Where Short-Term RentalsAre Actually Allowed

The vacation-home market around Walt Disney World is one of the most distinctive things about Central Florida real estate. It is also the area where buyers make the most expensive assumption in the region: that because the house next door is on a booking site, this house can be too.

It very often cannot. Here is how the rules actually work, county by county.

The question to ask is about the subdivision, not the house

This is why "there are vacation rentals all over this area" is not evidence about the property you are considering. The vacation rentals all over the area are in subdivisions that went through a specific approval process. That approval does not extend past the subdivision line.

What the state preemption does and does not do

Florida preempts the regulation of public lodging establishments to the state. The operative language for vacation rentals is in section 509.032(7)(b):

Two things about that. The grandfather date is 1 June 2011 — frequently mis-stated as July. Ordinances adopted on or before that date that prohibit vacation rentals or regulate duration and frequency remain enforceable.

And the preemption is narrower than it sounds. It bars two specific things: prohibiting vacation rentals, and regulating their duration or frequency. It does not hand local governments' general zoning power to the state. Local governments continue to inspect for Building Code and Fire Prevention Code compliance, require local business tax receipts and registration, and enforce noise, parking, occupancy and nuisance codes of general application — and they continue to apply zoning that defines where transient residential use is a permitted use at all.

What has changed since: nothing. SB 280 in 2024 would have created a state licensing and platform framework and allowed limited local registration — it passed both chambers and was vetoed on 27 June 2024. The 2025 bills addressed tourist development councils rather than preemption and died in committee. As of September 2026, section 509.032(7) reads the same as it has, with the 1 June 2011 date intact.

Unincorporated Orange County

Orange County's Zoning Division states the rule directly, and it is restrictive:

• Short-term rental — a stay of 179 days or less — is permitted only in the C-1, C-2 and C-3 commercial districts and the I-1A, I-1/I-5, I-2/I-3 and I-4 industrial districts, or in a Planned Development where short-term rental is expressly permitted.
• Single-family transient rental — renting a single-family dwelling for less than 30 days — is allowed only in the R-3 zoning district.
• In all other zoning classifications, both are prohibited.

So in the ordinary residential districts that cover most of unincorporated Orange County, the answer is no.

The City of Orlando is a different jurisdiction with different rules

This is the distinction that catches the most people, because an "Orlando" mailing address very often means unincorporated Orange County, not the city. The City's own fact sheet tells owners to verify whether they are inside city limits before relying on anything.

Inside the City of Orlando, whole-home rental under 30 days is not permitted for an ordinary homeowner. The legal paths are narrower:

Osceola County — check the list

Osceola regulates short-term rentals through Article 3.6.J of its Land Development Code, and — far more usefully for a buyer — the county maintains an official list of approved short-term rental subdivisions. That list is the practical gatekeeper.

The version published by the county names 249 approved communities and subdivisions, including ChampionsGate, Reunion Resort & Club, Windsor Hills, Formosa Gardens, Indian Wells, Wyndham Palms, and Academy Village phases 1 and 2. Several carry an annotation referencing a Letter of Vested Rights dated 2 February 1995.

Two entries are expressly flagged the other way: Seralago, noted as never approved for short-term rental, and Westminster Gardens, marked as not approved.

Polk County and the Four Corners area

Polk's code is the clearest illustration of the principle that this is a subdivision-level decision. Its use table permits a "Short-Term Rental Unit" outright in the TCC (Tourism Commercial Center) and L/R (Leisure/Recreation) districts, treats it as a conditional use requiring Level 3 Review in the residential districts, and does not allow it elsewhere.

Then the code says this:

Approval may be limited to a particular phase, with buffering required between short-term-rental phases and permanent-residential phases. Any lot owner may apply on behalf of the whole subdivision through Level 3 Review, with mailed notice to every lot owner in the subdivision, in any subdivision within 250 feet, and in any subdivision sharing access roads, security gates or common facilities. The review considers the ratio of short-term rentals to total lots, existing deed restrictions, setbacks, and what buyers were told when they purchased.

Approved subdivisions must record a "Notice of Short-Term Rentals," and the county requires notice at contract and at purchase of a lot in such a subdivision. That recorded instrument is exactly the document to pull.

Polk also expressly prohibits short-term rental use of accessory dwelling units, under an ordinance adopted 3 October 2023.

So the honest framing for ChampionsGate, Davenport and the Four Corners vacation-home communities is this: they are legal because the subdivision or planned development phase obtained short-term rental approval — not because individual owners registered, and not because the area generally allows it.

Zoning is only the first gate

Clearing zoning does not finish the job. Four more things stand between a legal parcel and a legal rental:

• The HOA declaration. Private deed restrictions are enforceable independently of zoning and routinely ban rentals shorter than some minimum term. A subdivision can be zoned for short-term rental and still prohibit it by covenant.
• A DBPR vacation rental license. Required under section 509.242(1)(c) when a unit is rented as a transient public lodging establishment. The trigger is renting the entire unit more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 days, or advertising it as regularly available for such rental. License classes distinguish Vacation Rental–Dwelling from Vacation Rental–Condominium, in Single, Group or Collective types.
• A local business tax receipt. Polk County, for example, requires a Class B receipt for each rental location for rentals of six months or less, and will not issue it without proof of the corresponding state license.
• Tourist development tax and sales tax registration. Orange and Osceola each levy a 6% tourist development tax; Polk levies 5%, on rentals of six months or less. State sales tax on transient rentals is 6% plus any county discretionary surtax, remitted to the Department of Revenue. Osceola states it is not contracted with the booking platforms for collection — the owner registers and remits.

How to verify before you write the offer

• Establish the jurisdiction first. City of Orlando or unincorporated Orange? Osceola or Polk? Use the property appraiser record, not the mailing address.
• Get the zoning determination in writing from the county or city for that parcel. Not from the listing, not from the seller, not from the community's sales office.
• Osceola: confirm the subdivision appears on the county's approved list and that the list is current.
• Polk: confirm the subdivision or phase holds Level 3 short-term rental approval and pull the recorded Notice of Short-Term Rentals.
• Read the declaration of covenants for minimum lease terms, leasing caps, and approval requirements.
• Check whether the DBPR license is transferable or must be obtained new.
• Put the contingency in the contract. If the purchase only makes sense as a short-term rental, make the contract say so.

The Disney-area vacation home market is genuinely one of the region's real opportunities. It is also one of the few places in Central Florida real estate where getting a zoning question wrong turns an investment into a house you cannot use the way you planned. The verification takes a few days. Do it before the inspection period ends, not after.