Question 1

How long does permit review actually take in Orlando, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, or Lake County?

Accepted Answer

Florida sets a statutory backstop, not a courtesy target: 30 business days for a single-family permit under 7,500 sq ft, 60 business days for a larger single-family or multifamily project up to 50 units, and 60 business days for commercial under 25,000 sq ft. The local government has to give written notice of anything missing within 5 business days of your application, and if it blows the deadline the permit fee drops 10% per business day of delay, 20% per day on a resubmitted revision. That is the statewide floor under Florida Statutes section 553.792. We do not have observed, jurisdiction-specific review times for Orange, Osceola, Seminole, or Lake County beyond that statutory clock, so budget to the statute and confirm the working timeline with your local building department before you set a draw schedule.

Question 2

What are impact fees on a new build in the Orlando area?

Accepted Answer

We don't have a citable fee schedule for Orange, Osceola, Seminole, or Lake County to publish here. What is safe to say: Florida new construction carries impact fees on top of permit fees, and school impact fees are a real line item in the Orlando counties. Get the current schedule from the county building department for your specific parcel before you finalize a construction budget. Talk to your CPA on how impact fees factor into your cost basis.

Question 3

What is a CDD, and why does it matter for a new build in Osceola, Lake, or the Davenport corridor?

Accepted Answer

A Community Development District is a special taxing district under Florida Statutes chapter 190, and its assessments show up on the same county tax bill as your property taxes, permanently. A CDD can levy ad valorem taxes, up to 3 mills for operations plus more if authorized, and non-ad valorem benefit and maintenance assessments that fund the infrastructure bonds behind master-planned communities. These are common across Osceola, Lake, the Davenport corridor, and the Horizon West side of Orange County. The underwriting point: a CDD community's all-in tax bill includes debt service a seller's listing may not spell out, and it does not go away at closing. We don't have dollar examples for specific communities like ChampionsGate or Storey Lake to cite, so pull the current assessment from the district or the county tax collector before you underwrite the exit.

Question 4

Where is new construction actually concentrated in metro Orlando right now?

Accepted Answer

The value data points to Winter Garden and Horizon West in west Orange County, and Clermont out SR 50 in Lake County. Winter Garden carries the highest submarket home value in the metro at $569,557 (Zillow ZHVI, June 2026), and Clermont sits at $432,288. Both read as the growth corridors where a spec build or build-to-rent project is most likely to find buyer or renter demand at delivery. That's a reasonable inference from where value is concentrating, not a construction-permit count, so pair it with your own site-level diligence.

Question 5

Does a new build's short-term rental use depend on which county or city it's in?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and this matters before you break ground, not after. Whole-home short-term rental is not permitted in the City of Orlando or in unincorporated Orange County's residential zones, while Osceola County allows it only inside mapped short-term-rental overlay districts and its STRPD zoning designation, concentrated along the W US 192 corridor. If a build-to-rent-STR strategy is the exit, confirm the parcel sits inside a jurisdiction and overlay that actually permits it before you fund the lot.

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