The Altair Bay Harbor

What the county records at 9540 W Bay Harbor Drive

The Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser holds 97 folios under THE ALTAIR BAY HARBOR HOTEL CONDO, declaration recorded at OR 32729-3615. Ninety-six of them are classified HOTEL OR MOTEL : CONDOMINIUM; the ninety-seventh is a store. The declaration closes at 100.1200% of its common elements, which is a complete and clean pull.

Ninety-six residences is exactly what the building has always been marketed as, and the two figures agreeing is worth more than it sounds.

The homes run 307 to 1,825 square feet, median 390, across twelve distinct floorplates — studio suites through two-bedroom corner units. For 2026 the county assesses the condominium at $45,452,362, a median of $331,500 per unit across a range of $254,196 to $1,324,950.

One oddity worth recording because I cannot explain it from the record: the assessed median has been $331,500 in 2024, 2025 and 2026 — identical to the dollar in all three years — while the building’s actual transaction prices moved substantially over the same period. Totals shifted slightly ($46,023,310, then $46,782,282, then $45,452,362), so the roll is not frozen outright. I am noting it rather than interpreting it.

Two thirds of the building moved in three deeds

This is the finding that should shape how you read every price at this address.

Forty-five units — getting on for half the building — conveyed in a single deed on one day. Add the next day’s nine and the following summer’s ten, and two thirds of The Altair changed hands in three transactions.

Those are not comparables for your apartment and they must never be read as such. A block price reflects the economics of buying a rental operation at scale; taken naively, that 13 September 2021 deed would publish as a $15,953,600 sale of one hotel room. I have excluded all three from every per-unit figure on this page rather than averaging them in.

Strip them out and what remains is the entire individual-sale history of this building: nineteen single-unit qualified deeds — one in 2021, nine in 2022, one in 2023, four in 2024 and four in 2025. Ninety-six residences, nineteen ordinary sales in five years. The practical consequence is that a large share of the building sits in few hands, the resale market is thin by construction, and the character of the place can change with one signature.

What happened to an identical apartment

There is one plan here that repeats often enough to answer the price question properly. Ten of the nineteen individual sales are the 1,283 square foot home, so I can hold size completely constant and watch the price per foot move — no mix, no averaging across studios and two-bedrooms.

Up 6.6% to 2024, then down 13.6%. Net of the whole run, an identical apartment was worth about 7.9% less per square foot in 2025 than in 2022. That is a real measurement on physically identical homes and no mix argument survives it.

But read the 2025 row carefully, because it carries a warning. All four of those sales closed on 16 June 2025 — four separate deeds, four different prices ($922,500, $945,000, $1,170,000 and $1,305,000), one day. Four apartments of the same size selling on the same day at prices 41% apart is not a market discovering a value. It looks like a holder disposing of a position, and the spread inside it is wider than the year-on-year move I just measured.

My honest reading: the direction is probably real — 2024 was the better market and prices have come off it — but the magnitude is uncertain and I would not underwrite the 13.6% as though it were a market clearing price. With nineteen individual sales in five years, this building does not produce enough evidence to be more precise than that, and anyone who tells you otherwise is filling a gap rather than reading one.

Who this suits, and what to verify

Find out who owns the blocks, and what they intend. This is the first question here and it is not a rude one. Sixty-four units sit with block purchasers. Ask the association who holds them, whether they are in the rental programme, and whether any of them are being marketed. Your future resale competes with whatever they decide.

Read the rental programme agreement before the declaration. In a building that is lodging-classified top to bottom, the operating agreement is the asset. What share of gross revenue you keep, net of what, who bears channel commissions and card fees, how many nights you may use your own unit and when, and what happens if the operator changes.

Assume conventional financing is unavailable. Everything on the condo hotels page above applies here with force: a building whose entire declaration is lodging-classified is not a Fannie or Freddie project, and your buyer will face the same restricted lender universe you do. Price the exit accordingly.

Ask for the furniture and equipment reserve and the refurbishment cycle. A refurbishment year turns an income asset into an expense, and in a hotel-condo it arrives on a schedule rather than as a surprise. Get the schedule.

Do not confuse the classification with permission. The lodging use code tells you how the county taxes the property and, usually, how it was conceived. It is not a licence and it grants nobody a right to rent. The test that actually decides it is set out in my guide to short-term rentals in Miami condos.

Who this suits: a buyer who wants a genuine, professionally-operated hotel-condo in a quiet, well-located village, is buying an income position rather than a home, is paying cash or with non-conventional finance, and can hold it. The building is what it says it is, which is rarer in this category than you would expect.

Who it suits badly: anyone needing conventional finance, anyone who wants to use the unit freely, and anyone expecting a liquid exit — nineteen individual sales in five years is the exit. And if you already own here and are considering selling, understand that you are pricing into a very thin tape where the last four comparable sales all closed on one day at prices 41% apart. That is a reason to take advice on timing rather than to read the median as your number.

Interested in buying at The Altair Bay Harbor?

Learn more about buying pre-construction at The Altair Bay Harbor with Josh Stein.

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The Altair Hotel Bay Harbor Amenities

The Altair enriches your Bay Harbor experience with an array of lifestyle amenities. The lobby level offers indoor and outdoor waterfront lounging, a full-service restaurant, a fitness center and more. Seven floors up, enjoy panoramic views from the spacious rooftop pool and whirlpool. Owner services include valet parking and 24-hour reception, in addition to in-room dining, poolside attendants and available housekeeping.

LIFESTYLE AMENITIES

• Rooftop pool deck with panoramic views
• Beautifully appointed lobby lounge
• Waterfront, outdoor social terrace
• Fitness center overlooking the water
• Full-service indoor & outdoor restaurant serving elevated kosher cuisine
• Garage parking with 24/7 valet
• Walk to the beach and to Bal Harbour Shops
• Bicycles, scooters, kayaks and paddleboards available
• 24-hour front desk & package reception

RESTAURANT

• 5-star kosher fine dining (meat) in the heart of Bay Harbor
• Daily breakfast provided on site
• Room service
• Poolside restaurant service
• Shabbos and Yom Tov meals

FAQ

Hotel Rental Program

The Hotel Rental Program allows unit owners to add their unit to the inventory of available hotel rooms when their residence is not in use. Owners can choose to use their hotel residence for a few days, weeks or up to six months and are then able to add it to the hotel’s inventory – hassle free. Adding a residence to the hotel room inventory while it is not in use is not mandatory and there are no blackout dates.

Ownership Has Its Privileges

• Valet Parking
• Fresh Pool Towels / Linen
• Bellman Services
• Owner Discount at 5-Star Kosher Dining
• Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Shabbos Meals On-site
• Housekeeping & Room Service Availability
• Owner Storage Availability
• Shabbos Keys / Shabbos Elevator