Fort Lauderdale Apartments Outperform Houses on Rental Yield

Reading the apartment yield figure: The 26.4% city-median apartment short-term rental yield is calculated against the census-derived median apartment sale price (~$129K), which reflects all apartment stock in Broward County including older inland units. Coastal high-rise and modern beachfront apartments sell for $300K–$1M+ with proportionally lower yields. Suburb yields below show house-led ZIPs and run in the 7–8% range, apples-to-oranges with the city apartment median, but both numbers are accurate within their respective scopes.

Apartments carry lower entry prices than houses, but nightly short-term rental rates do not drop proportionally, and that single mismatch drives most of the yield gap in Fort Lauderdale. Apartment gross short-term rental yields run at 26.4% against 8.3% for houses, a gap of 18.2%. These are gross figures before HOA fees, which narrow the effective gap once included.

The numbers below are city-wide medians across 54 ZIP codes in Broward County. Your specific neighbourhood, from inland Plantation to oceanfront Hollywood, may sit well above or below these benchmarks.

House vs Apartment by Bedroom Count

City medians across 54 ZIP codes. Gross yields before HOA (apartments) and before operating costs.

Why Apartment Yields Lead Houses in Fort Lauderdale

The yield gap is a pricing artefact, not a demand story. A 2-bed apartment in the city sells for around $129,425, while a comparable 2-bed house lists closer to $393,178. Short-term rental nightly rates do not scale linearly with purchase price: a guest will pay a meaningful premium for a detached house with a pool, but nowhere near the premium implied by the sale-price ratio. The cheaper asset therefore generates more revenue per dollar of capital invested, and apartment yields pull ahead.

The headline apartment numbers are gross, before HOA dues of roughly $2,320 per year for a 2-bed in this market. HOA varies substantially by building: oceanfront Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale Beach towers with concierge, valet, pools, fitness centres, and managed amenities charge considerably more than mid-rise walk-ups on the inland side of US-1. Once HOA is deducted, the effective net gap between houses and apartments shrinks, but it does not close entirely at the 2-bed and 3-bed levels where apartments still carry the yield advantage.

HOA restriction risk is the bigger operational hazard for investors buying a condo for short-term rental use. Individual condo associations in Florida can prohibit or cap short-term rentals regardless of state law, and increasingly do. Permit required ($100) in Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale requires vacation rental registration. No night cap. Must comply with zoning (allowed in most zones). Tourist tax collected by platforms. That preemption protects you from a municipality, not from the building next door. Always read the declaration, bylaws, and rental addendum before purchasing any condo intended for short-term rental use, and confirm in writing that the minimum-stay and registration rules match your business plan.

House Yields Stay Flat, Apartment Yields Peak Mid-Range

House short-term rental yields stay remarkably flat across bedroom counts in Fort Lauderdale, sitting in a narrow 8.1%–8.4% band from 1-bed up to 4+ bed because nightly rates and purchase prices scale in roughly equal proportion. Apartments follow a different curve that peaks at the 2-bed mark, where the nightly-rate-to-price ratio hits its sweet spot; the 4+ bed apartment yield softens materially, reflecting the steep purchase price of larger units in oceanfront and Intracoastal towers that does not come with proportional nightly upside.

The long-term rental picture looks very different. House long-term yields fall sharply from 9.2% at 1-bed to 3.9% at 4+ bed because monthly rents climb far more slowly than purchase prices, so the long-term curve fans out wider than the short-term one rather than compressing. Investors weighing both strategies should read the two columns separately rather than assuming whichever property type wins on short-term rental also wins on long-term rental. The 4+ bed category in particular bundles 4, 5, and 6+ bedroom listings, and a handful of trophy waterfront properties can pull either median in either direction.

Suburb-Level Yields Diverge by Several Percentage Points

These city medians hide meaningful divergence across the 54 Broward ZIP codes. Pompano Beach (33069) tops the yield rankings at 7.9% with entry prices around $355,000, while Miramar (33023) and Oakland Park (33309) sit close behind at 7.5% and 7.4% respectively. At the other end of the Broward scale, oceanfront ZIPs in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale Beach carry sale prices well above $1M and materially lower gross yields, trading current cash flow for appreciation exposure. The dashboard shows suburb-level data for every bedroom count and property type, so you can compare within the specific area you are evaluating.

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

What the Yield Table Does Not Capture

• HOA fees: Estimated at around $2,320 per year for a 2-bed apartment in this market, not deducted from the gross yields in the table above. Oceanfront and high-amenity buildings run considerably higher.
• Capital appreciation: Houses typically outperform apartments on long-term value growth because you own the land, and Broward's coastal land values have historically compounded faster than the improvements on them.
• Renovation potential: Houses offer optionality that apartments cannot match. Adding a pool, converting a garage, building an accessory dwelling unit, or extending the footprint are all available levers on a house and effectively none of them are available on a condo.
• Financing constraints: Some lenders restrict mortgages on small apartments (under 500 sq ft), non-warrantable condo projects, or buildings with high investor-to-owner-occupier ratios. Florida oceanfront condo associations increasingly trip those screens, so pre-qualify the building, not just yourself, before making an offer.
• 4+ bed data breadth: The 4+ bed category bundles 4, 5, and 6+ bedroom listings. A small number of outlier properties, particularly waterfront estates, can pull the median in either direction.
• Insurance and resilience: Windstorm, flood, and broader coastal insurance premiums are material in Broward and have risen sharply in recent years. Apartments in modern concrete towers may carry the cost through HOA master policies; houses carry it directly on the owner's policy.

Broward Sits Well Above State and National Medians

Broward's median 3-bed house price of $629,085 runs materially above Florida's state median of $384,493 and well above the US national median of $242,500. On gross long-term rental yield, the county tracks at 5.3% compared to the national median of 5.3%. This is a premium coastal market: entry costs are higher than almost any comparable inland metro, but short-term rental demand from Florida's tourism flows and snowbird seasonal visitors supports gross short-term rental yields of 8.8% at the county level, against a long-term gross of 5.3%.

For house investors, the Fort Lauderdale calculus tilts toward capital appreciation plus steady short-term rental income, with gross yields holding flat in the 8.1%–8.4% band across every bedroom count, larger homes pull in higher group-travel nightly rates but the purchase premium scales in step, so the yield advantage does not concentrate at either end. For apartment investors, the appeal is lower absolute capital at risk with comparable or better gross yields, balanced against HOA exposure and the real risk that the board restricts short-term rental use at some point during the hold period. The house-or-apartment decision in this market ultimately comes down to how much you weight appreciation versus cash flow, and how tolerant you are of condo-association governance risk. For market-score methodology, see our market score methodology and data sources pages.

Data reflects market conditions as of April 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.