In Chinese culture, certain numbers — like 4 — are generally considered unlucky because of how they sound. I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, but as I understand it, 4 sounds similar to "death." And this is even more the case in Cantonese.

Four sounds exactly like death, fourteen sounds like "definitely die," and forty-four is the equivalent of "die, certainly die." (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) It is for this reason that in certain real estate markets, and in particular Cantonese-speaking markets like Hong Kong, 4-related numbers are often avoided whenever possible.

This can also be the case in other markets. Before we launched sales for One Delisle, the team made the decision to be mindful of this superstition and skip floors 4, 14, and 44. The result is that the homes on floor 4 became suite 501, 502, 503, and so on, and the building itself went from having 44 floors to 47 floors.

We did this so that nobody would be buying on the "die, certainly die" floor, and so from a marketing perspective, I think these strategies can make a lot of sense.

But what I would also say is that, from a development perspective, you should avoid this whenever possible. It adds coordination complexity. What we saw happening early on was that someone would say suite 501, and then you'd have someone else question whether they were talking about the suite on architectural/construction/legal level 5 or the suite on marketing level 5.

To solve this, we had to be extremely draconian about how levels and suite numbers were allowed to be communicated. Firstly, there's no such thing as a "legal" suite number. Suite numbers are purely a marketing thing — a number that goes on a front door. The legal description of a condominium suite involves a legal level and a legal unit.

So what we did was call a meeting and tell everyone the following: Any and all communication regarding suites needs to include the legal level, legal unit, and suite number, and failure to use all three numbers means you will be liable for any mistakes. We then updated the drawings to reflect this nomenclature.

Building buildings requires some assholes.

My first boss used to tell me that development is the closest thing to being in the military. Never having been in the military, I can't say whether this is accurate or not, but it should give you an indication of what it can feel like to build. Sometimes skipping floors is just what you need to do. But if you can avoid it, it's one less thing you need to be an ass about.

When I was in Miami at the end of last year for the Elevate real estate conference, I was given the impression that every new development project has a luxury brand associated with it and that buyers from all over the world still have an insatiable demand for the city. The Toronto developers in the room had no choice but to commiserate amongst each other and make up excuses for why abundant sunshine and low taxes couldn't possibly be that nice.

But things seem to be changing quickly in Miami. I am seeing reports that the condominium market continues to soften and that unsold inventory is starting to accumulate. This seems to be happening for a bunch of reasons: lots of supply, relatively high interest rates, higher insurance costs (due to climate things), more stringent reserve funding requirements (following the tragic collapse of the Surfside tower), and perhaps even the hostile environment that the US is now creating for foreigners.

I don't have clear data for the pre-construction side of the market (like I do for Toronto), but typically you need a strong resale market to support new development. And that's because pre-construction pricing tends to be higher than resale pricing. If the latter is softening, then the value proposition for something new is weakened. On top of all this, there's right now a

In Chinese culture, certain numbers — like 4 — are generally considered unlucky because of how they sound. I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, but as I understand it, 4 sounds similar to "death." And this is even more the case in Cantonese.

Four sounds exactly like death, fourteen sounds like "definitely die," and forty-four is the equivalent of "die, certainly die." (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) It is for this reason that in certain real estate markets, and in particular Cantonese-speaking markets like Hong Kong, 4-related numbers are often avoided whenever possible.

This can also be the case in other markets. Before we launched sales for One Delisle, the team made the decision to be mindful of this superstition and skip floors 4, 14, and 44. The result is that the homes on floor 4 became suite 501, 502, 503, and so on, and the building itself went from having 44 floors to 47 floors.

We did this so that nobody would be buying on the "die, certainly die" floor, and so from a marketing perspective, I think these strategies can make a lot of sense.

But what I would also say is that, from a development perspective, you should avoid this whenever possible. It adds coordination complexity. What we saw happening early on was that someone would say suite 501, and then you'd have someone else question whether they were talking about the suite on architectural/construction/legal level 5 or the suite on marketing level 5.

To solve this, we had to be extremely draconian about how levels and suite numbers were allowed to be communicated. Firstly, there's no such thing as a "legal" suite number. Suite numbers are purely a marketing thing — a number that goes on a front door. The legal description of a condominium suite involves a legal level and a legal unit.

So what we did was call a meeting and tell everyone the following: Any and all communication regarding suites needs to include the legal level, legal unit, and suite number, and failure to use all three numbers means you will be liable for any mistakes. We then updated the drawings to reflect this nomenclature.

Building buildings requires some assholes.

My first boss used to tell me that development is the closest thing to being in the military. Never having been in the military, I can't say whether this is accurate or not, but it should give you an indication of what it can feel like to build. Sometimes skipping floors is just what you need to do. But if you can avoid it, it's one less thing you need to be an ass about.

When I was in Miami at the end of last year for the Elevate real estate conference, I was given the impression that every new development project has a luxury brand associated with it and that buyers from all over the world still have an insatiable demand for the city. The Toronto developers in the room had no choice but to commiserate amongst each other and make up excuses for why abundant sunshine and low taxes couldn't possibly be that nice.

But things seem to be changing quickly in Miami. I am seeing reports that the condominium market continues to soften and that unsold inventory is starting to accumulate. This seems to be happening for a bunch of reasons: lots of supply, relatively high interest rates, higher insurance costs (due to climate things), more stringent reserve funding requirements (following the tragic collapse of the Surfside tower), and perhaps even the hostile environment that the US is now creating for foreigners.

I don't have clear data for the pre-construction side of the market (like I do for Toronto), but typically you need a strong resale market to support new development. And that's because pre-construction pricing tends to be higher than resale pricing. If the latter is softening, then the value proposition for something new is weakened. On top of all this, there's right now a