'Net negative': Trump policy breaks real estate market in FL town housing his golf resort

Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey on July 28, 2022 (Image: Shutterstock)

One of President Donald Trump's signature policies is causing significant harm to the local economy in Doral, Florida – which is the home to the Trump National Doral Golf Club.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday that rents have hit their lowest point in Doral (a Miami-area suburb) in three years after an exodus of Venezuelan immigrants. According to the WSJ, roughly 40 percent of Doral's estimated 80,000 residents are either from Venezuela or come from Venezuelan families.

This means that the Trump administration's stringent immigration enforcement has resulted in a large portion of Doral's Venezuelan population to bolt. The WSJ's report opened with a local landlord expressing shock at discovering a Venezuelan family that moved into their four-bedroom Doral Landings East property several years ago suddenly leaving with no notice, leaving behind their furniture and skipping out on rent. While they had been paying an estimated $4,000 a month in rent, the landlord said they had been forced to divert an increasingly large share of their income toward legal bills.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Vanesa Eguillor, who is the landlord's real estate broker.

While some of Doral's Venezuelan residents are naturalized U.S. citizens, others are in the U.S. on temporary statuses that were in place during former President Joe Biden's administration — which the Trump administration has revoked. In June, the Trump administration announced that Biden's "parole" program (which allows immigrants to stay for a limited period of time and allow them legal status to work) for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela had been revoked "effective immediately." This has caused many immigrants to "self-deport," and abruptly leave the U.S. for their own safety.

In the areas surrounding Doral, apartment vacancies have averaged 4.3 percent, though Doral itself has a vacancy rate of 6.5 percent – nearly a full percentage point higher than in 2024. And some apartment buildings in Doral have vacancy rates in the double digits, according to the WSJ.

Juan Arias, who is the director of Market Analytics at data company Costar Group, told the Journal that approximately 70 percent of immigrants who have come to South Florida since 2010 are renters, and blamed Trump's policies specifically for depressing the local housing market.

"All of this immigration crackdown is a net negative to the entire multifamily world," Arias said.

Click here to read the WSJ's full report (subscription required).

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