Picture a seller in Sunny Isles Beach who is pricing an oceanfront three- or four-bedroom condo somewhere above $3 million. They get a comparative market analysis built the usual way, from MLS listings, pending contracts and closed sales. That report leaves out a large group of competing homes. Two branded towers rising on Collins Avenue have been selling residences at almost the same price point for years, and very few of those contracts appear in the data a comp report draws on.
That gap explains much of what the MLS shows about Sunny Isles right now. The town's luxury resale tier looks like one of the slowest in Miami's coastal condo markets. Some of the buyers who would have kept it moving have probably signed for something that has not been built yet.
What the MLS Shows at $3 Million and Up
As of October 1, 2026, Sunny Isles Beach had 155 condos listed at $3 million or more, with a median asking price of $5.5 million. That is 14.8% of everything for sale in town. Only eight more condos in that price range were under contract, 4.9% of the tier once listings and contracts are counted together. The median active listing in the tier had been on the market for 118 days.
The same October 1 snapshot shows how that compares with nearby markets:
| $3M+ condos, as of Oct. 1, 2026 | For sale | Median asking | Under contract | Share under contract | Median days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny Isles Beach | 155 | $5,500,000 | 8 | 4.9% | 118 |
| Miami Beach | 175 | $4,999,000 | 20 | 10.3% | 87 |
| Bal Harbour | 55 | $5,100,000 | 4 | 6.8% | 118 |
| Bay Harbor Islands | 33 | $3,995,000 | 11 | 25.0% | 132 |
| Brickell | 78 | $4,995,000 | 5 | 6.0% | 90 |
| Downtown Miami | 72 | $5,710,500 | 2 | 2.7% | 106 |
| Eight core neighborhoods combined | 672 | $4,995,000 | 59 | 8.1% | 100 |
Of the eight neighborhoods, only Downtown Miami had a smaller share of its $3 million-plus condos under contract. Miami Beach had a slightly larger luxury inventory and more than twice the share in contract. All of these figures are asking prices and listing statuses, not closed sales. Even so, they show the pace of each tier fairly well.
The slowness does not come from a lack of wealthy buyers in the region. Through September 2026, Miami-Dade recorded 24 single-family and condo sales of $30 million or more. The county had already passed its full-year 2025 record of 21, according to MIAMI REALTORS® + RWorld. The buyers are in the market, and in Sunny Isles some of them are buying where the MLS has no view.
The Towers Selling Right at the Resale Median
MIAMI REALTORS® says its sales totals leave out South Florida's new construction, pre-construction and condo conversion sales "because they are largely not reported in the MLS." Most markets can live with that blind spot. In Sunny Isles, it falls right on the town's busiest luxury price band.
St. Regis Residences Sunny Isles sits at 18801 Collins Avenue and is being developed by Fortune International Group and Château Group. The plan calls for two 62-story towers on a 4.7-acre site: a 170-unit south tower and a 150-unit north tower. The Real Deal reported in April 2026 that the south tower, which launched sales in 2022, is nearly sold out. Remaining units start at $5 million, and the projected sellout across both towers is more than $3 billion.
Bentley Residences, Dezer Development's 216-unit tower at 18401 Collins Avenue, also launched sales in 2022. As of November 2025 it was more than 50% presold. Remaining units started at $5.8 million, and its two penthouses were asking $37.5 million each, according to The Real Deal.
Set those starting prices next to the resale numbers. The median Sunny Isles condo listed at $3 million or more asks $5.5 million. St. Regis begins at $5 million and Bentley at $5.8 million. A buyer with a budget of around $5.5 million for a new oceanfront residence in this town can choose among the resale listings, a St. Regis contract and a Bentley contract. When that buyer signs with a developer, the resale side of the MLS mostly never sees the deal. The listing they passed on stays active, and its days on market keep counting.
The MLS cannot show how many buyers went that way. Still, the two developers have sold most of more than 380 units across Bentley and the St. Regis south tower since 2022. Those sales are the most likely place the missing luxury demand went.
What a Pre-Construction Contract Asks a Buyer to Wait For
The pre-construction buyer pays at least partly in time. Each project's milestones show how much:
- St. Regis south tower: The mat foundation was poured July 24 to 26, 2026, and Florida YIMBY reported that vertical construction was expected to start later that year. Construction is set to finish in 2028.
- St. Regis north tower: City National Bank of Florida provided $113.8 million in April 2026, and construction was scheduled to begin later in 2026. That brought total financing for the project to $532.1 million.
- Bentley Residences: When Bentley Motors announced the February 2024 groundbreaking, completion was projected for the end of 2027. Later coverage moved the date to 2028. Florida YIMBY reported the tower had gone vertical by June 2026 and had reached about 13 stories by August 6, 2026, with completion still expected in 2028.
- Miami Beach Club, 19051 Collins Avenue: Related Group, Dezer Development and BH Group bought out the 108-unit complex, built in 1951, for $131.8 million. They plan a 62-story, 145-unit tower to replace it. A letter from the developers' attorneys gave an anticipated completion date of December 2031, per The Real Deal. BH Group's own project page says construction starts in Q3 2027 and completion is expected by 2030.
A contract signed at St. Regis or Bentley this fall means roughly two years before move-in at the earliest. The next tower in the pipeline adds several more years. This matters for the resale seller. Their listing is competing against branded product, and the one thing it offers that branded product cannot is keys at closing.
The Resales That Did Move
The completed Sunny Isles units that have traded quickly in 2026 point the same way. Each was in a recently delivered branded building, where a buyer gets the new-construction product without the wait.
Estates at Acqualina is the Trump Group's two-tower development. Its 232 units were completed in 2022 and 2023. Several notable 2026 closings came from this one complex:
- A 4,100-square-foot condo at 17901 Collins Avenue sold for $10.2 million, about $2,500 per square foot. The sellers had bought it in 2022 for $5.5 million and listed it in November at $10.9 million, The Real Deal reported in its roundup of June 2, 2026 transactions.
- A six-bedroom, 7,700-square-foot unit in the same building sold for $21.6 million, or $2,800 per square foot. It had hit the market in June at $25 million, and the seller had paid $17.9 million in 2025, per The Real Deal.
- A 52nd-floor penthouse of about 8,858 square feet at 17975 Collins Avenue sold for $33 million, the highest price yet in that tower. It had been asking $35 million. The seller was an affiliate of the developer, so this was developer inventory and not a resale. The Real Deal covered the sale on September 4, 2026.
The two true resales sold about 6% and about 14% below their asking prices, and the owner who bought in 2022 nearly doubled their money. Those buyers paid top-tier prices per square foot for a branded, fully amenitized residence they could use right away. They were the same kind of buyer St. Regis and Bentley are selling to, and they chose to pay for immediacy.
Pricing a Sunny Isles Resale With the Missing Comps Included
Because the hidden competition sits at $5 million and up, the town-wide numbers say little about it. As of October 1, 2026, Sunny Isles had 1,045 condos for sale at a median asking price of $689,000, and 30.6% of them had been listed for longer than six months. Three of the ten Miami buildings with the most condos for sale were in Sunny Isles: Aventura Beach Club, also known as Marco Polo, with 78 listings; Trump International Beach Resort with 49; and Ocean Reserve with 42. Their median asking prices were $122,500, $295,000 and $499,950. Those buildings shape the town's median, but they compete for a different buyer than the towers north of the Acqualina complex do.
For an owner listing above $3 million, this changes the pricing work in a few specific ways:
- Add the developer price lists to the comp set. A buyer touring a resale at $5.5 million has very likely seen or been offered a St. Regis or Bentley residence at a nearby price. The resale has to compete with those projects on what they offer, including amenities and branding. At Bentley that includes three- or four-car garages and Dezer's Dezervator car elevator.
- Present immediate occupancy as a feature with a timeline. Bentley's completion target has already moved once, from the end of 2027 to 2028. The Miami Beach Club's two published completion dates are a year apart. Those dates, sourced to the developers and the press, make a stronger case for a finished unit than a general description of being move-in ready.
- Read days on market in context. A Sunny Isles luxury listing at 118 days is at the town's median for its tier. Buyers in this market have a credible alternative to waiting on any one listing, and that is part of why the median runs long.
For buyers, the same comparison runs the other way. A finished Sunny Isles resale at or below the price of a remaining St. Regis or Bentley unit gives up the newest building and the brand. In exchange, the buyer gets about two years of use, no construction milestones to track, and a building with an operating history they can review before they sign.
Lydia Eskenazi can help you weigh a specific resale against the remaining pre-construction inventory at the same price, with the delivery timelines included. Let's Connect, and schedule a confidential consultation.
