Brickell Condo Closing FIRPTA Guide for International Buyers

Ask most guides who owes the FIRPTA withholding on a Brickell condo sale, and they'll all say the same thing: the foreign seller. That's technically true and mostly useless if you're the one sitting across the closing table as the buyer. The law doesn't ask the seller to write a check to the IRS. It puts that job on you, the buyer, whether or not you're the one with any tax exposure in the deal.

That distinction rarely matters in most U.S. real estate markets, because most sellers aren't foreign persons. In Brickell, the odds run the other way.

The math behind an ordinary-looking resale

Brickell's condo stock has been shaped by international capital for over a decade, and recent reporting shows that shaping hasn't slowed. A Brickell-focused broker quoted this month in Miami Today put it plainly: "international investors make up just upwards of 50% of all purchases" in the neighborhood right now. A year earlier, the same outlet reported that investors, described as predominantly Latin American and chasing long-term or short-term rental income, made up about 90 percent of Brickell condo buyers. Regionwide, a joint report from MIAMI REALTORS and several development sales firms found that international buyers purchased 49 percent of new South Florida construction, pre-construction, and condo-conversion sales over an 18-month period ending in June 2025, with Downtown Miami alone seeing 43 percent of its units go to international buyers in that stretch and Brickell's own new-development pipeline described by one development sales CEO as seeing intense international demand from Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina.

Run that forward a few years. Units bought by foreign nationals in 2019, 2020, and 2021 are now aging into resale inventory. Some of those original buyers are exiting: taking profit, relocating, or simplifying a portfolio. When they list, the person who ends up buying that unit, whether a domestic relocator, a first-time Miami buyer, or another foreign national, is buying from a foreign seller. And that means the buyer inherits the withholding job.

What the buyer actually has to do

FIRPTA (the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act) requires that when a seller is a foreign person, the buyer withholds a percentage of the gross sales price and remits it to the IRS using Form 8288 within 20 days of closing. The rate depends on price and intended use:

Most Brickell transactions above the $1 million mark, common territory once you're in the luxury or branded-residence tier, fall into that 15 percent bucket by default. On a $1.5 million unit, that's $225,000 withheld at closing. The seller can apply ahead of time for a withholding certificate (Form 8288-B) to reduce that amount if their actual tax liability is lower than the flat percentage, but that application has to be filed and pending before closing to change the mechanics.

Here's the part that trips people up: if your closing team fails to identify the seller as a foreign person, or accepts a non-foreign affidavit that turns out to be false, the buyer, not the seller, is the one exposed to IRS penalties for under-withholding. The seller has already left with their proceeds. The paperwork liability sits with you.

Why this is your leverage right now, not just your risk

For most of 2021 and 2022, Brickell closings moved fast enough that asking for extra weeks to properly vet a seller's status, confirm ITIN documentation, or let a withholding certificate application clear would have cost a buyer the deal. That's not the market anymore.

Market trackers following Brickell condo closings put the neighborhood at somewhere between 17 and 19 months of condo inventory in the first quarter of 2026, well above the 6-month mark that typically defines a balanced market. Average days on market for Brickell condos have stretched to roughly 113 days based on that same Q1 2026 data, a sharp change from the pandemic-era pace when priced-right units went under contract in days. Median condo pricing has softened enough that trackers disagree on the exact number: some put the neighborhood median near $660,000 based on late-2025 closings, others closer to $790,000 using spring 2026 figures, but the direction is consistent with a buyer's market rather than a seller's one.

That inventory glut is exactly the condition that gives a buyer room to negotiate a longer due diligence and closing window. If your seller is a foreign national and your title company needs time to confirm status, request a withholding certificate, or simply get the affidavit paperwork correct, a market with 113 days of average time-on-market is a market where sellers are far more likely to say yes to an extra two or three weeks than they were in 2021. Use it. Build the closing timeline around what the paperwork actually requires instead of around what a hot market used to demand.

If you're buying an ITIN yourself, don't wait for the exit to get one

A separate but related timing issue affects foreign buyers directly, particularly the large share of Brickell buyers coming from Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. You don't need a U.S. Individual Taxpayer Identification Number to close on a condo. You do need one eventually, both to file any required U.S. tax returns while you own the property and to process a withholding certificate or refund claim whenever you sell.

ITIN applications typically take seven to eleven weeks to process. The common mistake is treating that as a future problem, something to handle when a sale is already in motion. By then, the clock is working against a seller who wants their FIRPTA over-withholding refunded quickly rather than a year or more later. Applying for the ITIN before or alongside your purchase closing, rather than waiting for your own exit, is a small step now that saves a genuinely long wait later.

Buying pre-construction runs a different playbook

Not every Brickell buyer is stepping into a resale. Given how much of the neighborhood's Latin American demand is concentrated in new-construction sales, plenty of readers here are buying directly from a developer instead. FIRPTA doesn't attach the same way to a purchase from a development entity, but Florida law gives pre-construction buyers a different set of protections worth knowing before signing a reservation agreement.

Florida Statute 718.202 caps deposits at 10 percent of the purchase price for unfinished units, and requires that money to sit in escrow with an independent agent, a bank, a Florida Bar attorney, a licensed broker, or a qualifying title insurer, rather than flowing straight to the developer's construction budget. Anything collected above that 10 percent can only go toward construction if the contract explicitly says so, with a required boldface warning on the first page. Separately, Section 718.503 gives buyers a 15-day window to cancel after receiving the required condominium documents, and the developer generally cannot close before those 15 days pass unless the buyer agrees in writing to move faster. For anyone weighing multiple pre-construction towers, that rescission window is worth using rather than waiving.

If you're instead buying resale in one of Brickell's older towers, Florida's post-Surfside rules matter more than the deposit protections do. Buildings three stories or taller must complete milestone structural inspections at age 30, or age 25 in some coastal jurisdictions, under Florida Statute 553.899, and associations must run structural integrity reserve studies at least every 10 years. Ask for these documents before you're deep into a contract, not after.

Wire instructions deserve a phone call, not a reply

One more friction point shows up disproportionately in cross-border and power-of-attorney closings, which describes a large share of Brickell's international buyer base: wire fraud targeting the exact moment funds move. If your closing involves remote signing or a POA arrangement because you're not physically in Miami, verify wiring instructions by calling your title company at a number you already have on file, not one included in the email containing the new instructions. Confirm any change to wiring details verbally through a contact you've already established. Treat a last-minute, email-only change to wiring instructions as a reason to stop and call, not a reason to move faster.

A few direct questions

Does FIRPTA apply if I'm also a foreign buyer purchasing from a foreign seller? Yes. The withholding obligation is based on the seller's status, not the buyer's. A foreign buyer purchasing from a foreign seller still has to withhold and remit under Form 8288.

What if the seller's foreign status doesn't come up until later in the deal? It still has to be resolved before closing. A non-foreign affidavit signed in bad faith or discovered to be inaccurate after the fact doesn't shift the withholding responsibility away from the buyer, which is exactly why building extra weeks into the closing timeline for verification matters.

Is a withholding certificate the same thing as an exemption? No. It reduces or eliminates withholding based on the seller's actual expected tax liability being lower than the standard rate, but it has to be filed with the IRS and either approved or pending, with notice given to the buyer, before it changes what gets withheld at closing.

None of this is tax or legal advice, and every transaction has its own wrinkles worth running past a CPA and a real estate attorney before you sign anything. What it should change is how you think about the calendar. In a market carrying more than a year's worth of Brickell condo inventory, the extra weeks a cross-border closing actually needs aren't a burden you're asking a seller to absorb. They're time this market already has.

If you're weighing a Brickell purchase and want a closing timeline built around what your specific transaction actually requires, Marbelys Angel works with buyers across Miami's international market in both English and Spanish, backed by Coldwell Banker Global Luxury's resources for exactly these cross-border transactions. Call or message to talk through your specific situation before you write an offer.