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The days when institutional buyers could swoop into Miami and gobble up hundreds of distressed condo units in one deal may be over.

“Bulk deals in Greater Downtown Miami are just about as extinct as the residential construction crane,” said Condo Vultures principal Peter Zalewski in a recent report.

According to the Bal Harbour-based consultancy, the last large scale deal was the transfer of 672 condo units in a project called Everglades on the Bay, which was essentially approved by a court on Oct. 27. Only 177 of the 849 units in the development were sold.

Buyers from Europe and Latin America are leading a surge in buying activity in the Miami area, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

Pending sales for September were up 28.6 percent from September 2009, the latest MLS data shows. Pending sales of condominiums, which are particularly popular with foreign buyers, were up 40 percent from a year earlier, according to a press release.

The influence of foreign buyers is nothing new in southern Florida. By some estimates they accounted for more than 50 percent of home sales during the lean times. But the association says activity has increased in recent weeks.

An estimated 60 percent of home sales in South Florida these days involve a foreign buyer, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

That’s an astounding number, no matter how you analyze the real estate market. Not only are international buyers playing a key role, they are driving sales at a time when U.S. investors clearly remain wary of pulling the trigger.

The Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches and the Realtor Association of Miami-Dade County have merged, creating the largest association of agents in the United States.

The new real estate group will be called the Miami Association of Realtors, pending approval from the National Association Realtors. It will include more than 23,000 members, the association says.

While headlines focus on the towers of empty condos, Miami has been posting some big-dollar sales.

Last week a “German businessman” paid $16 million for a new 17,200-square-foot, 10-bedroom house in Miami Beach. The developer built the house as a spec property in 2008, which was, to say the least, unfortunate timing.

The waterfront house, which includes two docks and a five-car garage, originally hit the market at $25 million, according to the Miami Herald.

A Miami firm promoting Florida real estate investments was actually running a $135 million Ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged this week.

Gaston Cantens and his wife, Teresita, founders of Royal West Properties, promised investors returns between 9 and 16 percent a year on property in southwest Florida markets like Cape Coral, Port Charlotte and Lehigh Acres. But when the bottom fell out of the market the Cantens began using new investor money to pay off earlier investors, the SEC alleges in its civil complaint.

The new owner of the Trump Towers in Miami is discounting units up to 30 percent, hoping to sell off units and pay down the newly acquired debt.

“It’s like a relaunch,” Dezer Properties president Gil Dezer told the Miami Herald.

Dezer Properties assumed control of the project in January from its former partner, Related Group, which not long ago was building condo towers in Miami like kids with a Lego set. Now Related is busily working out deals with lenders, bailing out of several of its high profile projects, including the must-discussed Icon Brickell towers.

Before the crisis, developers cited robust sales in Trump Towers, the three-tower, 813-unit waterfront project, which is licensing Donald Trump’s name. But many buyers didn’t close on the sales, Dezer told the Herald.

Headlines from the world of property:

Dubai: Older Offices Have a Vacant Look

New buildings are gobbling up tenants, leaving older buildings to struggle. From the National.

New York: Priciest Condo Takes a Tumble

Price of condo in Philippe Starck building drops $7 million. From Curbed.

Icon Brickell

Developers in downtown Miami sold more than 1,600 condos in the second half of 2009, after lenders slashed prices by 30 percent, according to Condo Vultures.

Only about 700 units sold in the first half of the year, but buying activity picked up when prices dropped from $300 a square foot to $200 square foot, Condo Vultures’ Peter Zalewski notes.

"The new prices triggered a buying frenzy by foreign nationals with strong currencies and private equity groups that finally began to purchase, completing a dozen condo bulk deals in the Brickell Avenue Area, Downtown Miami, and the Biscayne Boulevard Corridor in 2009," Zalewski notes.

Shaq estate

2009 was “a really blah year” for the Miami Beach waterfront market, agent Kevin Tomlinson reports in his South Beach blog.

In total, 42 waterfront homes sold in Miami Beach in 2009, compared to 49 in 2008. But the average price dropped from $934 a square foot in 2008 to $702 a square foot, a 24.8 percent drop, Tomlinson reports.

“In other words, if you own a 7,000 square foot waterfront home, in 2008 it was worth $6,538,000--today it would be worth $4,914,000,” Tomlinson notes.