Orlando Eye Attraction comes to O-Town!

Now under construction on International Drive "The Orlando Eye" a 425-FOOT-TALL observation wheel which is a sibling of the London Eye on the River Thames in London England. It is scheduled to open with its surrounding development "I-Drive Live"on New Year's Eve 2014 and will be nearly as tall as the 35-story SunTrust Building in downtown Orlando.

It will be so high that when the Eye is running, those riding will be able to see all of the city and as far as NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building on the east coast of Florida.



In addition to the observation wheel, the development will include a Madame Tussauds wax museum and a Sea Life aquarium, Titanic Exhibition, a Ben & Jerry's, Outback, Buffalo Wild Wings and a Yard House, as well as other restaurants and shops.


The developer, Unicorp, is also developing an I-Shops project on the previous location of the Wyndham Orlando Resort at the corner of International Drive and Sand Lake Road. The former hotel was demolished to make way for this development.

Oliver Overton-Morgan
Oliver Overton-Morgan is the Broker of Absolut Realty Inc, an Orlando-based investment real estate and property management company.

 

What to expect from the Orlando rental market in the upcoming months?

As the market stabilizes Landlords and property managers will see more activity... thankfully more than the beginning part of this year which has been a little slow. We probably won't be seeing anymore the explosive rental growth we saw back in 2012 which was caused by a flood of new rental properties and investors. The median rent list price for Orlando, Florida in February 2014 was $1287 which is an increase of 5.8% over 2013. Some areas have experienced a year over year increase such as Celebration by 20% and College Park by 9%, while other areas actually decreased such as Hunters Creek by -0.2% and Baldwin Park by -5%.

Over the last year or so there has been a steady flow of competition from Real Estate Investment Trusts purchasing large amounts of rental properties across the country; and now in addition to that builders are adding dozens of new apartment complexes to the market. This will make it difficult for Landlords to consider raising rents over the next year and they will need to make a decision of whether or not an increase is worth the risk. Our best advice is to be informed of their local neighborhood and nearby up-to-date rental comparables.

On a positive note, rising mortgage rates and home prices shuts potential Buyers out of the homeowner marketplace, and provides a balance so that rental rates should remain fairly strong. The market is still normalizing and growth is strong so you will need to adapt to the changing market to have success.


Oliver Overton-Morgan
Oliver Overton-Morgan is the Broker of Absolut Realty Inc, an Orlando-based residential investment real estate and property management company.