UK vs Florida Property Terms: What Does Each Word Mean When You Buy or Sell Here?

The words are the same and the process is not. A British buyer or seller arriving in South Florida hears familiar terms used for unfamiliar things and unfamiliar terms for familiar ones. Exchange and completion become a single contract with a walk-away period. The solicitor becomes a title company and, if you want one, an attorney. The survey becomes an inspection, and the Florida survey is a drawing of your boundary. This glossary translates each term into what actually happens in a Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach County transaction, and points out where the difference costs money.

Buyers from the United Kingdom accounted for 4% of foreign purchases of U.S. homes, about 3,100 transactions and $2.0 billion, in the year to March 2025, and Florida remained the top destination for foreign buyers with 21% (National Association of Realtors, July 2025; data as of March 2025). Most of them met these words for the first time in the middle of a transaction. Better to meet them here.

Send this question to Gia Gia Freer, Broker of Record, answers within one business day, or call 561-395-8418.

Ownership: freehold, leasehold, fee simple and the condo

Almost everything you will look at in Florida is fee simple, which is freehold. Houses, townhouses and condominium units are owned outright. A condominium unit comes with an undivided share of the building's common elements and membership of an association that levies monthly dues, keeps reserves and, for buildings three stories and higher past a certain age, must now commission structural milestone inspections and reserve studies. There is no ground rent, no lease running down, no freeholder. What replaces the leasehold questions are association questions: the budget, the reserves, pending special assessments, and the estoppel letter that confirms what the seller owes. A homeowners association, or HOA, plays a lighter version of the same role in many house communities. True leasehold does exist in a handful of South Florida land-lease communities; it is rare and always disclosed.

The process: offer, exchange, completion, and their Florida versions

Florida has no exchange of contracts. The buyer submits a written offer on the standard Florida contract; when both parties sign, that is the contract, and the seller is bound. The buyer then has an inspection period of an agreed number of days during which the buyer can cancel for any reason and recover the deposit. A financing contingency and, in some contracts, an appraisal contingency follow. As each period passes the contract becomes firmer; the point at which you would say exchange has happened is the day the last contingency expires. Completion is called closing, and in South Florida it happens at a title company, often with the parties signing on different days and never meeting. The gazumping risk you know sits in the days before both signatures, not the weeks after.

Under contract, pending and contingent are the status words on listings; they mean a contract exists and contingencies may or may not remain. Earnest money is the deposit, held in escrow by the title company or a brokerage, usually paid in two stages. A counteroffer is what it sounds like. Time is of the essence is written into the contract and enforced.

The professionals: solicitor, conveyancer, estate agent, and who does that here

The conveyancing role is split. A title company or title agent searches the public records, clears title problems, issues the title insurance that every lender requires and most cash buyers should buy, prepares the closing statement and conducts the closing. In South Florida the buyer commonly chooses the title company. A Florida real estate attorney is optional and worth having for contract review, and necessary if you are buying through an LLC or trust or planning around U.S. estate exposure. The estate agent's role is held by licensed real estate brokers and sales associates, regulated by the state; Florida licensees may act as transaction brokers, a defined role that is neither the UK agent working solely for the seller nor a buyer's agent in the strict sense. Ask any agent to explain the brokerage relationship in writing; they are required to.

Diligence: survey, searches, EPC, and the Florida inspection

A survey in Florida is a boundary drawing; the building check is called an inspection. A licensed home inspector, hired and paid by the buyer during the inspection period, reports on structure, roof, electrical, plumbing, air-conditioning and moisture. For houses, insurers will also want a wind-mitigation report and, for older homes, a four-point report; these two documents can move the insurance quote by thousands of dollars a year and belong in your diligence, not after it. The searches your solicitor would run are the title search, done by the title company. There is no EPC; there is a seller's property disclosure, and in condominiums a package of association documents you have a statutory period to review.

Money: stamp duty, council tax, service charge, and the Florida costs

There is no stamp duty land tax on the buyer. Florida levies a documentary stamp tax on the deed, customarily paid by the seller in most of South Florida, and documentary stamp and intangible taxes on any mortgage, paid by the borrower. The recurring costs are property tax, assessed annually by the county and reassessed to market value on sale, and insurance, which in coastal Florida includes windstorm and, where required, flood cover. Association dues replace the service charge, with the difference that owners vote on the budget. Closing costs, the total of title, recording, lender and prorated items, appear on a single settlement statement that both sides receive before closing.

Financing: mortgage in principle, deposit, and the foreign-national loan

A mortgage in principle is a pre-approval. U.S. lenders that lend to foreign nationals exist and require more documentation and a larger down payment than a domestic borrower; expect to evidence income and funds from UK sources and allow more time. Down payment is the deposit in the UK sense, distinct from earnest money. Cash purchases are common among overseas buyers in South Florida, and a cash buyer still needs title insurance, an inspection and a survey.

Tax and residency terms you will hear

FIRPTA, ITIN, homestead and the six-month rule. FIRPTA is the withholding regime that applies when a foreign person sells U.S. property; it matters on your exit and is set out in selling a Florida home as a British owner. An ITIN is the U.S. taxpayer number a non-resident obtains for filing. Homestead is a property-tax benefit for permanent Florida residents that a UK-resident second-home owner does not receive. The six-month rule is the visitor-stay question that governs how long you can actually use the home, covered in buying a second home in Florida from the UK. None of these is advice from a brokerage; each is a question for a cross-border tax adviser before you sign.

Where this comes from

Gia Freer, Broker of Record at PBP Real Estate, LLC, licensed in Florida since 2000, and Grant Freer, Owner and Broker Associate, a British citizen who grew up in London, have bought and sold South Florida property for British families for two decades and have translated most of these terms across a kitchen table more than once.

Related guides

• Buying a second home in South Florida from the UK
• Selling a Florida home as a British owner
• Buying or selling South Florida property from abroad (hub)

If you already own here and are weighing a sale, start with the number: Price my home correctly and we will come back within one business day with a hand-prepared opinion of value. Or call 561-395-8418.

This page explains terminology and process and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Contract terms, title, U.S. and UK tax and visa questions should be reviewed with a qualified attorney or adviser.