Orlando Apartments Disappearing to Make Room for Condos

Orlando apartments are in higher demand today than they have been over the last two years. Since the beginning of 2003, the Orlando apartment market has seen a number of changes.

At the beginning of the two year period, the Orlando apartment market was in the middle "of a five-year slump caused by an oversupply of new apartment inventory" and the 2000 recession. There was little interest shown by outside investors and "rent concessions were high," leaving 10 percent of Orlando apartments vacant.

However, as the number of jobs began to increase, Orlando apartment developers slowed construction and local occupancy rose to 95%, institutional investors became very interested in converting Orlando apartments into condominiums.

The condo craze that began sweeping Florida in late 2003 has generated huge gains for conversion investors as there is high demand and "conversion projects command top dollar." In 2005, 13 of the 20 Orlando condo conversion projects "priced out at $140,000 per unit, up from $48,000 per unit five years ago." The only problem is that all of these conversions are leaving renters with no place to rent.