RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. More than 2,500 Florida condominium and cooperative buildings were flagged for Phase Two milestone inspections in 2024 and 2025, showing signs of structural deterioration, according to a report by the Florida Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA).
Building officials reported a total of 54 condominium and cooperative buildings as "unsafe or uninhabitable" those years. Five of them were evacuated, according to the report.
Under Florida law, certain aging condominium and cooperative buildings that are three stories or taller must undergo milestone inspections. If an initial visual inspection identifies substantial structural deterioration, the building must undergo a more detailed Phase Two inspection, during which engineers assess structural conditions and identify recommended repairs.
The report comes five years after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, which killed 98 people and prompted state lawmakers to overhaul building inspection requirements.
The findings, however, do not represent a complete statewide picture, as the agency received inspection data from 71 percent of local enforcement jurisdictions for 2024 and 64 percent for 2025.
Newsweek has reached out to the Florida governor's office for comment via email on Saturday.
In 2025, building officials reported 2,880 buildings required Phase One inspections, of which 1,784 were completed. Six hundred thirty-six buildings required Phase Two inspections, with 274 completed.
Across both years, building officials reported 8,736 completed Phase One inspections and 1,575 completed Phase Two inspections. In total, 2,535 buildings were identified as requiring Phase Two review, a process generally triggered when inspectors identify substantial structural deterioration during an initial inspection.
Many of the buildings requiring additional review were located in South Florida's densely populated coastal counties, including Miami -Dade, Broward and Palm Beach . Those counties reported the highest number of buildings requiring Phase Two evaluations, ranging from 218 to 543 in 2024. In 2025, Miami-Dade and Broward County had between 155-308 buildings requiring Phase Two inspections.
The concentration of inspections in South Florida reflects the region's large inventory of aging coastal condominium buildings, many of which were built decades before the state's post-Surfside inspection requirements took effect. It also comes as the area is suffering from a housing affordability crisis, with a shortage of around 90,000 additional affordable units.
Inspections rendered 54 buildings as “unsafe or uninhabitable,” across both years. Only 5 of those were evacuated in 2024, and none in 2025. Twenty-three of the buildings deemed “unsafe or uninhabitable” in 2025 were located in Miami-Dade county.
South Florida has experienced years of population and business growth, with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties particularly attracting new residents, businesses, and corporate relocations, such as Citadel, while remaining among the state's largest condominium markets. President Donald Trump regularly spends time at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, one of several South Florida locations that have become increasingly prominent in national political and business circles.
On June 24, 2021, a large portion of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium suddenly collapsed. It killed 98 people and became one of the deadliest structural building failures in modern U.S. history.
The collapse prompted a massive search-and-rescue operation and raised questions about the condition of aging condominium buildings, particularly along Florida's coast. Investigators later found evidence of long-term deterioration and structural issues.
In response, Florida lawmakers enacted sweeping condo-safety reforms, including requirements for milestone inspections of certain condominium and cooperative buildings and stricter reserve funding requirements for major structural repairs.
A federal investigation found the start of the collapse may have begun weeks before. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a structural failure likely occurred at critical column-to-slab connections beneath the pool deck in early June 2021, causing the concrete deck to deform and fracture before the building's eventual collapse.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced legislation last month designed to make it easier for condominium owners and associations to pay for major structural repairs. The Making Condos Safer and Affordable Act, introduced by Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, and Representative María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, aims to expand financing options for critical safety and rehabilitation projects.
The legislation would widen access to two of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loan programs. It would expand the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) 203(k) loan program, allowing individual condo owners to use those loans to cover special assessments imposed for structural and safety-related repairs.
It would also expand federal loan insurance for private lenders, streamline the application process for borrowers, and authorize the FHA to insure condominium association rehabilitation loans under Section 234 of the National Housing Act.
Lawmakers say the proposal would also allow FHA-backed association loans to cover a wider range of work, including repairs, renovations, replacements and improvements to shared infrastructure and common areas within condominium developments.
Five years after the Surfside collapse prompted Florida's condo-safety overhaul, the OPPAGA report suggests inspectors are still uncovering sign...
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