallery has furniture in it. What that contract does not automatically give you is the right to sell it to someone else if your plans change before the tower is finished. That right lives inside a single clause, and in most Brickell developer agreements, using it requires the developer's written consent, a fee, and a Florida tax on the profit you make from the sale itself.
Investors tend to treat the assignment clause as boilerplate, something they will read closely if they ever need it. That habit gets the order backward. The clause determines whether the buy-early-flip-before-delivery strategy pitched at nearly every Brickell sales gallery is actually available to a given buyer, and on what terms. For anyone who might want out before closing, the clause is the deal.
What the Assignment Clause Actually Controls
An assignment is the transfer of your purchase contract, not the property itself, to a new buyer before the closing date arrives. You never take title. The new buyer, called the assignee, steps into your shoes and eventually closes directly with the developer.
The word "eventually" is doing work in that sentence. Florida developer contracts commonly restrict how and when that transfer can happen. Some prohibit assignment outright. Others allow it but attach conditions: written consent from the developer, restrictions on how the unit can be marketed before consent is granted, and a fee for the privilege. One Miami pre-construction guide puts that fee at roughly 1 to 2 percent of the purchase price when assignment is permitted at all. On a $1.1 million Cipriani Residences unit, that is an $11,000 to $22,000 line item before you have found a buyer or negotiated a price.
None of this shows up in the marketing deck. It shows up in the purchase and sale agreement, usually several pages past the floor plan.
The Tax That Applies Even Though No Deed Changes Hands
Here is the part that catches even experienced investors off guard. Florida imposes a documentary stamp tax on deeds and other instruments that transfer an interest in real property, under Florida Statutes Section 201.02(1)(a). The statute's language is broad enough to cover an assignment of a contract to purchase real estate, not just a recorded deed. A Florida real estate law firm has noted plainly that this tax applies to the consideration paid for an assignment, meaning the profit or fee an assignor collects, even though no deed is ever recorded for that transaction. The statewide rate is 70 cents per $100 of consideration, with Miami-Dade County using a different rate than the rest of the state. The tax is reported and paid to the Florida Department of Revenue using Form DR-228.
Practically, this means the number an assignor nets from a flip is not the sale price minus the developer's fee. It is the sale price minus the developer's fee, minus this transfer tax, minus whatever legal and closing costs the assignment itself generates, since assignments are handled by attorneys who specialize in them and few general practice real estate attorneys take them on.
Ten Buildings, Ten Different Amounts of Capital Waiting on an Exit
Brickell's current pre-construction pipeline spans a wide price range, and the deposit structure attached to each price point changes how much of an investor's capital sits illiquid while an assignment search is underway.
| Tower | Starting Price | Positioning |
|---|---|---|
| LOFTY Brickell | $500,000 | No minimum lease requirement, built for short-term rental flexibility |
| Mercedes-Benz Places | $550,000 | Branded mixed-use tower with automotive design language |
| The Standard | $600,000 | Offers a flexible rental program |
| Viceroy Brickell Residences | $630,900 | Hospitality-branded, delivery estimated for 2026 |
| Baccarat Residences | $1,000,000 | Entry point to Brickell's branded-residence tier |
| Cipriani Residences | $1,100,000 | 80-story tower |
| The Residences at 1428 Brickell | $2,300,000 | Solar-powered building, a quarter of units are two-story residences |
| St. Regis Residences | $4,600,000 | Ultra-luxury tier |
Most projects in this pipeline follow a staged deposit schedule that totals 20 to 50 percent of the purchase price before closing, with a common pattern of 10 percent at contract, 10 percent at groundbreaking, and 10 percent at the building's top-off. The ultra-luxury tier is different. St. Regis and Mandarin Oriental Residences, both priced at the top of this range, may require total deposits of 40 to 50 percent. That is the difference between having a few hundred thousand dollars tied up while you look for an assignee and having two million dollars or more sitting in escrow with no guarantee anyone wants to step into your position at the price you need.
Why This Matters More Right Now Than It Did Two Years Ago
An assignment strategy depends on finding a buyer who wants what you are selling, on your timeline, at a price that still leaves you a profit after the fee and the tax. That search happens against the backdrop of the existing resale market, and the current backdrop in Brickell is not favorable to a seller in a hurry.
Miami-Dade County recorded 12.3 months of condo supply as of the June 2026 market report from the Miami Association of Realtors, well above the six to nine months the association classifies as balanced. Brickell's own resale data tells a similar story: a median of 129 days to pending as of June 30, 2026, with 92.7 percent of sales closing below the original list price, according to neighborhood figures reported that month. The median sale price across Brickell listings was $594,167 as of May 31, 2026.
An assignee shopping for a pre-construction contract in this environment is not comparing your unit to other assignments alone. They are comparing it to a resale shelf where sellers are already discounting and waiting more than four months to get to pending. That comparison sets a ceiling on what an assignor can realistically ask, and it lengthens the runway needed to find someone willing to pay it. The flip strategy still works. It just works on a slower clock and a thinner margin than it did when inventory was tighter.
The Fifteen Days That Matter Before Any of This Applies
Florida law gives buyers of pre-construction condominium units a 15-day rescission period after signing the contract or receiving the required condominium documents, whichever comes later, under Florida Statutes Section 718.503. During those 15 days, the contract is voidable by the buyer, and any purported waiver of that right has no effect. Once the window closes, the contract becomes binding, and developers typically treat deposits as non-refundable outside of narrow circumstances, such as the developer missing a stated delivery deadline.
That 15-day window is the only point in the process where an investor has full leverage to negotiate the assignment clause itself, before signing away the right to walk. Reviewing that clause with a Florida real estate attorney during rescission, rather than after the fact, is the difference between an exit plan that exists on paper and one that gets improvised under pressure two years later.
Three Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Does this specific contract allow assignment, and under what conditions? Some developers require a set percentage of the building to be sold before granting consent to any single assignment. Confirm the actual language rather than assuming a standard policy applies across the pipeline.
What is the assignment fee, and who is expected to pay it? Rates in the 1 to 2 percent range are common when assignment is permitted. Whether that comes out of the assignor's proceeds or gets negotiated into the assignee's price is a point worth settling in writing before a buyer is even in the picture.
What happens to the deposit if no assignee is found before closing? In most contracts, the original buyer remains obligated to close on the unit regardless of whether an assignment search succeeds. Understanding that fallback before signing changes how much deposit exposure an investor is actually comfortable carrying.
If a Brickell pre-construction purchase is part of your investment plan, the assignment clause deserves the same scrutiny as the price per square foot. Jorge Hidalgo reviews developer contracts with clients before the rescission period closes, so the exit plan gets built in at signing rather than reconstructed under pressure later. Schedule a Confidential Consultation to go through a specific contract before you commit.
