DSCR Loans in Brickell: Rental Rules, HOA Dues and the Math on a Condo Investment

Short answer

Yes, investors may qualify for a DSCR loan on a Brickell condo using the unit's rent instead of tax returns, but in Brickell three things decide the deal before your credit does: the building's rental rules, the HOA dues, and whether the building is warrantable. In Q3 2026 the City of Miami condo and townhouse median was $555,000, and the 2026 City of Miami millage is 19.9544, so taxes alone on a median unit run about $923 a month before HOA, insurance and the loan payment. DSCR loans are business-purpose loans for rentals, not for a home you live in, and every file is subject to underwriting.

Brickell condo numbers to start with

Brickell is a neighborhood inside the City of Miami, so MIAMI REALTORS reports it in the City of Miami figures. Townhouses and condos, Q3 2026, as of November 2026:

• 582 closed sales at a median of $555,000, down 4.3% from a year earlier. The average sale was $996,460.
• 313 of the 582 sales were cash, more than half. Financed investors compete with a lot of cash.
• Median time to contract: 94 days. Sellers received a median 92.5% of original list price.
• Active inventory: 3,504 units, or 16.8 months of supply. That is a buyer's market by any measure, and it matters for an investor in two ways: you have room to negotiate, and there are many units competing for the same tenants.

For rent, HUD's FY2026 Fair Market Rents for the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall area are $1,995 for a 1-bedroom and $2,436 for a 2-bedroom. These are metro benchmarks, not Brickell asking rents. A DSCR lender will use the appraiser's rent schedule or your signed lease, so pull real comps for the building.

For buying help that is not about investing, see our Brickell mortgage broker page. For how DSCR works in general, see what is DSCR and our Miami DSCR investor guide.

Can you Airbnb a Brickell condo? The City of Miami rules

In the City of Miami, a rental of less than 30 days is a short-term rental, and the city treats it as a lodging use, as of November 2026. It is allowed only where the Miami 21 zoning code (Article 4, Table 3) permits lodging, and only in a building that has the right certificates. Listing a unit online is not enough.

The city's published short-term rental procedure for an existing building includes:

• A Short-Term Rental/Lodging Evaluation Form signed by the applicant and certified by the condo association (COA/HOA), confirming the association allows lodging. The Operational Management Plan must also be signed by the association.
• Current copies of the building's Certificate of Occupancy and Certificate of Use, then a building permit filed as a commercial lodging project, inspections and a new Certificate of Occupancy.
• A State of Florida DBPR lodging license, a new Certificate of Use for lodging units, and a City of Miami Business Tax Receipt. The Certificate of Use and Business Tax Receipt renew every year.
• If more than 25% of a building's units are used as transient lodging, the whole building must meet R-1 (hotel-type) standards.

What this means for a DSCR loan: in most Brickell residential towers the association has not signed off on lodging, so the realistic plan is a lease of 30 days or longer, usually 12 months. Underwrite the deal on long-term rent. If a building is set up and licensed to operate like a hotel, the financing question changes; see condotel loans.

Rules for unincorporated Miami-Dade are different and are covered in our investor guide.

Association rental rules: what the condo documents can do

Even for long-term leases, the building's declaration and rules come first. Condo documents in South Florida commonly set a minimum lease term, limit how many times a year a unit can be leased, require the association to approve tenants, or charge an application fee. Read them before you sign a contract, not after.

Florida law limits how a new rental restriction reaches existing owners. Under Florida Statute 718.110(13) (2026), an amendment that prohibits renting, changes the rental term, or limits how many times owners may rent applies only to owners who vote for it and to owners who take title after it takes effect. So:

• If you buy after a restriction is adopted, it binds you.
• If the board is debating a restriction while you are under contract, it can bind you as a new buyer once adopted. Ask the association and your agent what is pending.
• An owner who bought before the amendment and did not consent is generally not bound by it, but you would be once you buy that unit.

The lender sees much of this in the condo questionnaire. A minimum lease term of a year does not hurt a DSCR loan. A rule that blocks leasing for the first years of ownership does, because the loan depends on rent. Ask for the questionnaire early.

Non-warrantable buildings and DSCR lenders

Many Brickell towers do not meet Fannie Mae's condo rules. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide lists as ineligible, among others: projects managed and operated as a hotel even though units are individually owned, projects with mandatory rental pooling, a single entity owning more than 20% of units in a project of 21 or more units, and nonresidential or commercial space above 35% of the project. Our Brickell non-warrantable page goes through how those rules hit specific kinds of towers.

A DSCR loan is not sold to Fannie Mae, so a DSCR lender applies its own condo review. In practice:

• Many DSCR lenders finance non-warrantable condos, often with a larger down payment than they ask on a warrantable unit.
• They still read the budget, reserves, litigation, insurance and any special assessment. A building with a pending structural repair can be a no at any lender.
• Each lender has its own list of what it will not do, so one lender's no is not the market's no. QMS shops the building across DSCR lenders before you spend money on an appraisal.

If the building is warrantable and you have strong tax returns, a conventional loan on an investment property may also be worth pricing side by side.

HOA dues: the line that decides a Brickell DSCR deal

DSCR is rent divided by the full monthly payment: principal and interest, taxes, insurance and HOA dues (PITIA). In a house, HOA is often small or zero. In a Brickell tower it can be one of the biggest lines, and it is the one you control least.

Example only. These numbers are illustrations, not a quote. Take a $555,000 unit (the Q3 2026 City of Miami median) with 25% down, a $416,250 loan, rented at $2,436 a month (the HUD 2-bedroom benchmark):

• Property taxes: about $923 a month, if the taxable value equals the price (19.9544 mills).
• HOA dues: assume $900 a month. Your building's number is in the budget and the estoppel.
• HO-6 unit insurance: assume $150 a month.
• That is $1,973 a month before the loan payment. At a DSCR of 1.00, only $463 a month of the $2,436 rent is left for principal and interest on a $416,250 loan. That does not work. Rates vary daily; call for today's pricing.

The lesson is not that Brickell never works. It is that the deal depends on the real rent for that building, the real HOA, and the down payment. Higher actual rent, lower dues or more money down changes the result. Many DSCR lenders also offer programs below 1.00 with stricter terms.

Watch for dues that are about to rise. Florida's milestone inspection and SIRS reserve rules have pushed many older buildings to raise dues or levy assessments. A $300 a month increase comes straight out of the rent available for your payment. Ask for the current budget, the latest milestone inspection status and minutes from recent board meetings.

Taxes: 19.9544 mills and the new 5% cap from 2027

The Miami-Dade Property Appraiser's 2026 adopted millage chart shows a total of 19.9544 mills for the City of Miami, and 20.3344 mills for properties in the Miami Downtown Development Authority (DDA) district, which adds 0.38 mills. Check your unit's folio to see which applies.

A rental condo has no homestead exemption. It falls under the non-homestead assessment cap, and that cap is changing:

• Today the cap limits yearly increases in assessed value to 10%, excluding school taxes, per the Property Appraiser. For residential property of nine units or fewer, the cap resets when ownership changes, so your first year is assessed near market value.
• Florida Amendment 3 passed on November 3, 2026 (about 62%, unofficial until certified). From January 1, 2027, the non-homestead cap drops from 10% to 5% for non-school taxes. The first tax bills affected arrive in November 2027. School taxes are not covered by the cap.
• The cap limits the assessed value, not the tax bill. If millage rates rise, your bill can still rise faster than 5%.

For a long-term hold, a 5% cap makes future taxes easier to predict, which helps the DSCR at refinance time. It does not lower your first-year taxes after purchase.

Closing taxes on the loan: Florida charges $0.35 per $100 on the note and 2 mills of intangible tax on the mortgage. On the $416,250 example loan, that is about $1,457 and $833. See Florida doc stamp tax and intangible tax.

A business-purpose loan, and how QMS works a Brickell file

A DSCR loan is a business-purpose loan. Federal Regulation Z (12 CFR 1026.3) exempts credit extended primarily for a business or commercial purpose, and DSCR lenders treat a non-owner-occupied rental that way. You sign that you will not live in the unit. If you plan to live in your Brickell condo, even part of the year, a DSCR loan is the wrong loan; see non-warrantable condo loans or conventional loans instead.

Many investors close in an LLC. Lenders usually ask for the articles, operating agreement and EIN, and often a personal guaranty from the owners.

How we work it:

• Get the building name and unit to us first. We check the condo questionnaire and the lenders' building lists before the appraisal.
• We confirm the rental rules and whether short-term use is even possible, so the rent you plan on is the rent a lender will use.
• We build the DSCR with the real HOA, taxes at the City of Miami or DDA millage, and an HO-6 quote.
• We compare DSCR lenders on down payment, prepayment penalty and reserves. Rates vary daily; call for today's pricing.

QMS Lending is an independent broker with 100+ lenders, bilingual in English and Spanish. Call 305-425-1990. Subject to credit approval and underwriting.