The short answer
South Florida has 5,812 office buildings of 2,000 SF or more and 12,055 industrial buildings of 5,000 SF or more — a finite pool, which is why a compressed timeline costs money. It is also three genuinely different markets: office sold at a $437 per square foot median in Miami-Dade against $275 in Broward, while industrial stayed within a much tighter $212 to $264 band. Workforce commute, not rent, is usually the variable that decides the county correctly.
What companies get wrong about moving here
The tax arithmetic gets done carefully and the real estate gets done in a hurry. I see it repeatedly.
A company spends nine months modelling the move, picks South Florida, and then gives itself six weeks to find space — usually starting with whatever a landlord's broker showed them on a site visit. That is how firms end up in the wrong submarket paying above-market rent on terms written entirely for the other side.
The second mistake is assuming this is one market. It is three counties with genuinely different economics, and the difference between them is larger than most relocating executives expect.
What exists, by county
| County | Office 2,000+ SF | Industrial 5,000+ SF | Office median $/SF | Industrial median $/SF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | 2,647 | 6,137 | $437 | $264 |
| Broward | 1,898 | 3,963 | $275 | $212 |
| Palm Beach | 1,267 | 1,955 | $337 | $226 |
Building counts from tri-county property records; sale medians from recorded arms-length transactions 2021 through August 2026 (Broward through 2024).
5,812 office buildings at 2,000 square feet or larger, and 12,055 industrial buildings at 5,000 or larger. That is the real universe, and it is finite — which is why the good space in the right submarket goes quickly and why arriving with six weeks to decide is a disadvantage you hand to the other side.
The county split matters. Miami-Dade office sold at a $437 median against Broward's $275 — a 59% difference for what is nominally the same product an hour apart. Industrial compresses the other way: $264 in Miami-Dade against $212 in Broward and $226 in Palm Beach, a much tighter band. If you are moving a distribution operation the county choice is mostly about drive times; if you are moving a headquarters it is a real budget decision.
Labour and drive time decide this more than rent does
The rent line gets all the attention in a relocation and it is rarely the deciding variable.
Where your people will live and how long they will drive determines whether you can hire and keep staff, and South Florida traffic makes a fifteen-mile difference into a forty-minute one at the wrong hour. A cheaper building in a submarket your workforce will not commute to is not cheaper.
For anyone moving from the Northeast, the other adjustment is that this region has no single centre. New York has a downtown; South Florida has a chain of them — Brickell, downtown Fort Lauderdale, Boca, West Palm — strung along ninety miles of coast. Picking the wrong link in that chain is the most expensive mistake available, and it is invisible on a spreadsheet.
Sequence it properly
Start the real estate at the same time as the entity and tax work, not after it. Twelve months out is comfortable, six is tight, three means taking what is available.
Tour before you commit to a submarket, and tour on a weekday at the hour your staff would actually arrive. Look at more than the buildings that are formally listed — a meaningful share of the space that changes hands here never appears on a portal.
And get the lease reviewed by somebody on your side. Florida commercial leases are landlord-form documents by default and they are not gentle. Personal guaranties, CAM definitions, relocation clauses, and holdover penalties are all negotiable and none of them will be volunteered.
What I do for a relocating company
I represent you and only you. I do not list buildings for landlords here, so there is no version of this where I am on both sides.
That means: a real read on which submarket fits your workforce, a search that includes what is not publicly listed, comparables so you know whether an asking rent is defensible, and a negotiation on the terms that matter beyond the rent number — the buildout allowance, the guaranty, the escalations, the out.
Tenant representation is paid by the landlord out of the transaction, so it costs you nothing to have someone in the room whose only job is your side of it.
If you are evaluating a move to Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach, tell me what the operation needs and roughly when. I will give you a straight read on where it belongs and what it should cost.
Want the number on your building?
Search the property for an instant public-record snapshot and the closest recorded sales, or send me the address and I will come back inside one business day with a comp-driven range, what I think it would actually trade at, and what I would fix first.
Related resources.
Frequently asked questions about corporate relocation.
How far ahead should we start looking for space before relocating to South Florida?
Twelve months is comfortable for anything over a few thousand square feet, six months is tight, and three months means choosing from what happens to be available rather than what is right. Start the real estate in parallel with the entity and tax work rather than after it.
Which South Florida county should our company move to?
It depends on your workforce more than your budget. Miami-Dade office sold at a $437 per square foot median against Broward's $275, so the cost difference is real, but the deciding factor is usually where your staff will live and how long they will drive. South Florida has no single centre — it is a chain of business districts along ninety miles of coast, and picking the wrong one is the costly mistake.
How much commercial space is actually available in South Florida?
Across the tri-county there are 5,812 office buildings of 2,000 square feet or more and 12,055 industrial buildings of 5,000 square feet or more. It is a finite pool, and the right space in the right submarket moves quickly, which is why compressed timelines cost money.
Do we need a broker if we already found a building?
It costs you nothing to have one, since tenant representation is paid by the landlord out of the transaction. What you get is someone who knows whether the asking rent is defensible, what else is available including space that never gets listed, and which lease terms are negotiable. The landlord already has representation in the room.
Is industrial or office cheaper here than the Northeast?
That comparison depends on your origin market and the specific submarket, and I would rather give you real numbers for your requirement than a generality. What I can tell you from recorded sales is the internal spread: industrial ran $212 to $264 per square foot across the three counties, while office ranged from $275 in Broward to $437 in Miami-Dade.