AKAM’s David Cohen surveys the landscape for South Florida property owners and aspiring land barons
As the executive vice president of Dania Beach based AKAM, David Cohen oversees all day today operations, with a focus on business development and ensuring internal operations are of a uniformly superior quality. Working with various AKAM departments, including management, finance, accounting and payroll, Cohen analyzes and ensures that all processes and procedures meet stringent guidelines for efficiency and client service delivery. His perspective at this auspicious time is key; he spoke to SFBW about pandemic adjustments, Airbnb and the potential for a new Roaring Twenties.
With the influx of buyers and investors in South Florida (on the heels of Carl Icahn and Goldman Sachs relocating), what challenges are property managers faced with?
One of the biggest challenges that property management teams face in the current active market is definitely logistics. Across AKAM’s properties, we are diligent about following safety protocols such as social distancing, cleaning and disinfecting, especially in high traffic amenity areas like lobbies, spas, fitness centers, pools and more. These unprecedented times have enabled us to reinvent and adapt the way we operate for our clients in general, from the way we conduct showings and handle maintenance calls to overall communications efforts.
With the COVID-19 vaccine underway and a new administration in place, mindsets will surely be shifting, so how is the real estate industry gearing up for a new era of what’s to come in 2021 and what advantages will buyers/sellers have?
South Florida is definitely a seller’s market right now, given the limited inventory and high demand. At the same time, it presents buyers with advantages to invest and get in the game, with interest rates being some of the lowest we’ve seen to date. That being said, there is currently a question mark on how the real estate market is going to react once the new administration is seeded. The next several months are going to be pivotal in that sense, and contingent upon the moratorium either being extended or lifted all together. Whatever the outcome, I predict that there will be an influx of new opportunities—people will still be looking to relocate to escape dense populations and income taxes, while celebrating the newfound freedom of remote work, which will continue to contribute to the demand considerably. We hope that with the vaccine in place, a sense of stability will return to the country overall and that real estate will remain a healthy place to invest.
Read More at South Florida Business and Wealth.
Source: https://www.akam.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AKAM-David-Cohen-SF-Business-Wealth.pdf