Florida Condo Law August 2025: What Buyers and Sellers in Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, and Boca Raton Need to Know

I have been watching this one build for months. On August 3, 2025, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac formally ended the "Limited Review" process for condo purchases. It is not a minor tweak. It is one of the most significant structural changes to condo financing I have seen in my career, and the buyers I am working with right now — in Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, Tamarac, and down through Boca and Delray — are feeling it directly.

If you are buying or selling a condo in South Florida, here is what you actually need to understand.

What the Limited Review Process Was — and Why It Mattered

Under the old system, if a buyer put down 10 to 20 percent, lenders could often skip a deep dive into a condo building's financial condition. Your credit score, your income, your debt-to-income ratio — those were the main levers. The building itself got a lighter look.

That is gone now. Starting August 3, every conventional loan requires full scrutiny of the building, regardless of down payment. A buyer putting down 40 percent faces the same building review as someone putting down 10.

The practical effect: mortgage approval is no longer primarily about the borrower. It is now equally about the building.

The Three Red Flags That Will Kill Financing Immediately

Lenders following the new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines will pull back conventional financing from buildings that show any of these conditions.

Underfunded reserves. If the HOA does not have adequate cash set aside for long-term capital repairs — roofs, elevators, parking structures, plumbing — the building will likely fail review. Many older associations in Fort Lauderdale and Lake Worth have been running lean on reserves for years. That is now a financing problem, not just a management problem.

Unresolved special assessments. An ongoing or imminent large assessment for structural work signals to underwriters that the building has deferred maintenance it cannot self-fund. That triggers non-warrantable status.

Post-Surfside deferred repairs. Florida's new milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve study requirements — born from the Surfside collapse — are flushing out buildings that have been delaying safety work. If an HOA has outstanding required repairs and no clear plan to fund them, conventional buyers cannot get a loan there.

A Two-Tier Market Is Forming Right Now

What I am seeing on the ground in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and along the coast is a market splitting in real time into two very different categories.

Buildings that are newer, or that have been run by disciplined HOA boards with fully funded reserves and clean inspection records, will hold value. Conventional buyers can still finance into them. Demand stays intact.

Buildings that cannot clear the new review criteria become what lenders call non-warrantable. No Fannie, no Freddie, no conventional loan. That leaves only cash buyers or portfolio lenders charging materially higher rates. The buyer pool shrinks dramatically, and pricing follows. In some coastal Tamarac and Deerfield Beach buildings I am tracking, this is already visible in how long listings are sitting.

This connects directly to the broader waterfront condo market in Southeast Florida, where insurance costs and structural requirements were already compressing values before August 3.

What Sellers in These Cities Should Do Right Now

If you own a condo in Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Tamarac, or anywhere else on this list, do not wait for a buyer to surface before finding out where your building stands. Request your HOA's most recent reserve study, the current reserve funding percentage, and any outstanding or pending special assessments. Read the last two years of HOA board meeting minutes.

If the news is not good, you still have options — pricing strategy, targeting cash buyers, or timing your sale. But you need to know before you list, not during inspection.

What Buyers Must Ask Before They Fall in Love With a Unit

The single most important thing a buyer can do right now is require a full project approval questionnaire before getting emotionally attached to a property. This document, completed by the HOA, is what lenders use to determine warrantable status. A good agent pulls this early — before the offer, not after.

I also advise buyers to ask specifically about the building's milestone inspection status and whether a structural integrity reserve study has been completed. Under Florida law, many buildings are now required to have these. If an HOA cannot produce them, that tells you something important.

For buyers relocating from out of state, this is unfamiliar terrain. Buyers coming from New York and New Jersey in particular often assume the condo purchase process mirrors what they know from the Northeast. It does not, and the August 3 changes have widened that gap further.

If you have questions about a specific building in Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, or anywhere in between, reach out and let's talk through it before you make a move.