Thinking About Purchasing A Short Term Rental in Daytona Beach?

With sites like Airbnb and VRBO, the short-term rental market has steadily been gaining popularity for the last couple of decades. At this point, just about everyone is at least familiar with these platforms, and a lot of people, myself included, use these platforms almost exclusively when booking a vacation rental. So it’s no wonder that we’ve seen an increase in buyers interested in breaking into the short-term rental market. But what many buyers find out pretty early on is that a lot of cities don’t allow short-term rentals.

For decades, Daytona Beach has had a ban on short-term vacation rentals. Property owners who have wanted to use their houses and condos for short-term rentals have hit a brick wall and the recent crackdown on code violations for short-term rentals has made new investors reluctant to purchase in the area as well. But Mayor Derrick Henry recently proposed that the city make an exception to its ban on short-term rentals in the core tourist area of beachside Daytona Beach. Currently, the city of Daytona Beach requires residential rentals of six months or longer, but the Mayor wants to allow rentals for a few weeks or even days in the area between East International Speedway Boulevard and Oakridge Boulevard, and between Halifax Avenue and A1A. A majority of city commissioners are interested in talking more about this proposal.

We get questions from buyers all the time who are interested in purchasing a property to use as a vacation rental, and a number of homeowners consider this as an alternative to selling. Let’s face it, we live in an area people want to visit, so it only makes sense that people have an interest in learning more about the rules and restrictions surrounding short-term rentals in our area. But until now, the only possibility of short-term rentals legally is a few pockets in all of Volusia County. But supporters believe allowing short-term rentals will revitalize the area.

Although it’s getting better, the core tourist area still has a lot of dilapidated properties and supporters believe short-term rentals would attract investors who would fix up these properties and increase property values for current homeowners. What’s interesting is the Volusia Property Appraiser's Office shows that only 24% of homes between Main Street and ISB are homesteaded and that rate drops to only 13% between Seabreeze and Main Street. The Mayor believes competition among short-term rental properties would encourage owners to fix up their homes, and that in turn would attract more homesteaded homeowners. In other words, more people would choose these areas for their primary residences.

Regardless of where you stand on allowing short-term rentals, it’s an interesting proposal by Mayor Henry and one to keep an eye on in the months to come. We work with a number of investors and will definitely be staying on top of the proposed changes, so if you’re interested in chatting about short-term rentals or just real estate in general, we’re always available.