A Surfside condo sold for $86 million last year, shattering a Miami-area price record that had stood for more than a decade. That benchmark may be short-lived: a $120 million penthouse is now said to be in contract at Miami Beach’s Shore Club.

These record-breakers are part of a broader shift: An expanding wave of ultra-luxury condos are coming to market in Miami at price points that, until recently, did not exist.

“I see this as New York-ification,” said Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel. “It’s not that these assets appreciated 100%, it’s just that this asset class is looked at differently than a few years ago.”

Miami condo pricing is undergoing a reset, climbing to levels that defy historical logic as luxury apartments in the region become a must-have item for the global elite. Alongside a Hamptons estate, a Manhattan apartment or a lodge in Aspen, high-net-worth buyers increasingly see Miami condos — turnkey yet sprawling, with hotel services and beach access — as the finishing piece in a personal real estate portfolio.

“Not everybody wants a house,” said Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund, who is marketing a $125 million condo at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, South Beach (which would set yet another record). “People from New York are used to living in towers or penthouses with beautiful terraces.”

The $125 million penthouse at the Ritz combines two duplex penthouse units — one facing east, the other west — each with a private rooftop pool atop the 15-story building.

The property sits along the last available site along so-called Billionaires’ Beach, and offers amenities like valet parking and catering by a Michelin-starred chef. The combined units are also being marketed separately, priced at $69 million and $52.5 million. A few other full-floor combinations are available for above $50 million. 

“The deals on the sand are getting bigger and bigger,” Eklund said. “These billionaire, masters of the universe like that there can’t be many more like this.”

Back in 2015, Miami’s condo market had a very different ceiling. That year, Ken Griffin, founder of hedge fund Citadel, made headlines with what was then a record-setting condominium purchase: a pair of penthouses totaling 12,500-square-feet at Faena House for $60 million. The sale became a high-water mark for Miami’s condo market, remaining untouched for a decade — even Griffin later resold the units at a loss.

The record finally fell in November 2025, and not by inches. Fort Partners sold an oceanfront penthouse at its boutique Seaway at the Surf Club development for $86 million. The buyer was Caryl Englander, the ex-wife of hedge-fund titan Israel Englander.  

Today, new construction listings are pushing well beyond Griffin’s once head-turning purchase.  

At the Perigon Miami Beach, a 73-unit development in Surfside where 85% of residences have sold ahead of its 2027 completion, one 5,600-square-foot duplex with west-facing views is still on the market, priced at $37 million.

A full penthouse at the property has not yet been formally priced, but is expected to list for “substantially more,” said Philip Freedman, the project’s director of sales.

Also in Surfside, a two-level penthouse at Ocean House has hit the market asking $70 million. The residence totals about 9,476 square feet indoors, with roughly another 5,000 square feet of outdoor terrace space.

Prices in the 25-unit beachfront building start at $10 million, and about 60% of the residences are already spoken for, said Marcelo Kingston, managing partner at Multiplan REAM, the developer.

Back over at Shore Club, the roughly $120 million, 10,500-square-foot unit has been under contract since early in the sales process nearly four years ago and is set to closes late next year, or in early 2028.

The project, by Witkoff Group and Monroe Capital, includes a 20-story tower now under construction (home to the nine-figure unit), a stand-alone beachfront house and the redevelopment of the historic Cromwell House into six modern residences.

It’s all designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, New York’s go-to firm for billionaire-grade real estate. Only five of the 49 homes in total remain unsold.

“This is where smart money is buying,” said Norma-Jean Callahan, the Douglas Elliman broker leading sales at the project.

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