Florida Amendment 3: What It Means for Apartment Building Owners

Amendment 3 on the November 3 ballot is the biggest change to Florida property tax in years, and almost all the coverage is about homeowners. If you own an apartment building, the parts that matter to you are different: a lower cap on how fast your assessment can rise, a large hole in local budgets that someone has to fill, and a small nudge to the renters at the top of your market. Here is what the amendment does, what it does not do, and how I would think about it as an owner. I am not telling you how to vote.

What Amendment 3 does

It needs 60 percent of the vote. If it passes, it takes effect January 1, 2027, and the first tax bills it changes go out in November 2027. Your 2026 bill does not change either way.

• Homestead exemption. Owner-occupied homes get a much larger exemption from non-school property taxes: the first $150,000 of assessed value in 2027 and $250,000 from 2028, indexed to inflation after that. School taxes are not part of it.
• Assessment cap on everything else. Today the assessed value of non-homestead property (rentals, apartment buildings, commercial) can rise at most 10 percent a year for county, city and special district taxes. Amendment 3 lowers that to 5 percent. School taxes are still charged on full market value, as they are now.
• New residents. People who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026 get a $50,000 homestead exemption for their first five years, then the full one.
• Local budgets. Counties and cities would have to spend property tax money on a list of core uses: public safety, schools, infrastructure, natural resources, debt, retirement obligations and their own operations.

The state's Revenue Estimating Conference puts the cost to local governments at about $4.95 billion in the first year, $8.78 billion in the second and $11.86 billion a year once it is fully in place. That number is the key to everything below.

What your building gets: a lower cap, not an exemption

Apartment buildings get no new exemption. What they get is the 5 percent cap, and the cap only matters in a year when your building's market value rises faster than 5 percent. In a flat year it does nothing.

That matters right now, because Florida apartment prices are flat. The statewide median was $157,143 a door in 2025, only 10 percent above 2022, from the recorded sales in my 30 years of Florida apartment prices. That is about 3 percent a year, under a 5 percent cap. In a market like this the cap would not save most owners anything in 2027.

Where it adds up is a long hold in a rising market. Take a building with a $2,000,000 assessed value that rises 8 percent a year for five years. Under today's 10 percent cap its assessment follows the market to about $2,938,656. Under a 5 percent cap it would be about $2,552,563, which is $386,093 less taxable value. Every mill of non-school tax is $1 per $1,000 of value, so that is about $386 a year for each non-school mill your building pays. At 15 non-school mills, an assumption for the example and not your county's rate, it is roughly $5,800 a year by year five. Your county's millage is on your tax bill and on the property appraiser's site.

Who fills the hole

This is the part I would watch most closely. The cap limits the assessment, not the tax rate. Local governments that lose revenue can cut spending, raise the millage rate, or lean harder on fees and special assessments, and Amendment 3 does not stop them from raising rates.

Look at who would be left on the tax roll. With $250,000 of every homestead exempt from non-school taxes, a large share of homeowner value drops off the roll. Rentals and commercial property stay on it. If a county raises its rate to make up some of the gap, the increase lands on the property that is still taxable, and apartment buildings are a big part of that. Whether owners come out ahead depends on what your county does, and some may not. The place to watch is your county's budget hearings and the TRIM notice that arrives every August.

What it does to selling and buying

A sale still resets the assessment to market value. That rule does not change. What changes is the size of the gap. With a 5 percent cap, a long-held building's assessment falls further behind the market, so the buyer's first tax bill jumps further above the seller's. I covered how buyers underwrite that in property tax reassessment after a sale, and it matters even more under a tighter cap.

Two practical effects. First, buyers will still price your building off their own tax bill, not yours, so the cap does not raise your sale price. Second, the longer you hold, the bigger your built-up tax advantage, and that gives owners one more reason not to sell. Fewer owners selling means fewer listings, which tends to help the owners who do sell. It is the same lock-in we saw with low-rate mortgages.

One detail for owners in an LLC: a change of ownership or control can trigger the reset, and under current law that can include transfers of more than half of the entity over time. Talk to your attorney before you move interests around.

What it does to renters

Renters get nothing directly. The amendment has no renter credit or exemption.

The indirect effect is that owning a home gets cheaper. The extra $200,000 of exemption a homeowner gets from 2028 is $200 a year for each non-school mill; at the same assumed 15 mills that is about $3,000 a year. For a household on the edge of buying, that is a real number, and some of your higher-income tenants may buy a little sooner. I expect that to show up mostly in newer, higher-rent buildings, and to be small next to mortgage rates and insurance, which still decide most buy-or-rent choices. Rents in my county rent tables are the thing to watch.

New arrivals point the other way. Someone who moves to Florida in 2027 waits five years for the full exemption, which makes renting for a while after the move a little more attractive.

What I would do before and after the vote

• Do not budget savings into a rent roll or a purchase until the vote is in. It needs 60 percent.
• If it passes, look up your county's non-school millage and run the cap against your own assessment history. Flat-value buildings will see little.
• Watch your county's 2027 budget process. A rate increase there could matter more than the cap.
• If you are selling, price off the buyer's reset tax bill, as you should today.

I will update this post after November 3 with the result.

Sources

Florida House of Representatives, Final Bill Analysis, CS/HJR 1F (June 16, 2026), for what the amendment does and the Revenue Estimating Conference figures. The ballot title and summary were rewritten in August 2026 after a Leon County court ruling; the amendment itself did not change. This post explains the measure; it is not a recommendation on how to vote, and it is not tax or legal advice.

Questions owners ask

Does Amendment 3 lower property taxes on my apartment building?

Not directly. Apartment buildings get no new exemption. Amendment 3 lowers the yearly cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property from 10 percent to 5 percent for county, city and special district taxes, so your bill only falls in years when your building's value rises faster than 5 percent.

When would Amendment 3 take effect?

It needs 60 percent of the vote on November 3, 2026. If it passes, it takes effect January 1, 2027, and the first tax bills it affects go out in November 2027. Tax bills for 2026 do not change.

Could my property taxes go up because of Amendment 3?

They could. The amendment caps assessments, not tax rates, and the state estimates local governments lose about $11.86 billion a year once it is fully in place. Counties and cities can raise rates or fees to make up part of that, and rentals and commercial property stay on the tax roll while much homestead value drops off.

Does Amendment 3 change the tax reset when I sell?

No. A sale still resets the assessment to market value. Because a 5 percent cap lets a long-held building fall further behind the market, the buyer's first tax bill can jump even more than it does today, and buyers price that in.

Do renters get anything from Amendment 3?

No. There is no renter exemption or credit in the amendment. The indirect effect is that owning a home gets cheaper, which may pull some higher-income renters into buying a little sooner.

Buyers underwrite the tax bill they will pay, not the one you pay. A Florida apartment building broker prices your building that way from the start.