Making a South Florida second home your principal residence requires more than an occupancy change on paper. Before closing, confirm the loan classification, post-closing liquidity, lender overlays and separate condominium project clearance.
Turning a seasonal South Florida address into your principal residence can be a considered lifestyle decision. Before a purchase or refinance closes, however, the financing must reflect how you genuinely intend to occupy the property. A lifestyle change does not, by itself, create a separate reserve category.
For a 2026 closing, the essential questions are final occupancy, the property securing the loan, transaction type and underwriting requirements. These provisions should not be read collectively as a newly introduced 2026 rule. Ask the lender to confirm which requirements apply to your transaction.
A buyer considering Una Residences Brickell as a principal residence should begin with the same distinction as someone refinancing an existing seasonal home: intended occupancy and project eligibility require separate answers. No project mentioned here is represented as approved or eligible for a particular loan.
The baseline for a one-unit principal-residence purchase or limited cash-out refinance is no minimum reserves. That is a starting point-not a promise that your loan will close without a post-closing liquidity requirement.
Other categories differ:
A second-home transaction generally requires two months of reserves.
A principal-residence transaction secured by a two- to four-unit property generally requires six months.
Investment-property transactions generally require six months.
A cash-out refinance with a debt-to-income ratio above 45% carries a six-month reserve requirement.
Do not confuse the number of units securing your mortgage with the number in the condominium project. Buying one condominium in a four-unit building does not automatically make your mortgage a two- to four-unit property transaction.
Request written confirmation of occupancy, collateral unit count, purchase or refinance classification, and required occupancy documentation. Ask whether underwriting is manual or runs through Desktop Underwriter. The decisive figure is the reserve requirement for your transaction, not the most favorable headline category.
Reserves are measured in months of qualifying housing expense, including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and applicable assessments or association dues. A calculation based only on principal and interest may understate the amount under review.
Reserves are separate from the funds needed for the down payment, closing costs and prepaid items. Ask for a written reconciliation showing the assets available after those expenditures and the amount the lender will accept toward reserves.
The preclosing questions are direct: How many months are required? What is the dollar amount? Which assets are acceptable? Which requirements come from the agency framework, underwriting findings or the lender's own overlays? What documentation remains outstanding?
For a Miami Beach buyer evaluating The Perigon Miami Beach, this is a financing question, not a judgment about the residence. The relevant budget is the lender's qualifying housing expense for the actual transaction-not a marketing estimate or the buyer's preferred monthly allowance.
A primary-residence designation must reflect genuine intent; it cannot be chosen solely to reduce reserves. Ask what evidence the lender needs to support your intended principal residence, particularly if you retain another home.
Whether you sell, retain or rent the former residence, discuss the effect on qualification. Request confirmation of how that choice affects liabilities, any rental-income documentation, financed-property counting and final approval.
For second-home or investment-property transactions processed through Desktop Underwriter, up to 10 financed properties may be permitted, subject to eligibility requirements. Other financed properties can also trigger additional reserves for those transactions. Neither provision should be applied automatically to a principal-residence loan without the lender's transaction-specific analysis.
The objective is consistency: your occupancy intention, retained-property plan and underwriting file should describe the same arrangement before closing.
Borrower approval does not establish condominium or planned-unit-development eligibility. Ask the lender to identify the project-review method, outstanding conditions and unresolved association documentation separately from your personal financial approval.
Someone comparing Coconut Grove residences, including Park Grove Coconut Grove, should request that distinction early. A project's appeal as a full-time address does not establish whether it meets the standards for the chosen mortgage.
Keep the two meanings of conversion separate. Moving into your former second home changes intended occupancy. Converting a building into a condominium changes the project context and can involve different review requirements.
For new or newly converted condominium projects undergoing Full Review, requirements can include having at least 50% of units in the applicable project or legal phase conveyed or under contract to principal-residence or second-home purchasers. Ask which project or phase is being evaluated and whether the applicable threshold has been documented.
A waiver is not blanket project approval. Applicable eligibility requirements remain in place, as does the lender's responsibility to establish compliance.
Units in new or established detached-condominium projects can qualify for a project-review waiver, subject to basic requirements. Units in new and established two- to four-unit condominium projects also receive a review waiver, subject to those requirements.
For five- to 10-unit projects, a waiver may apply when the project is not part of a larger development or master association. Attached units within those larger arrangements require Full Review. Manufactured homes, and projects containing them, are not eligible for the standard waiver.
Request the exact waiver category and confirmation of master-association status. Certain newly converted non-gut-rehabilitation condominium and cooperative projects with attached units and more than 10 units require Project Eligibility Review Service review. A borrower's occupancy change should never be confused with this building-conversion category.
Borrower reserves are post-closing assets. Association reserves fund project expenses and repairs. Satisfying one requirement does not satisfy the other.
Lenders must review condominium projects for critical repairs and determine whether special assessments relate to those repairs. Special assessments cannot substitute for the required 10% association budget reserve allocation. Ask which repair, assessment and budget conditions remain unresolved rather than accepting a general assurance that reserves are adequate.
Before closing, obtain a consolidated written status covering occupancy, reserves in months and dollars, acceptable assets, overlays, retained-property treatment and project clearance. Ask which changes in finances, occupancy or project information could trigger re-underwriting. The goal is a closing plan whose assumptions hold through signing.
For a considered approach to your next South Florida residence, explore MILLION.
If branded residences are on your mind — as a home or as an allocation — we would be glad to share what we are seeing, privately.
Begin a quiet conversationNo. Reserves depend on final occupancy, the property securing the mortgage, transaction type and other underwriting characteristics.
The published baseline is no minimum reserves for a one-unit principal-residence purchase or limited cash-out refinance. The lender or transaction-specific underwriting may still require reserves.
Second-home transactions generally require two months, while investment-property and two- to four-unit principal-residence transactions generally require six months. Cash-out refinances with a debt-to-income ratio above 45% have a listed six-month requirement.
They are measured using qualifying housing expense, including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and applicable assessments or association dues. Obtain the lender's calculation in both months and dollars.
No. Down payments, closing costs and prepaid items are separate from required post-closing reserves, and sufficient assets must be documented for both.
Ask which requirements come from the agency framework, underwriting findings and the lender's additional standards. Request the final required amount and confirmation of acceptable assets.
Ask how retaining or renting it affects liabilities, rental-income documentation and financed-property counting. Additional reserves can apply to second-home and investment-property transactions based on other financed properties.
No. Project eligibility is a separate determination, so request the review method, outstanding conditions and final project clearance independently of your personal approval.
No. Applicable eligibility requirements remain, and the lender must establish compliance; the precise waiver category and any master-association arrangement matter.
No. Special assessments cannot substitute for the required 10% budget reserve allocation, and lenders must determine whether assessments relate to critical repairs.
