Fort Lauderdale Airbnb Net Yield Lands at 2.3% After All Costs

Fort Lauderdale's short-term rental grosses 77% more than long-term rental on a 3-bed house, but after Airbnb fees, the 9.5% lodging tax, insurance and the rest of the cost stack, net yield lands at 2.3% versus 1.8% for long-term rental. The margin is real but thinner than the gross numbers suggest, and the apartment math changes once HOA fees are added.

This article runs the after-costs math for both property types side-by-side: a 3-bed house at roughly $617,500 and a 2-bed apartment at roughly $129,425. The cost structures differ in ways that matter, apartments carry an HOA bill that houses don't pay, but their lower entry price reshapes the yield equation. Most "how much can I make on Airbnb" content covers one property type and skips the honest comparison. Here you get both.

The 3-Bed House: 2.3% Net Yield After All Costs

A self-managed 3-bed house in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County grosses $54,191 on short-term rental versus $30,587 on long-term rental. The cost stack is where the gap closes.

Self-managed assumed for both columns (0% management). Airbnb's host-only fee is 15.5%; other platforms charge differently, Vrbo at roughly 5% and Booking.com at roughly 15%.

What Eats the House Premium

Three line items consume most of the short-term rental premium: Airbnb fees of $8,400, the Florida and Broward lodging tax at 9.5% (around $5,148 annually), and the higher insurance and maintenance loads that come with a furnished, frequently-turned property. Insurance steps up from $7,410 to $8,910, and maintenance, which includes furnishing replacement on the short-term side, runs $9,090 versus $6,021 for long-term. Utilities also shift onto the owner: $2,964 for short-term where the long-term tenant typically pays their own.

The result: total operating costs of $40,270 for short-term against $19,189 for long-term. The short-term path still wins on net income ($13,921 vs $11,398), but the gross revenue lead of 77% compresses dramatically once costs are subtracted.

The 2-Bed Apartment: Lower Entry, HOA Drag

The 2-bed apartment story changes the math. Entry price drops to roughly $129,425 from $617,500 for the house, but HOA fees of $2,320 apply regardless of whether the unit runs short-term or long-term.

HOA appears in both columns because it is a property-level cost that applies regardless of rental strategy. Self-managed assumed for both.

House vs Apartment: Which Wins After Costs

Net yield is the apples-to-apples test. On short-term rental, the 3-bed house lands at 2.3% versus 9.9% for the 2-bed apartment. On long-term rental, houses come in at 1.8% against 15.3% for apartments. The apartment's lower entry price of $129,425 (versus $617,500 for a house) gives it a denominator advantage, but HOA of $2,320 per year is a fixed drag that houses simply don't carry.

The takeaway for Fort Lauderdale: property type changes the cost mix more than the gross revenue ratio. Houses carry higher absolute dollar costs but no HOA; apartments cost less to buy but lose a chunk of revenue to the HOA before any rental income is counted. Investors picking between the two should weigh the HOA against the capital outlay difference and how much of their decision rests on appreciation versus yield. Broward is a premium Florida market with a sale price 154.6% above the national median of $242,500, appreciation potential is part of the case here, not just income.

Gross Break-Even Sits at 29% Occupancy

The 3-bed house's gross break-even, the occupancy at which short-term rental gross matches long-term rental annual rent, is 29%. The Broward market median for short-term occupancy is 51%, which sits comfortably above that floor. Treat 29% as the worst-case threshold, not a target. Below it, long-term rental wins on gross revenue alone before any cost adjustment. At lower-occupancy scenarios of 36%, gross revenue drops to $38,610; at higher scenarios of 61%, it rises to $65,423.

View Fort Lauderdale in the dashboard → Free preview · every bedroom count and property type

Hiring a Manager Drops Net Yield to 0.5%

The tables above assume self-management. Hiring a professional short-term rental manager for the 3-bed house adds around $10,838 a year (roughly 20% of gross revenue), pushing total costs to $51,108 and dropping net yield from 2.3% to 0.5%. That is the true cost of outsourcing turnover, guest communication and listing optimization.

For long-term rental, hiring a leasing agent adds approximately $2,932 (around 9% of rent), bringing net yield down to 1.4%. These are market-rate estimates, individual managers in Broward charge differently, and many investors negotiate better rates on multi-property portfolios.

Tax Treatment: Florida's Zero State Income Tax Helps

Florida has no state income tax, which improves after-tax returns for both rental strategies; federal tax is the only income tax investors pay on the rental income. On the deduction side, residential rental property depreciates over 27.5 years on the building component (roughly $17,964 annually for a property at this price point, based on a building value of $494,000 at a 80% allocation). Operating costs flow through Schedule E and offset rental income before tax.

Short-term rentals in Hollywood specifically require a Vacation Rental License at $500 (renewals $350), a Broward County Business Tax Receipt, a Florida DBPR license, $1 million liability insurance, and a noise level detection device with 180-day data retention. The 9.5% lodging tax (Florida's 6% state plus local) is collected from guests but you administer it. Confirm current rules and your specific filing obligations with a tax professional and the City of Fort Lauderdale. The dashboard models after-tax cash flow at the ZIP level so you can stress-test scenarios for your own bracket.

How Suburb Choice Shifts the Picture

City medians hide neighborhood-level variation. Within Broward, Pompano Beach (33069) runs at the top of the gross yield table at 7.9% on a $355,000 entry price, followed by Miramar (33023) at 7.5% and Oakland Park (33309) at 7.4%. These figures use long-term rental gross yield, but they signal where the same after-cost compression is least punishing. Across all 54 Broward ZIPs, gross long-term yield averages 5.0%, 1.1pp below the Florida median of 6.1%.

The dashboard shows suburb-level data for every bedroom count and property type, so you can run the same after-costs math for the specific ZIP you are evaluating rather than relying on the county median. Read the Broward hub article for the full data sources and market score methodology behind these figures, or explore rental data in the dashboard directly. Florida Rental Investment Insights covers what to buy in this market, and Fort Lauderdale Real Costs: House vs Apartment After Airbnb Fees covers where the strongest demand sits.

Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026.

This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.