Source: Miami-Dade Property Appraiser (public record) + MLS · closed sales over the last 365 days, June 2026.
For more than five years, on the same stretch of Sunny Isles sand, two towers fought over exactly the same buyer. Ritz-Carlton Residences and Residences by Armani/Casa sold the identical promise: a global luxury brand, oceanfront, hotel service without the hotel, the condo as a status object. Both launched in preconstruction, both took years to deliver, and both asked the buyer to trust a projection. Preconstruction always sells the same thing: expectation.
The interesting question is not which one looked better in the render. It is what happened afterward, when those units returned to the market and a second buyer —no brochure now, the building finished and lived in— had to put a real price on it. That is when the promise stops being sold and starts being audited. That is what we did.
Where the numbers come from
This is not opinion, and it is not what a broker with something to sell will tell you. The base is the public Miami-Dade Property Appraiser record, free and verifiable: each unit's first qualified sale equals the preconstruction contract, recorded at the first closing. That gives us the origin price, what the buyer who came in off the plans actually paid.
On that base we cross the MLS for resales: the price each unit was relisted at, what it actually closed for, and how many days it spent on the market. We work only with qualified sales —arm's-length market transactions— discarding transfers between family or entities, which distort the picture. It is the same methodology we apply to evaluate any building before advising a client: the data leads, not the brand.
Lens 1 — How much of the building is for sale today
The first health signal in a trophy building is how many owners want out. Ritz-Carlton has 10 units in resale out of 212 —4.7% of the building. Armani/Casa has 39 out of 308 —12.7%. Nearly three times the proportion.
This is not cosmetic. A building with 4.7% for sale has scarce supply: a buyer competes for few units. One with 12.7% for sale has a wall of inventory where every seller competes against the other 38, and that pushes price down.
Lens 2 — How many years of stock it carries
The percentage for sale only makes sense once you cross it with the pace at which the building actually sells. Measured in months of inventory, Ritz-Carlton carries about one year of stock: at its absorption rate, everything listed today clears in roughly twelve months. Armani/Casa carries around 5.6 years.
Five and a half years of inventory is not a liquid market. It is a market where the seller waits — and waiting has a cost.
This is the difference that shows up in no render and that decides the outcome: not what the building is worth on paper, but how easily you turn it into cash when you want out.
Lens 3 — How much it really appreciated
Here is the surprise, because this is where the fight evens out. Measured to date —closed sales over the last year against each unit's own preconstruction contract, dropping the extremes— both towers rose almost the same: Ritz-Carlton +35.4% and Armani/Casa +33.4%. Two points apart on a limited sample of closings: a statistical tie. Whoever bought off the plans and sells today earned roughly the same in one tower or the other.
Where they do differ is in what they ask. From preconstruction to asking price, Ritz-Carlton lists at +56% and Armani/Casa at +46%. But asking is not selling: the gap between that ask and the ~+35% the market validates is the precise measure of seller over-expectation. Ritz can hold a higher ask because its scarcity backs it; Armani asks +46% on an asset that takes more than five years to turn over.
Lens 4 — How long it takes to sell
The last filter is time. Of what closed over the last year, Ritz-Carlton sold in a median of 127 days; Armani/Casa, 171: more than a month and a half longer to turn the unit into cash. Point for Ritz. Not what the building is worth on paper, but how easily you turn it into cash when you want out.
The verdict
Preconstruction sells expectation; resale audits it. And the audit has a clear winner: Ritz-Carlton. But —and this is the point— not because it appreciated more: measured to date, the two rose almost the same, +35.4% against +33.4%, a statistical tie. It wins because its market works: little inventory, fast sales, scarcity that holds the price. Armani saturates: 5.6 years of stock, nearly three times the units competing against one another, a brand diluted by the building's own oversupply.
The lesson for the buyer is not "brand X beats brand Y." It is subtler and more useful: paper appreciation and real liquidity are two different things. Two towers can rise the same and yet one sells in four months while the other sits in the window for years. The difference is not what your condo is worth, but what it costs to get out of it. And the gap between the +46% to +56% asked and the ~+35% the market validates is where the unprepared buyer's money evaporates. Before entering any trophy tower in Miami, that is what you measure.
To see the unit-by-unit detail of each building, we keep the resale inventory for both towers: Ritz-Carlton Residences Sunny Isles and Residences by Armani/Casa. And for anyone following the same analysis on another trophy tower, Aston Martin Residences downtown runs on the same preconstruction-versus-resale logic. The neighborhood picture is on our Sunny Isles page.
Which appreciated more in Sunny Isles, Ritz-Carlton or Armani/Casa?
Measured to date —closed sales over the last year against each unit's preconstruction contract— both appreciated almost the same: Ritz-Carlton +35.4% and Armani/Casa +33.4%, a statistical tie. The real difference is not appreciation but liquidity: Ritz holds about one year of inventory and sells in a median of 127 days; Armani carries roughly 5.6 years and takes 171 days.
How do you measure a building's real appreciation from preconstruction?
Using the public Miami-Dade Property Appraiser record, where each unit's first qualified sale equals the preconstruction contract recorded at the first closing, crossed with the MLS for resales. Only qualified sales are used: arm's-length market transactions.
Why does the asking price rise more than the price sold?
Because asking is not selling. Ritz-Carlton asks +56% over preconstruction and Armani/Casa +46%, but what the market validates is around +35%. That gap is seller over-expectation, which the resale market eventually corrects.
Is it better to buy today in Ritz-Carlton or Armani/Casa?
It depends on the goal. Ritz-Carlton offers scarcity and a market that absorbs quickly, with less room to negotiate. Armani/Casa has far more available inventory and therefore more room to negotiate on price. The right call is made unit by unit, not by brand.
Data from Miami-Dade Property Appraiser (public record) and MLS, qualified sales, as of June 2026. Figures are indicative; the analysis of a specific unit may differ from the building average.