| New reporting is exposing Casey Askar for contributing to Naples’ housing crisis and pricing out working Floridians – all while asking for their votes.
According to Florida Politics, Askar “rents some condo units for more than $10,000 a month,” which is “more than five times the fair market value.” Those price tags are feeding Askar’s astonishingly out-of-touch net worth, which in 2020 was “estimated [at] $176 million.”
While Askar sells Naples out to the rich, working Floridians are “wrestl[ing] with an affordable housing crisis that has struck coastal communities in Southwest Florida especially hard.” The area has a “severe shortage of rental units, with a deficit of more than 9,000 units for those earning between 0 and 60 percent of the median income.”
Askar’s pricing “calls into question whether his investment strategies paid much heed to the community’s needs.”
REMINDER: Askar has a history of ripping off working Floridians. Askar’s “long trail of financial and legal disputes” include owing a business partner “more than $900,000,” owing the Seminole Tribe of Florida “more than $2.5 million,” and “rack[ing] up hundreds of thousands of dollars in liens and multiple lawsuits” over an abandoned office tower.
DCCC Spokesperson Madison Andrus:
“Casey Askar is getting rich while leaving Floridians in the dust, and there’s little doubt he’d continue this pattern in Congress. While Askar has repeatedly proven he’s only interested in working for the rich and the powerful, Pia Dandiya has dedicated her life and career to helping working families achieve the American Dream. That’s why Floridians are going to elect her to Congress this November.
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Florida Politics: Naples has a workforce housing crisis, but Casey Askar rents two-bedroom condos for more than $10K a month
The Naples Republican bought eight small units downtown in 2018 and now rents them as corporate and seasonal rentals.
- As Naples faces an affordable housing shortage, congressional candidate Casey Askar rents some condo units for more than $10,000 a month.
- A company Askar owns, APNI 3, purchased eight small condominium units in downtown Naples in 2018. Each unit cost between $300,000 and $316,000, according to Collier County property records, and now has an appraised value of between $400,000 and $410,000. The median price for condo units sold year to date is about $440,000, according to the Naples Area Board of Realtors, though in August 2018 it was about $218,000.
- But the units are advertised with monthly rents between $8,700 and $10,560, based on Apartments.com listings as of Oct. 9. Each is a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit.
- According to Askar’s candidate financial disclosures, the Naples Republican values APNI 3 at between $5 million and $25 million and identifies income as capital gains. The real estate holding company is one of roughly 75 different identified financial assets. Askar had an estimated $176 million net worth in 2020, as calculated by Quiver Quantitative based on prior disclosures.
- The apartment listings advertise units as corporate or vacation rentals near downtown.
- Marketed to a luxury consumer base as a second or vacation home, the listings say they are subject to dynamic seasonal adjustments, meaning they could go for a higher price during peak times of the year.
- Askar won the Republican nomination in August in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, where he faces Pia Dandiya in one of the state’s most closely watched congressional contests. Sabato’s Crystal Ball recently shifted the race in its ratings to a “Toss-Up” out of the “Leans Republican” column.
- While Askar’s campaign has stressed his success in the private sector, unit pricing calls into question whether his investment strategies paid much heed to the community’s needs.
- The median monthly cost for a two-bedroom apartment in the Naples-Marco Island metropolitan area is $1,986 a month, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That pegs the units Askar’s company rents, in the most expensive cases, at more than five times the fair market value.
- Askar’s company is renting the seasonal homes as Florida leaders wrestle with an affordable housing crisis that has struck coastal communities in Southwest Florida especially hard.
- A Bright Community Study presented to the Naples Community Redevelopment Agency in 2022 found many buyers were purchasing units to convert to short-term rentals, which ultimately hurt the supply of workforce housing in the community. The study found 2,600 transient lodging facilities in Collier County, and 40 in the Naples CRA area, which includes the 800 block of Central Avenue.
- That’s just one survey showing a shortage in affordable rentals compared to seasonal rentals. The Collier Community Foundation found the county faces a “severe shortage of rental units, with a deficit of more than 9,000 units for those earning between 0 and 60 percent of the median income.”
- Askar’s campaign did not respond to an email about why he has the apartments at inflated rates in the current market.
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