High Demand Keeps Short-Term Rentals Strong

TAMPA, Fla. — Tom Weekes, a longtime Keller-Williams Realtor in Charlotte County who personally owned and offered short-term rentals in the region for years, prefers the short-term clientele.

Compared to some long-term renters, he says, they're more mature, more responsible, and more conscientious about maintaining property they use but don't own.

It's a view held by a number of owners and property managers in the short-term rental business, now thriving in Florida under an unlikely combination of state mandates that cities and counties can't prohibit them, and a warren of various local ordinances and regulations that rein in and control their business.

One fact is rarely in dispute: They make money for property owners and profit in taxable income both for Florida and for its cities and counties.

"So a guest is not going to pay just the 6% Palm Beach County bed tax, but 13% on top of the rental rate," explains Jenna Katz, vice president of Easy Air Rental (www.easyairrentals.com), describing both state and local taxes.

The company, founded a decade ago by Katie and Lance Friedman, manages 60 properties from Stuart in Martin County to Miami.

"The idea actually started during a trip Lance and I took through Europe," Katie said. "We stayed in several Airbnbs across Spain and France and saw that for several of the owners, it was a lot to juggle for them managing their rentals."

In Nice, she recalled, a friend of an owner had to deliver a missing key dressed in full snorkeling regalia. "It was kind of funny. But we realized how challenging it can be for homeowners to manage guest needs and property issues, and how much better the experience could be with the right local support."

So, they went back to Palm Beach County and, in effect, grew up with the business, Katie said.

"Over the past 10 years, both our company and the vacation rental industry have matured significantly. Technology has improved, regulations around licensing and occupancy taxes have become clearer, and professional management has become more important than ever."

As Jenna Katz describes it, "These are motor-in residential properties — single-family homes, condominiums — and you won't find them in HOA communities where they're not allowed. There are certain cities that welcome them and certain cities that don't. Some cities, such as Juno Beach and North Palm Beach, have very strict requirements."

Safety, noise, cleanliness, accommodating infrastructure — all those become factors in local regulations.

So do the details, Katz adds, including items you wouldn't know you needed until you need them: marked fire extinguishers, floor plans, an exit plan on the walls, emergency lights at the exit. None of those fall into the luxury market category but all come with it in Juno Beach, by local ordinance.

Whether permanent residents object or not, state law protects the right of property owners to conduct such business in most local communities that have not established prohibitions before 2011, barring cities and counties from regulating the frequency of stays or the duration. But state law also has exceptions: Homeowners and condominium associations or cooperative boards can limit short-term rentals.

So, owners must meet state licensing regulations, pay both state and local bed taxes, and meet restrictions imposed by some private associations.

For periods of 30 days or less, according to a state definition of short-term, but in reality, sometimes for periods as long as six months or so, owners may rent single-family homes, condos, townhouses or apartments while meeting zoning requirements, noise ordinances, occupancy limits, registration requirements and safety regulations established in local communities or associations.

It's been worth it, for Weekes and others.

"The short-term renters respected your property, if they broke something they told you about it," he said of his own experience.

"My feeling is, people who come down for the winter or part of it from up north — mature people — are awesome renters. They're interesting people, a welcome addition to any neighborhood or condo complex."

And the business works well in towns and locations that are traditionally residential — not strictly party zones for people to walk to and from beaches with blood-alcohol levels that wouldn't pass a breathalyzer test, or music at decibel levels that could be heard in the next state.

That happens in part because investors in such properties have different visions of what should happen than franchise owners of chain hotels and motels. And it makes them money.

Almost a decade in the business, Katz, part of a small but vibrant community of South African investors and business practitioners, came out of the hospitality trade into higher-end short-term rentals. She is also an interior designer.

She puts it like this: "The vacation rental market is going strong, it evolved from the pandemic boom, and the demand is still there. The market become competitive because there are more vacation rentals available."

As a result, she says, "There's a great opportunity for investors or homeowners who want to run an investment property (their way). You offer property that you can design beautifully, which will have great amenities to attract people and guests.

"This is not just about sticking some furniture in a few rooms and hoping it will be okay. Homes really need to stand out, and ones offering more of an experience are ones doing the best. So: highly designed spaces, resort-style outdoor areas, heated pools, amenities — things (on site or nearby) like mini golf and plunge pools and cinema — anything they can think of that can be better than the next guy."

Among the properties she manages is a four-unit building in Juno Beach owned by Michelle Noga and partners.

They bought the property as a short-term rental in Juno Beach, near the ocean, "because it doesn't have a beach with a boardwalk and bars and restaurants — so it will attract somebody who is not too loud," explains Noga, a luxury properties specialist for William Raveis in Palm Beach.

"There are a couple others near us managed by the same group."

The nearby Atlantic beach is not only clear of a noisy scene but clean and vividly blue because the Gulf Stream of tropical water sweeps closer to shore there than anywhere else in North America.

You can't build that into a property, but Jenna Katz also designed it, Noga says. "They're beautifully done, so we could shift into annuals and get annual rentals if we choose."

Their pricing drops roughly in half out of season, they say. And Katz's designer business for luxury vacation rentals is here: www.creativeelementsbyjen.com

Buying into already existing properties is one way to go, but building for rent is another, notes Shelton Weeks, the Lucas professor of Real Estate and director of the Lucas Institute for Real Estate Development & Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University.

"One of the big things now is build for rent. Build for rent serves a very important need in the overall picture. However, when you look at some short-term implications of build for rent and industrial ownership of single-family homes, it puts upward pressure on housing prices, in the short run.

"In the long run, funneling more money to housing in the aggregate will lead to expansion of the housing supply and overall, to a greater supply of home ownership."

And potentially of ownership by people who want to share their homes, especially investment homes, as short-term rentals.

What impact will they have?

"In general, it will be community specific in type of impact, and whether that's positive or negative may not be clear," Weeks said.

"There's a very strong orientation toward tourism or seasonal short-term renting, and that can be a significant positive because it allows for more of those visitors to come to an area and increase the amount of time spent in an area, so the aggregate expenditure may go up significantly when they have options."

But there could be a trade-off.

"The trade-off is when you have short-term rentals in communities that have perhaps more of a family orientation. You may have additional frictions, noises, traffic…so it's a classic trade off."

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