Building facts
- Address
- 448 Ocean Drive
- Neighborhood
- South Beach
- Year built
- 2006
- Floors
- 5
- Status
- Completed
- Pricing
- Starting at $1.8 Million
Key Takeaways
- Nothing has sold here in almost five years — the last qualified arm’s-length transaction closed on 17 November 2021. There are no sales at all in 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026.
- It is a very small condominium — thirteen homes — plus three commercial folios that hold the hotel operation. The whole declaration is 16 folios and it closes at exactly 100.0000%, so nothing is missing from this count.
- The homes are large for this category — 830 to 1,507 square feet, median 1,118, and seven of the thirteen are two-bedrooms. Most buildings in this section are studios under 700 feet.
- The typical home last changed hands nineteen years ago — the median last-sale year is 2007, and four of the thirteen have no individual qualified sale on record at all.
- That makes the county assessment the only current number available — and it diverges wildly from what owners paid: one home is assessed 63% above its 2007 price, another 35% below its 2007 price. Nineteen years will do that.
- No home here is classified as lodging — all thirteen are recorded as RESIDENTIAL : CONDOMINIUM. The lodging classification in this declaration attaches only to the three commercial folios.
448 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, Florida 33139 | Neighborhood: South Beach
Most pages in this section have too little data to draw a trend from. This one has
almost none at all, and I think that is worth a page rather than a shrug — because
the absence is the single most useful thing a buyer can know about this address.
What the county records at 448 Ocean Drive
The Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser holds 16 folios at 448 Ocean Drive, all in
one declaration recorded as OCEAN FIVE CONDO. The common-element shares sum to
exactly 100.0000%, which is the cleanest possible confirmation that the pull is
complete and that no apartment has been missed.
Of those 16 folios, 13 are saleable homes and all 13 are classified RESIDENTIAL —
TOTAL VALUE : CONDOMINIUM — RESIDENTIAL. The remaining three carry
HOTEL OR MOTEL : CONDOMINIUM — COMMERCIAL and are the hotel operation itself. So this is
literally a small hotel with thirteen apartments recorded alongside it — and on the county’s
own classification, none of those thirteen apartments is lodging.
The homes are unusually generous for this part of the site. They run 830 to 1,507 square
feet with a median of 1,118, across four plans — 830 sq ft (six units), 1,118 (three),
1,446 (three) and a single 1,507. Seven of the thirteen are two-bedrooms and six are
one-bedrooms. There is not a studio in the building. Compare that with the 45 studios at 1215 on West
or the 300 studios at Trump International and you are looking at a different kind of property
altogether.
For 2026 the county assesses the condominium at $9,917,548, a median of
$890,188 per home across a range of $533,340 to $1,043,410.
Five years of silence in the sale record
The record holds just 17 qualified transactions in the building’s entire history.
Nine of them closed in 2007, when the condominium was created. Since then: one in 2011, three in 2013,
one in 2014, one in 2016, and two in 2021.
| Year | Qualified sales | Median price | Median $/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 | — | — |
| 2024 | 0 | — | — |
| 2025 | 0 | — | — |
| 2026 to date | 0 | — | — |
The four-year table is empty. Every row. The last qualified arm’s-length
transaction at this address closed on 17 November 2021 — unit 501, 1,118 square
feet, $1,095,000, or $979 per square foot.
I could have left this page silent about that and published the older figures as though they were
current. I would rather say plainly that this building has no recent price record at all,
because a buyer who does not know that will be shown a 2021 comparable and told it is the market.
Look at it per home and the picture is starker. The median last-sale year across the
thirteen residences is 2007 — nineteen years ago — and four of the thirteen
have never had an individual qualified sale recorded at all.
The consequence is that the county’s assessment is the only current valuation anyone has, and
it has drifted a long way from the last recorded prices in both directions:
| Unit | Last qualified sale | Price paid | 2026 assessed | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | February 2007 | $640,000 | $1,043,410 | +63% |
| 401 | January 2007 | $890,000 | $890,188 | +0% |
| 302 | February 2007 | $992,500 | $1,001,178 | +1% |
| 502 | January 2007 | $1,550,000 | $1,001,178 | −35% |
Two apartments of identical size, both last sold in the same month of 2007, are now assessed
63% above and 35% below what was paid for them. That is not a statement about which one was a
good buy. It is a statement about how little the transaction record can tell you here, and about how
much weight ends up resting on the roll.
What about the rental claim this page used to make?
This page previously described Ocean Five as one of the few licensed short-term rentals in Miami
Beach and said it could be rented without restrictions, and called it a great investment property.
I have removed all of that.
None of it is supportable from the public record, and the second half is the kind of claim that gets
relied on. The county classifies all thirteen homes here as ordinary residential
condominium — only the three commercial folios carry a lodging code. That does not
settle the rental question either way; a use code is a tax assessment category and decides nothing
about rental rights in either direction.
What actually decides it is Florida’s state preemption of vacation-rental regulation,
the City of Miami Beach’s zoning and licensing rules, and the condominium declaration and the
association’s rules. Miami Beach has some of the strictest short-term rental enforcement
in the state and the penalties are substantial. If rental income is central to your purchase, get all
three confirmed in writing by your own lawyer before you commit — not from any listing page.
Who this building suits, and who it does not
Thirteen large apartments in a small Ocean Drive building is a genuinely scarce thing, and if you
want a one or two-bedroom of over a thousand square feet on this street, the choice is narrow enough
that this belongs on the list.
It suits you badly if you need any confidence about value or exit. A building with no sales
in five years, four homes that have never traded individually, and a median last sale in 2007 gives you
almost nothing to price against. You would be negotiating with the county roll and the
seller’s opinion, and very little else. It also suits you badly if the rental proposition is the
point, for the reasons above.
If you are selling here, the same silence works for you: there are no recent
comparables to hold you down either. But expect a slow, evidence-light negotiation, and expect any
serious buyer’s agent to pull the same 17 transactions I did and arrive at the same conclusion —
that the last real market signal in this building is nearly five years old.
Verified 25 August 2026 against the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser record for
448 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach — all 16 folios retrieved individually and grouped by declaration
(OCEAN FIVE CONDO), filtered to the 13 saleable homes and excluding three commercial folios holding the
hotel operation. The declaration’s common-element shares sum to exactly 100.0000%, so the pull is
complete. Sale figures are qualified, arm’s-length transactions only. There are no qualified
sales in 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026, so no four-year price table, trend or per-foot band is published;
the most recent transaction on record closed 17 November 2021. Assessed values are the county’s
2026 roll and are not sale prices. Building age, storey count, operator, licensing status and amenity
detail are omitted: no primary source has been confirmed for them. Nothing on this page states or
implies a right to rent short-term. Re-check when the next tax roll publishes.
Ocean Five — Frequently Asked Questions
How many apartments are there at Ocean Five?
Thirteen. The county records 16 folios in the OCEAN FIVE CONDO declaration — 13 saleable homes plus three commercial folios that hold the hotel operation. The declaration closes at exactly 100%, so that count is complete.
What have units at Ocean Five sold for recently?
Nothing has sold recently. There are no qualified sales in 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026. The last one on record closed on 17 November 2021 — unit 501, 1,118 square feet, $1,095,000, or $979 per square foot. Any figure presented to you as a current Ocean Five comparable is at least that old.
Is Ocean Five licensed for short-term rental?
That is not something the county property record can establish, and this page no longer claims it. All 13 homes are classified as ordinary residential condominium; only the three commercial folios carry a lodging code. Rental rights are decided by Florida’s state preemption, City of Miami Beach zoning and licensing, and the condominium declaration — confirm all three with your own lawyer.
How big are the apartments?
From 830 to 1,507 square feet with a median of 1,118 — large for this category. Seven of the thirteen are two-bedrooms and six are one-bedrooms. There are no studios.
What does the county think the apartments are worth?
For 2026 the roll assesses the thirteen homes at $9,917,548 in total, a median of $890,188 across a range of $533,340 to $1,043,410. With no recent sales, that assessment is effectively the only current valuation available for this building.
Why do the assessments differ so much from what owners paid?
Because the purchases are old. Two identically sized apartments that both last sold in early 2007 are now assessed 63% above and 35% below their purchase prices respectively. Nineteen years of roll changes will produce that. It is a reason to treat the last recorded price on any unit here as historical rather than indicative.
Is this a good investment?
That is not a question I will answer for you, and no page should. What I can tell you is what the record shows: 17 qualified sales in the building’s history, none in the last four years, four homes that have never traded individually, and a median last sale in 2007. Whatever case is made for buying here, it will not be made from the transaction record.
Sources and further reading
Interested in selling at Ocean Five?
Learn more about selling your condo at Ocean Five with Josh Stein.
Related coverage
Part of Miami Condo Hotels, and What You Can Actually Rent Out.