Florida has no state income tax, which removes the biggest advantage Dubai holds over California and New York. So this comparison has to be settled on the economics of owning the building. It comes down to roughly thirty thousand dollars of property tax, twenty three thousand dollars of association fees, and a structural reserve regime that is now written into Florida statute.
By Umer Shauket, Founder & CEO, Cresco Real Estate. Dubai head office, US office in Los Angeles. Licensed UAE brokerage, RERA ORN 34288.
Of the three American cities we get asked to compare with Dubai, Miami is the only one that is a genuine competitor.
Los Angeles and New York both lose on tax before the conversation starts, because California and New York tax their residents on worldwide income. Florida does not. Under Article VII section 5(a) of the Florida Constitution there is no personal income tax. So a Florida resident who buys in Dubai pays federal tax on the rent and nothing at state level, and a Florida resident who buys in Miami pays nothing at state level either.
That removes the biggest asymmetry. Which means this comparison has to be won or lost on the actual economics of owning the building. So let us do that properly.
Short version. Miami's problem is not tax rates. Miami's problem is the carrying cost of a condominium, and it got significantly worse between 2022 and 2026 for reasons that have nothing to do with the market.
Florida property tax is levied in mills. One mill is one dollar per thousand of taxable value.
The 2025 adopted total millage in the City of Miami is 19.9878 mills, which is 1.99878%. In unincorporated Miami-Dade County it is 16.9317 mills, or about 1.69%.
Compare that with Dubai, where the annual property tax on a freehold unit is zero. Not low. There is no municipal ad valorem levy on ownership. You pay a service charge to the owners association, set per square foot per year, approved by RERA and collected through Mollak. That is a building maintenance cost, not a tax, and it does not go to a government.
Now the part that costs American buyers real money.
Save Our Homes and the homestead exemption are for homesteads only. The 3% annual cap on assessed value increases and the exemption itself apply to a Florida resident's permanent primary residence. An investor does not get either one. Neither does a second home owner. Neither does a non resident.
What an investor gets instead is the non homestead cap under section 193.1554 of the Florida Statutes, and it is a much weaker instrument in two ways.
| Protection | Homestead | Investment or second home |
|---|---|---|
| Annual assessed value cap | 3% | 10% |
| Applies to school district levies | Yes | No |
| Homestead exemption | Yes | No |
| Resets on change of ownership | Yes | Yes |
Read the school district line again. Roughly 6.5 of the approximately 20 mills in the City of Miami are school district levies, and the non homestead cap does not touch them. About a third of your tax bill has no cap on it at all.
And then the reset. On change of ownership the assessed value snaps back to full just value.
This is the single most common underwriting error we see. A buyer looks at the current tax bill on a Brickell condo, sees a comfortable number, and models it. That number belongs to a seller who has held for eleven years under a capped assessment. It is not your number.
Underwrite Miami property tax on your purchase price, not on the current bill. On a $1,500,000 City of Miami condo at 19.9878 mills that is roughly $30,000 a year, and it goes up from there.
One thing to watch. Amendment 3 is on the November 2026 ballot and would cut the non homestead cap from 10% to 5%. If it passes, the position for investors improves meaningfully. It has not passed yet and we will not model it as though it has.
| Charge | Miami-Dade | Dubai |
|---|---|---|
| Deed transfer tax | $0.60 per $100, plus a $0.45 surtax | 4% DLD transfer fee |
| Single condominium unit | Surtax exempt under Rule 12B-4.012, so 0.60% not 1.05% | 4%, no exemptions |
| Mortgage documentary stamp | 0.35% of the loan, buyer paid | 0.25% DLD mortgage registration |
| Intangible tax on the note | 0.20% of the loan, buyer paid | |
| Title insurance | Promulgated rate, seller paid by custom in Miami-Dade | Does not exist. DLD is the register |
Two notes on that table, because we would rather flag them than let you be surprised.
The surtax exemption for a single condominium unit under Florida Administrative Code Rule 12B-4.012 is real, but practitioners disagree about its application in specific fact patterns, and the difference is 0.45% of the purchase price. On a two million dollar unit that is nine thousand dollars. Get your Florida closing attorney to confirm it in writing before you rely on it.
The combined mortgage doc stamp and intangible tax is 0.55% of the loan amount, paid by the buyer. Dubai's mortgage registration fee is 0.25% of the loan. Less than half.
On entry, Dubai is more expensive. The 4% DLD fee dwarfs Miami's 0.60% on a condo. On exit, Dubai charges nothing and Miami's costs are largely the seller's title and commission. So the pure transaction comparison favours Miami and it favours it clearly. Say that plainly.
Everything above is arithmetic. This is the section that changes outcomes.
After Surfside, Florida rewrote the rules on condominium building maintenance, and the money is now legally required rather than optional.
Section 553.899 of the Florida Statutes requires milestone structural inspections for condominium and cooperative buildings three storeys or higher, at 30 years from certificate of occupancy and every 10 years thereafter, with a tighter clock in coastal zones.
Section 718.112(2)(g) requires a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, and associations were required to have completed one by 31 December 2025. The SIRS identifies the reserve components and the funding they need. Associations lost most of their ability to waive those reserves.
The consequences are measurable. Florida OPPAGA Report 26-04 records that in Miami-Dade County in 2025 there were 308 Phase Two inspections and 23 buildings deemed unsafe. Repair permits pulled in 2025 averaged $496,236.
That is the average, in one year, in one county. A special assessment on a mid sized building spreads a number in that range across the unit owners. Two hundred thousand dollars of assessment on a single unit is not a hypothetical in Miami. It is a Tuesday.
Miami-Dade County runs a Condominium Special Assessment Loan Program to help owners fund exactly this, and it has distributed over $55 million. Governments do not build lending programmes for problems that are not happening.
HB 913 in 2025 softened the regime a little. It raised the reserve threshold from $10,000 to $25,000 and allows an association a two year pause on reserve funding in defined circumstances. That is a deferral, not a repeal. The concrete does not care about the statute.
Average Miami-Dade association fees exceeded $1,900 a month in 2025, up roughly $500 year over year. That figure comes from industry data reported through FirstService and carried by WLRN rather than from a government source, so treat it as directional. The direction is not in dispute.
Twenty three thousand dollars a year of association fees, before property tax, before insurance and before any special assessment.
We will give Miami its due here, because the reporting on this has lagged reality.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation puts the average Miami-Dade condominium HO-6 premium including wind coverage at $2,801 as at 31 March 2026. That is up only 6.4% over three years, which is well below general inflation. And Citizens Property Insurance approved a 14.0% decrease for Miami-Dade in 2026.
The Florida insurance crisis narrative is now several years out of date on condominium unit policies in Miami-Dade specifically. Master policy costs at the association level are a separate matter and they flow through your monthly fee.
Take a $1,500,000 City of Miami condominium and a comparable Dubai apartment, both held as investments by a Florida resident.
| Annual line item | Miami | Dubai |
|---|---|---|
| Property tax | Roughly $30,000 at 19.9878 mills | $0 |
| Assessed value cap | 10%, and not on school levies | Nothing to cap |
| Association or service charge | Roughly $23,000 at the Miami-Dade average | Per square foot, RERA approved via Mollak |
| Unit insurance | Roughly $2,800 HO-6 with wind | Modest, usually inside the building policy |
| Special assessment risk | Material. SIRS and milestone driven | Lower. Younger stock, RERA approved budgets |
| State income tax on the rent | $0, no Florida income tax | $0 from Florida, $0 from the UAE |
| Federal income tax on the rent | Yes, Schedule E | Yes, Schedule E |
Roughly fifty six thousand dollars a year of fixed carrying cost in Miami before a single vacancy, against a service charge in Dubai and nothing else.
That is the comparison. It is not about tax rates. It is about the fact that a Miami condominium comes with a legally mandated maintenance obligation on an ageing coastal building stock, and a Dubai apartment mostly does not, because the stock is thirty years younger and sits in a desert rather than in salt spray.
Florida takes nothing. The federal government takes plenty, and it does so whichever city you buy in.
| Federal treatment | Miami property | Dubai property |
|---|---|---|
| Rental income | Schedule E | Schedule E, same as domestic |
| Depreciation | 27.5 years | 30 years, Alternative Depreciation System |
| Capital gain | Long term rates plus 3.8% NIIT | Long term rates plus 3.8% NIIT |
| Foreign tax credit | Not applicable | None. No UAE tax paid, so nothing to credit |
| 1031 exchange | Available | Blocked. IRC section 1031(h) |
| FBAR, FinCEN Form 114 | Not applicable | Yes, if UAE accounts exceed $10,000 |
| Form 8938 | Not applicable | Possibly, depending on thresholds |
Three of those lines are real costs of going offshore that a Miami purchase does not carry.
Thirty year depreciation instead of 27.5. A smaller annual deduction on the same building.
No 1031 exchange. IRC section 1031(h) blocks exchanges between US and foreign real property. If your strategy has been rolling gains forward through 1031s, Dubai ends that chain. The gain crystallises.
Filing complexity. FBAR and potentially Form 8938 on top of your return, with penalties that are severe and not proportionate to the tax at stake.
We are not tax advisers and this is not tax advice. Take this table to a CPA who has actually filed a foreign rental property return, and if yours has not, tell us and we will say so rather than let you find out in April.
No state income tax. This is the reason Miami is the only serious American competitor to Dubai for an investor, and it deserves to be said first.
Entry cost. 0.60% deed stamps on a condominium unit against 4% in Dubai. On a two million dollar purchase that is a $68,000 difference on day one.
1031 exchanges work. You can defer gains indefinitely inside the United States. You cannot do this with Dubai.
Thirty year fixed rate financing. Dubai caps mortgage tenor at 25 years under UAE Central Bank Circular No. 31 of 2013, caps the debt burden ratio at 50%, and limits total financing to seven times annual income for expatriates. American lender competition is in a different league.
Title insurance and legal depth. Florida has an insurable title system and a deep body of real property case law. Dubai has a strong register at the DLD and no title insurance market, because the register is the guarantee.
Amendment 3. If Florida voters cut the non homestead cap to 5% in November 2026, the investor position improves.
No annual property tax. The thirty thousand dollar line does not exist.
No SIRS, no milestone inspection regime and materially lower special assessment risk. This is the real one. The Dubai stock is younger, service charges are approved by RERA rather than voted through by a self managing board under statutory pressure, and there is no equivalent of a 30 year structural recertification wave arriving all at once.
No UAE income tax and no UAE capital gains tax for an individual holding in a personal capacity. Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023 confirms that individuals earning real estate income in a personal capacity fall outside UAE corporate tax.
Gross yields. Dubai gross yields on well selected stock have run materially above Miami for several years. Gross is not net. Model service charge, void and management before you believe a yield quoted to you.
Payment plans on off plan. A developer will stage payments across construction. No Florida bank does this. Read our warning carefully though, because a 20/80 plan is a payment plan and it is not a valuation.
Residency attached to the asset. Confirm current terms directly with the Dubai Land Department, because the emirate and federal descriptions of the property investor visa do not fully agree.
This is the closest of the three comparisons and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Buy in Miami if you want 1031 optionality, thirty year fixed rate debt, an insurable title and an asset inside a legal system you already understand, and you are buying newer construction or a building whose SIRS you have read and whose reserve position you have verified.
Buy in Dubai if you are buying for net income and you have run the fifty six thousand dollar Miami carrying cost against a Dubai service charge and seen what it does to a ten year hold, or if you want residency attached to the asset.
Do not buy either one on a Miami condominium whose Structural Integrity Reserve Study you have not read. If a seller or an agent cannot produce it, that is your answer.
We do not think an advisor's job is to find you a reason to buy. It is to find every reason you should not, first. On Miami against Dubai, the reasons not to buy Miami are in the SIRS, and the reasons not to buy Dubai are in your own tax return. Read both before you send money.
Same method, same sourcing, different American city.
What is the property tax rate in Miami?
Florida levies property tax in mills, where one mill is one dollar per thousand of taxable value. The 2025 adopted total millage in the City of Miami is 19.9878 mills, which is 1.99878%. In unincorporated Miami-Dade County it is 16.9317 mills. On a 1,500,000 dollar City of Miami condominium that is roughly 30,000 dollars a year. Dubai levies no annual property tax at all.
Does the Save Our Homes 3% cap protect an investment property in Miami?
No. Save Our Homes and the homestead exemption apply only to a Florida resident's permanent primary residence. An investor, a second home owner and a non resident all fall under the non homestead cap in section 193.1554 of the Florida Statutes, which is 10% rather than 3% and which does not apply to school district levies. Roughly 6.5 of the approximately 20 mills in the City of Miami are school levies and they are uncapped.
Why is the current tax bill on a Miami condo misleading?
Because assessed value resets to full just value on a change of ownership. The comfortable figure on the listing belongs to a seller who has held the unit for years under a capped assessment. Underwrite Miami property tax on your purchase price, not on the current bill.
What is a SIRS and why does it matter to a buyer?
A Structural Integrity Reserve Study is required under section 718.112(2)(g) of the Florida Statutes, and associations were required to have completed one by 31 December 2025. It identifies the structural reserve components and the funding they require, and associations have lost most of their ability to waive those reserves. Combined with milestone inspections under section 553.899, which apply at 30 years from certificate of occupancy and every 10 years after, the result is large special assessments. Florida OPPAGA Report 26-04 records 308 Phase Two inspections in Miami-Dade in 2025, 23 buildings deemed unsafe, and repair permits averaging 496,236 dollars. Do not buy a Miami condominium whose SIRS you have not read.
Is Miami condo insurance still rising?
Not on unit owner policies in Miami-Dade. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation puts the average Miami-Dade condominium HO-6 premium including wind coverage at 2,801 dollars as at 31 March 2026, up only 6.4% over three years, and Citizens Property Insurance approved a 14.0% decrease for Miami-Dade in 2026. Master policy costs at association level are separate and flow through the monthly fee.
Can I 1031 exchange a Miami property into Dubai?
No. Section 1031(h) of the Internal Revenue Code provides that United States real property and real property located outside the United States are not like kind. If your strategy has been rolling gains forward through 1031 exchanges, moving to Dubai ends that chain and the gain crystallises.
Does a Florida resident pay any state tax on Dubai rental income?
No. Article VII section 5(a) of the Florida Constitution prohibits a personal income tax, so a Florida resident owes nothing at state level on Dubai rental income. Federal tax still applies. The rent goes on Schedule E, foreign residential rental property depreciates over 30 years rather than 27.5 under the Alternative Depreciation System, and FBAR on FinCEN Form 114 and possibly Form 8938 may be required.
Cresco Real Estate LLC is a licensed UAE brokerage, RERA ORN 34288, with a US office in Los Angeles. We are not tax advisers, attorneys or licensed financial advisers in any US state. Everything above is general information about published laws and regulations, current as at 24 August 2026, and rates and thresholds change. Verify every figure against the issuing authority and take advice from your own CPA and attorney before you transact.
Dubai head office. US office in Los Angeles. A licensed UAE brokerage, RERA ORN 34288, that will put the risks, the tax and the comparable transactions in front of you before you sign. Bring your CPA. We will work with them.