Luxury real estate group TFG International is following its clients east as wealthy Californians plant flags in South Florida.
The group, co-founded by broker Tomer Fridman, is establishing a presence in Miami through ONE Sotheby’s International Realty to create a bi-coastal operation connecting the Los Angeles and South Florida markets, according to a news release. Fridman is known as a broker to celebrities such as the Kardashians, Jennifer Lopez and Sylvester Stallone.
“We go where the clients go,” Fridman told The Real Deal. “There is a very synergistic market between Los Angeles and Miami. It’s always been, but now more so, because if you look at a lot of the big sales in Palm Beach or South Florida lately, those are people coming from California.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Larry Page are among the California billionaires to put down roots in South Florida in the past year.
Matthew Perrye of Carolwood Estates, will lead the South Florida operation from ONE Sotheby’s International Realty’s Miami Beach office. He has over a decade of industry experience working in Beverly Hills’ luxury market and has more than $700 million in transactions under his belt, the release said.
Fridman, executive director of private wealth and luxury real estate at Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California, is widely recognized as one of Los Angeles’ top luxury real estate brokers with more than $8 billion in career sales, according to TFG International’s website. Fridman is also co-chairman and co-founder of Israel Sotheby’s International Realty.
Perrye and Fridman will focus on ultra-luxury clients in South Florida and plan to recruit five or six agents to serve other segments of the market, Fridman said. The expansion is supported by five staff members from the team’s West Coast office. Amir Ensani, who leads TFG International’s New Development Division in Los Angeles, will head the same division in South Florida, Fridman said.
Perrye said the expansion allows the firm to serve its existing clients as they buy homes in South Florida without having to refer them to another brokerage.
TFG International also has a team in Texas, which it established after Tesla’s move to the state began attracting California buyers who wanted to diversify their portfolios. The attraction to Florida is fueled by the way of life and business-friendly attitude here, Perrye said.
“While California does have beautiful weather, I think the lifestyle in Florida is just a better overall lifestyle,” he told The Real Deal. “There’s no other place that I can think of in the U.S. at least where you have a water view and you’re on the water, but you’re also in the middle of a city.”
A proposed billionaire tax in California has driven wealth to the Sunshine State, Fridman said. California Proposition 40, which is set to appear on the ballot in November’s election, would impose a one-time five percent wealth tax on the net worth of California residents worth more than $1 billion. California already has one of the highest state income tax rates in the country at 13.3 percent for single filers with taxable income over $1 million, according to TurboTax.
South Florida’s booming luxury market is turning heads, and Fridman said he expects the demand to last.
“It’s not a one-time thing. It’s not a one-trick pony,” he said. “It’s a constant, constant, constant amount of closings, business and interest that are coming into South Florida.”
Florida logged 361 sales over $10 million last year, the second-highest on record, according to the Miami Association of Realtors and the Miami Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service. Still, Fridman said Los Angeles and South Florida aren’t competing markets.
“It’s not that people are leaving Los Angeles permanently,” he said. “Everyone is keeping a place in L.A., but maybe now they just want a huge estate in Palm Beach for half the year.”
TFG International is ranked as the top medium team in the nation, according to the release. The team’s landmark transactions include the $115 million estate sale in Holmby Hills and the sale of the Donhill estate in Beverly Hills for $32 million.
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