What Florida’s Property Tax Amendment Would Change for Non-Homestead Rentals, Second Homes and Commercial Property

Florida voters will decide a property tax amendment at the general election on November 3, 2026. Most of the attention has gone to what it would do for homesteaded homeowners. But if you own a rental, a second home, a condo you hold as an investment, or commercial property, the Florida property tax amendment non homestead provisions are narrower. They reach one thing: the annual limit on how much your assessed value can rise.

This post is a neutral summary of what the amendment would and would not do for non homestead property. It does not suggest how to vote, and it takes no position on whether voters will approve it. The description comes from the enrolled text of the joint resolution and from the Florida House of Representatives final bill analysis.

The current rules come from the Florida Statutes. All of it is current as of the date of publication. Until the vote, nothing in Florida property tax law changes.

What Is Actually on the Ballot

The measure is CS/HJR 1F. Both chambers passed it on June 2, 2026. The presiding officers then signed it and filed it with the Secretary of State on June 16, 2026.

The enrolled text of CS/HJR 1F calls itself a joint resolution. It proposes “amendments to Sections 4, 6, and 9 of Article VII and the creation of a new section in Article XII of the State Constitution.” On the ballot it appears under the heading “Save Our Homes From Excessive Property Taxes.” That heading is the Legislature’s own wording.

The Four Things the Ballot Statement Lists

The ballot statement lists four things the amendment is described as doing. Only one of the four is a Florida property tax amendment non homestead change.

• “Exempting homestead properties from taxation. Exempts the first $250,000 of a homestead’s value from taxation for all levies other than school district levies and requires, through general law, a schedule for full elimination.”
• “Ensuring funding for core services. Requires local governments to use remaining property taxes solely for core public needs including public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, and natural resources.” That is the Article VII, Section 9 change. It governs what counties and municipalities may spend property tax revenue on, not how any parcel is assessed. So on its own it would not change a non homestead assessment.
• “Protecting small businesses. Limits future property tax assessments on businesses.” That is the assessment cap, and it is the piece the rest of this post is about.
• “Ensuring fairness for Florida residents. Requires any person who establishes Florida residency after January 1, 2027, to maintain Florida residency for five years prior to receiving the increased homestead exemption.”

The 60 Percent Rule and the Election Date

It needs more than a simple majority. The House final bill analysis sets out the rule. It reads: “If at least 60 percent of the voters voting on the measure approve it, the measure passes and becomes part of the State Constitution.” The same analysis describes the amendments as “Subject to approval by 60 percent of the voters during the 2026 general election.” The enrolled text then schedules them to “take effect January 1, 2027.”

Florida holds its general election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even numbered year (F.S. 100.031). In 2026 that date is November 3.

The Non Homestead Cap as It Works Today

Non homestead property is not uncapped today. That matters, because the Florida property tax amendment non homestead change would move an existing limit rather than create a new one. Two statutes set the current limit, and which one applies depends on the property.

• Residential property with nine or fewer dwelling units that does not receive a homestead exemption falls under F.S. 193.1554. A yearly reassessment, it says, “may not exceed 10 percent of the assessed value of the property for the prior year.”
• Everything else falls under F.S. 193.1555, in the same words. That is where commercial buildings, industrial property and residential buildings of 10 or more units land.

Three Features of the Cap That Are Easy to Miss

Three features of that cap are easy to miss, and the amendment leaves all three alone. Two of them are short. The third, the reset on a transfer, takes a section of its own.

• The cap limits increases, not value. Assessed value can never exceed just value, so in a year when market value falls the assessment follows it down. In a rising year the limit applies to the increase over last year’s assessed value, whether or not the two figures were level to begin with.
• The cap does not reach school taxes. Both statutes limit assessments “for all levies other than school district levies.” So the school portion of the bill still follows market value.

How the Cap Resets on a Transfer

The third feature is the reset. Both statutes return the property to just value on the January 1 after “a change of ownership or control.” That phrase includes “the cumulative transfer of control or of more than 50 percent of the ownership of the legal entity.” The entity it means is the one that owned the property when it was most recently assessed at just value.

Both statutes also list transfers that do not count. Among them are a title correction, a move between legal and equitable title, and ordinary share dealing in a publicly traded company, though not a merger or an acquisition. F.S. 193.1554 adds transfers between spouses. Under F.S. 193.1555, a qualifying improvement, meaning one that raises just value by at least 25 percent, resets the cap as well.

That reset is why a buyer’s assessment so often looks nothing like the seller’s. It is also one of the first things to check after any transfer.

What the Florida Property Tax Amendment Non Homestead Cap Would Set From January 1, 2027

The enrolled text amends the two non homestead subsections of Article VII, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution. It changes the percentage and leaves the rest of those subsections as they are. In both places the annual limit reads:

• “a. Before January 1, 2027, ten percent (10%).”
• “b. Beginning January 1, 2027, five percent (5%).”

The House analysis gives the same change in plainer terms. It says: “Lower the existing limitation on the annual increase in assessments of 10 percent each year for non-homestead property (non-homestead residential and nonresidential) to 5 percent. These changes apply to ad valorem taxes levied by counties, municipalities, and special districts, but do not apply to school districts.”

One point of sequencing is worth knowing if you go and read the law yourself. A joint resolution amends the Constitution, not the Florida Statutes. The two statutes above implement the constitutional limit, so the Legislature would have to conform them. Until it does, both will keep reading 10 percent.

Florida values property as of January 1 each year. The analysis puts it this way. Local taxes are “levied annually by local governments based on the value of real and tangible personal property as of January 1 of each year.” So if voters approve the amendment, the January 1, 2027 assessment would be the first one the 5 percent limit reaches. Owners would see the result on the notice the county mails later that year.

What a Lower Cap Would Be Worth, Parcel by Parcel

What the Florida property tax amendment non homestead cap is worth still varies parcel by parcel. An owner who bought last year went back to just value, so that owner starts level with the market. For that owner, the first rising year after the change is where a 5 percent limit would hold the increase to half of what 10 percent allows.

Now take the other case. An owner who has held a small apartment building or a shopping center for a decade while values climbed already carries a distance between assessed value and just value. A tighter limit would add to that distance faster in each rising year.

What the Amendment Would Not Change

The joint resolution reaches Sections 4, 6 and 9 of Article VII and adds a schedule section in Article XII. Of those, only the Section 4 changes touch how a parcel is assessed. That limited scope answers several of the Florida property tax amendment non homestead questions owners raise.

Four Things That Stay the Same

• Just value. A requirement that regulations “secure a just valuation of all property for ad valorem taxation” opens Section 4, and the amendment leaves it alone. Your property appraiser would reach market value the same way as now.
• The TRIM notice. F.S. 200.069 is the source of the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes, and the amendment does not reach that statute. The form the statute prescribes still reads “DO NOT PAY” and “THIS IS NOT A BILL,” and it still prints the deadline for filing a petition.
• The right to petition. F.S. 194.011 also stands as it is. A taxpayer who objects to an assessment may still ask the property appraiser to confer informally. That taxpayer may also still petition the value adjustment board on or before the 25th day after the property appraiser mails that notice.
• The reset on sale. Nothing in the amendment removes the return to just value after a change of ownership or control.

So a lower cap would move the ceiling on a yearly increase. It would not change how the appraiser reaches the value under that ceiling, and it would not change what an owner can do about it. Contesting property taxes in Florida would still run through the property appraiser first and the value adjustment board after that.

The Homestead Pieces, and Where the Sources Read Differently

The homestead provisions do not apply to non homestead property. Still, they are why the amendment is in the news, so here is what the two sources say.

On the dollar amounts and the dates they agree. The homestead exemption would cover the first $150,000 of assessed value beginning January 1, 2027. It would cover the first $250,000 beginning January 1, 2028. From 2029, that $250,000 figure then rises with inflation.

On scope they do not agree. The enrolled text places those figures under levies other than school district levies, and the summary at the front of the House analysis says the same. But the body of that analysis then adds, three sentences later, “The exemption would apply to all ad valorem taxes.” The constitutional text is the one that would govern.

Where the New Resident Provision Reads Differently

On the new resident provision the sources are not consistent either, and that is worth stating rather than smoothing over.

• The enrolled text applies the provision to an owner “who had not maintained a permanent residence in this state as of December 31, 2026.” That owner would be exempt up to $25,000 “For school district levies.” The same owner would be exempt up to $50,000 “For all levies other than school district levies.” Then, “beginning with the fifth year of exemption under this subparagraph,” that owner would move up to the larger non-school amount.
• The summary at the front of the House analysis matches that split: “$25,000 for school levies, $50,000 for non-school levies.”
• The body of the same analysis does not. It reads: “The first $25,000 of the exemption applies to non-school levies, and full $50,000 exemption applies to non-school levies.” That says non-school twice, so it conflicts with both the enrolled text and the analysis summary. It reads as a drafting slip.
• The ballot statement inside the enrolled text uses a third framing. It keys off establishing Florida residency after January 1, 2027, and it counts five years of residency. The operative text keys off a different date, December 31, 2026, and counts years of exemption.

Where a ballot statement and the text it summarizes read differently, the language that would go into the Constitution is the language that governs.

What the Ballot Statement Leaves Out

One gap is worth flagging for anyone reading the ballot itself. The ballot statement never mentions 10 percent or 5 percent. It describes that piece only as a limit on future property tax assessments on businesses. So an owner of a rental house or a second home, reading only the ballot, could reasonably miss that the change reaches residential property as well.

What a Non Homestead Owner Can Do Either Way

The vote is outside anyone’s control. The record the county keeps on your property is not, and that record matters whether the cap is 10 percent or 5 percent. So the Florida property tax amendment non homestead result would move the ceiling, not the file the county works from.

• Read your property record. Square footage, unit count, year built, condition and use codes all feed the value, and a factual error carries forward year after year. The county sites in the Florida property appraiser and clerk directory hold that record.
• Keep January 1 evidence. Because the county values property as of January 1, photographs, repair invoices and vacancy records are worth filing away while they are current. Reconstructing them a year later is harder.
• Keep the income file current. For a multifamily building, an industrial warehouse or a retail property, the rent roll, the operating statement and the leases are the material any value discussion runs on.

Transfers and Where You Stand Today

• Watch transfers. If ownership or control of the entity that holds the property moves, expect a return to just value the following January 1. The statutes define change of ownership or control, and they carve out several transfers that do not count. So whether a particular restructuring triggers a reset is worth checking against the statute before it closes.
• Know where you stand. If assessed value already sits below just value, the cap has been doing that work for you. If the two are level, the cap still applies the next time values rise. It limits the increase over the prior year’s assessed value, and a lower percentage limits it more.

A condo held as an investment deserves a second look here. Unit values move with floor, view and exposure in ways no countywide figure shows. And if you hold more than one parcel, making multiple property tax appeals takes a parcel by parcel review.

If You Want to Talk It Through

The Florida property tax amendment non homestead cap would set a ceiling. Where your own assessment sits under that ceiling is a separate question.

Property Tax Adjustments & Appeals, P.A. is a property tax law firm with its office in Aventura, Florida. The firm serves owners in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. If you hold non homestead property and want to know where your assessment stands before next year’s notice arrives, call 305-517-1392. Messages through the contact form reach the same Aventura office.

This post gives general information about Florida property tax law and about the amendment on the November 3, 2026 ballot. It is not legal advice for your situation, and it is not a recommendation on how to vote. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.