Fort Lauderdale Real Costs: House vs Apartment After Airbnb Fees

The gross short-term rental premium is 66% for a 3-bed house in Fort Lauderdale (Broward County), but after Airbnb fees, property tax, insurance, and maintenance, the picture narrows considerably. This article covers both a 3-bed house and a 2-bed apartment, because the cost structures differ materially: apartments add HOA fees that houses do not pay, but entry prices are much lower. Both are shown self-managed, matching the dashboard default.

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

A 3-bed house in Fort Lauderdale sells for a median of $617,500, generates $54,191 in short-term rental gross revenue at the market-average occupancy of 51%, or $30,587 as a long-term rental. The table below shows the self-managed cost stack for both strategies.

Airbnb charges a host-only fee of 15.5% in the US, but other platforms price differently: Vrbo typically charges around 5%, Booking.com around 15%, and direct bookings carry no platform fee. The figures above assume Airbnb. Fort Lauderdale's 5.3% gross long-term rental yield sits at roughly the same level as the national median of 5.3%, while the short-term rental gross yield of 8.8% is well above it, reflecting the tourism demand that Broward's coastline supports.

What Eats the House Premium: Airbnb Fees, Utilities, and Lodging Tax

Three line items compress the short-term rental advantage on a 3-bed house. Airbnb fees of $8,400 come off the top; Florida and Broward's layered lodging taxes at 9.5% take another $5,148; and utilities of $2,964 (which the short-term rental host pays but a long-term tenant usually covers themselves) add a structural cost the rent-out strategy avoids entirely.

Maintenance is also higher for the short-term rental strategy, estimated at $9,090 versus $6,021 for a long-term tenancy. The gap reflects furnishing wear and turnover damage that a long-term let does not experience; the short-term rental figure already includes a furnishing replacement allowance, so it should not be added again elsewhere in the model.

2-Bed Apartment: Lower Entry Price, HOA Changes the Math

A 2-bed apartment in the same market sells for a median of $129,425, producing $32,567 as a short-term rental or $24,880 as a long-term rental. The cost stack looks similar to the house, but with one critical addition: HOA fees of $2,320 per year, which apply under either rental strategy because they are a property-level cost, not a tenancy cost.

HOA fees are the single most distinctive line item for Fort Lauderdale apartments. They fund building insurance for common areas, elevator maintenance, pool and amenity upkeep, and reserves for roof and structural work. Because they are fixed and predictable, HOA fees do not scale with vacancy; they are owed whether the unit is rented or empty.

House vs Apartment: Apartments Win on Yield, Houses Scale on Dollar Income

The apartment's lower entry price of $129,425 versus $617,500 for the house means a much smaller capital commitment, and HOA fees of $2,320 per year are largely offset by the fact that apartments avoid some of the grounds-maintenance and exterior-repair costs houses carry. After all costs, the apartment short-term rental yield of 9.9% compares with the house short-term rental yield of 2.3%; on the long-term rental side, 14.4% for the apartment versus 1.8% for the house.

Dollar income tells the other side of the story. The 3-bed house generates $13,921 in net short-term rental income per year, compared with $12,801 for the apartment. Investors targeting income scale, multi-generational use, or larger groups (families, beach-trip bookings) tend toward houses; investors optimising for yield on deployed capital, lower hands-on maintenance, and easier entry tend toward apartments. Fort Lauderdale supports both, but the two strategies are genuinely different investments, not variations on the same one.

Gross Break-Even Occupancy Is 30%, Floor, Not Target

The 3-bed house breaks even against its long-term rental gross revenue at roughly 30% occupancy. The market median is 51%, comfortably above that floor, but break-even is a floor for the gross comparison only; it does not account for the extra cost stack a short-term rental carries. The real bar for a short-term rental to outperform a long-term rental on a net basis sits well above 30%, because every additional booking also brings Airbnb fees, lodging tax, and turnover costs.

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

Hiring a Professional Manager Cuts Net Yield to 0.5%

The tables above assume self-management, which matches the dashboard default. Hiring a professional short-term rental manager for the 3-bed house adds around $10,838 per year, roughly 20% of gross revenue, which drops the net short-term rental yield from 2.3% to around 0.5%. For investors who do not live locally, travel frequently, or own multiple units, that management layer is often worth the cost, but it is a real yield drag, not a rounding error.

For the long-term rental, hiring a letting agent adds roughly $2,932 per year, dropping net long-term rental yield from 1.8% to around 1.4%. Management fees on the long-term side are typically around 9% of rent collected in this market, which is lower in absolute dollars but a meaningful share of the already-thinner long-term rental margin. Fee structures vary by manager, so the figures here should be treated as market estimates rather than exact quotes.

Florida Tax: No State Income Tax, 27.5-Year Depreciation, Schedule E

Florida has no state income tax, so short-term rental profits are taxed only at the federal level on Schedule E, plus self-employment tax if services cross the threshold into trade-or-business territory. Residential rental property is depreciated straight-line over 27.5 years on the building component: this market's depreciable base is estimated at $494,000 (roughly 80% of the sale price, excluding land), producing an annual depreciation deduction of around $17,964.

Florida lodging tax of 9.5% on short-term rental bookings combines state sales tax with county tourist development tax; 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. These are pass-through taxes the host collects from the guest and remits, not an income tax on the investor, but they reduce the nightly rate the market will bear. The dashboard computes after-tax figures where applicable; this article covers pre-income-tax economics.

What the City Medians Miss

These figures are Broward County medians across 54 ZIP codes. Individual neighborhoods diverge significantly: Pompano Beach (33069) leads on long-term rental yield at 7.9% with a median price of $355,000, while higher-end coastal ZIPs trade at multiples of that and earn their returns through appreciation and short-term rental rate rather than yield. The dashboard shows ZIP-level data for every bedroom count and property type, including apartments, so investors can pressure-test these city averages against the specific submarket they are considering.

For investors comparing Florida markets, market score methodology and data sources explain how the yield, occupancy, and cost inputs above are derived. Pompano Beach (33069) Yields 7.9% in Broward County, Roughly Double the Coast and After All Costs, Broward County's Short-Term Rental Edge Shrinks to 2.3% cover related questions for Broward County in more detail. Explore rental data in the dashboard for the full suburb-level breakdown.

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.