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GLOBAL REAL ESTATE COUNCIL OF ORLANDO
RECEIVES DIAMOND ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Global Real Estate Council of Orlando — a special interest
group of the Orlando Regional REALTOR® Association — has been
presented with the Diamond Global Achievement Program Award
from the National Association of REALTORS®.
The award recognizes the highest level of sustained service
to REALTORS® who work with foreign national homebuyers and
sellers. It was presented in November during a festive evening gala
for international real estate practitioners as part of NAR's 2018
REALTOR® Conference & Expo in Boston.
This is the first year that the Global Real Estate Council of
ORRA CEO Cliff Long (l) and 2018
ORRA President Lou Nimkoff (r) join
2018 Global Real Estate Council of
Orlando Chairman Cleberto Copetti
(c) in receiving the council’s Diamond
Achievement Award. Continued on page 14
FOCUS ORLANDO
ORRA produces a terrific
resource that pitches
Orlando as a destination
for international real estate
and economic investment.
Our “Focus Orlando”
brochure is available for
download and use by all
members (feel free to use
it in your own marketing
eff orts) in English, Spanish,
French, and Portuguese.
“Focus Orlando,” which has
been updated to reflect
2018 year-end data, is
located on orlandorealtors.
org/international under
the “Tools and Resources”
header.
2018 FOREIGN FACTOIDS
41%of Florida
REALTORS®
worked with a foreign
client in 2018, compared to
23 percent nationwide.
35%of Florida
REALTORS’®
foreign clients stated that
home prices in Florida
were less expensive than
in their country of origin,
down from 41 percent in
2017.
68%of Florida
REALTORS®ˊ
foreign clients were
personal or business
contacts or repeat clients
in 2018.
Focus
Orlando Florida, U.S.A.
Orlando
No. 2
hottest housing
market for 20191
BEST U.S. CITY
to invest in a home2
TOP 4
fastest growing city3
500,000+ STUDENTS
WITHIN A 100-MILE RADIUS
1 Zillow 2019
2 Forbes 2018
3 Forbes 2018
orlandorealtors.org
FINANCIAL MATTERS
International buyers
contribute significantly to Orlando’s
dollar volume statistic.
Foreign buyer purchases tend
to involve higher priced homes
and accounted for 19 percent
of Florida’s total residential
dollar volume during the study
period. That same 19 percent
equates to $1.9 billion when
applied to ORRA members’
$10.1 billion worth of home
sales that were recorded
through the MLS between
August 2017 and July 2018.
International buyers are
also very apt to use cash because
they might not have the
required U.S. credit to obtain a
mortgage from a U.S. source.
In fact, about 67 percent of
all Florida’s international
transactions in the study
period were all-cash (down
from 72 percent last year), with
Canadians (84 percent) and
United Kingdom nationals (81
percent) most likely to have
gone that route.
Orlando’s international
buyers purchase properties for
both vacation and residential
rental purposes. Those from
China, Columbia, and Venezuela
in particular like to take
advantage of Orlando’s steady
stream of tourists and invest in
a rental property while those
from Canada and the United
Kingdom were most likely to
purchase a property for private
vacation use.
With its mix of resort, urban,
and suburban areas, Orlando
is able to accommodate
foreign buyers’ ever-changing
location preferences. Thirty
seven percent of Florida’s
international buyers selected
to purchase in a central city/
urban area, with another 37
percent selecting a suburban
area. Only 15 percent purchased
in a resort area during
the 2018 study period, down
from a high of 53 percent
a decade ago. This drop is
consistent with the declining
share of Canadian and U.K.
buyers, who have traditionally
preferred such locations.
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