The recorded square footage of all 240 Oceana Bal Harbour apartments
Four figures exist for every apartment in this building: the area recorded in the declaration, the area the county carries, and the residence and terrace areas the developer published. This page sets all four beside each other, apartment by apartment, with the folio for each.
MLS listings on this line publish 1,267 square feet on every floor: 8.2% above what the declaration records for the fourth floor. Between this apartment’s smallest and largest figure, 1,171 and 1,628, there is 39%.
Why there are four figures
Every Oceana floor plan the developer published carries the same footnote:
“Stated dimensions are measured to the exterior boundaries of the exterior walls and the centerline of interior demising walls and in fact vary from the dimensions that would be determined by using the description and definition of the ‘Unit’ set forth in the Declaration (which generally only includes the interior airspace between the perimeter walls and excludes interior structural components). For the square footage of the ‘Unit’ calculated in the manner set forth in the Declaration, see Exhibit ‘3’ to the Declaration.”
This page is that instruction, carried out.
Exhibit 3 lists all 240 apartments and their recorded areas, one by one. It was recorded on 17 November 2016 as part of the Second Amendment to the Declaration of Oceana Bal Harbour Condominium, the substantial completion amendment, which replaced the original Exhibit 3 in its entirety. It records the building as completed.
The 240 rows of Exhibit 3 total 652,458 square feet, exactly. The document states 100.0000% of the common elements as its total; adding the 240 percentages, each rounded to four decimal places, gives 100.0001%. The difference is the rounding, not the document.
The exact square-foot total is what makes any single row checkable against the whole: an apartment’s area divided by 652,458 gives its percentage to four decimal places. I checked all 240 rows, with no exceptions.
The 01 line shows the distance between the two documents in one figure. The declaration records it at 3,992 square feet. The developer’s floor plan book publishes 4,185 for the same apartment, 4.83% more. The two figures describe the same space measured two ways, and the developer says so in the footnote on every plan.
Below, for every apartment: the area recorded in the declaration, the area the county carries, the residence and terrace areas the developer published, and the folio.
They do not all agree.
Of the 240, four have no separate county record and four more are recorded jointly with a neighbour, which leaves 232 that can be compared one to one. On 32 of those the county holds a different figure from the declaration — 24 larger, 8 smaller.
These are the same four apartments seen from both sides: where the county records two apartments under one folio, the other is left with no record of its own.
On 238 of 238 the developer’s figure is larger, which is what the developer’s own footnote says to expect: the plans measure to the outside of the exterior wall and the centre of the dividing wall, and the declaration measures the interior airspace.
The terrace is a fourth figure. The MLS has no field for it.
#404 and #1104 are both published at 1,267 square feet. One of them is 1,171.
The MLS publishes all four, mixed together
None of the four figures is false. They measure different things, and taking the square footage from the developer’s material is standard practice across the industry: publishing one figure per line is a normal shortcut. What follows is not a complaint about anyone. It is a count of which figure the buyer is reading.
Of the 126 transactions in the record, 124 published a square footage. In twelve of those the apartment cannot be determined, so the published figure cannot be compared with anything. The remaining 112:
The MLS figure is…
Transactions
the area recorded in the declaration
66
the residence figure from the developer’s book
28
the county’s figure
15
residence plus terrace
0
none of the four
3
Two notes on the count. “The county’s figure” means the MLS figure equals the county’s where the county differs from the declaration; where the two agree, 200 of 232 apartments, the transaction is counted under the declaration, because that test runs first. And the zero is not a rounding: in ten years, no listing has published residence plus terrace.
The same apartment, two figures. Unit 1701 in the south tower was published at 3,992 square feet in 2020 and at 4,185 in 2023. Unit 701 in the north tower was published at 3,992 in 2021 and at 4,185 in 2026. The declaration records 3,992 for both, in all four listings.
A whole line, one figure. Of the seven listings on the 04NW and 04SW plan, five published 1,267 square feet: the same number on the fourth floor as on the eleventh. On the eleventh that is the recorded figure. On the fourth the declaration says 1,171. Of the other two, one published 1,285 and the other covers two apartments sold as one.
And there is a fourth source. At least one listing states that the area was supplied by the owner rather than by a document. 502 is the clearest case: it was published at 2,130 square feet in one listing, the developer’s residence figure, and at 2,140 in another, which corresponds to no document.
Before comparing two apartments in this building, what you need to know is which of the four figures you are reading for each one.
All 240 apartments
The residence and terrace columns carry the developer’s own figures, and each one links to the plan for its line on the Oceana Bal Harbour floor plan page, which reproduces the original plan book. That is where every link in this table goes: the plan the figure comes from.
Declaration areas: Exhibit 3, CFN 2016R0665037. County areas: Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, by folio. Residence and terrace areas: the Oceana Bal Harbour plan book, published by the developer.
Where the county records two joined apartments under a single folio, or does not record an apartment separately, the cell says so rather than showing a figure.
Exhibit 3 was recorded as scanned pages and carries no searchable text. The 240 rows above were read from the page images and checked three ways: the row count against the declaration’s stated 240, the area total against its stated 652,458, and every apartment’s ownership percentage against its own area. All three reconcile.
I did that because I represent buyers and sellers in this building, and I was not prepared to quote an apartment a figure I had not read myself. Once the table existed there was no reason to keep it to myself.
Exhibit 3 to the Second Amendment to the Declaration of Oceana Bal Harbour Condominium, CFN 2016R0665037, OR Book 30312, Pages 332–388, recorded 17 November 2016. Verified current — no subsequent amendment restates Exhibit 3 (Third Amendment, CFN 2017R0264036, adds only the Cabana Club). The complete 57-page instrument as recorded is reproduced here.
If your apartment is one of the thirty-two the county holds differently, or one of the four it does not record separately, ask me what that means for pricing. The answer is the same whether or not you ever list.
Alerts for this building
What closes here, and notice when something moves, on-market or off. Name a line if you have one, or leave it blank for the whole building.
