On November 3, 2026, Florida voters approved Amendment 3, a constitutional amendment that rewrites several parts of the state’s property tax system, with 62.00% in favor — comfortably above the 60% supermajority Florida requires for a constitutional amendment (4,907,124 “yes” votes to 3,007,547 “no,” out of 7,914,671 total, according to results reported by Ballotpedia).
The amendment raises the additional homestead exemption for non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, then to $250,000 in 2028, indexed to inflation from 2029 onward — but only for an owner’s permanent, primary Florida residence, and new residents receive a smaller exemption until they have lived in the state for five years. Separately — and this is the part that applies more directly to a rental property, vacation home, or other non-homestead property — the amendment cuts the annual cap on how much a non-homestead property’s assessed value can rise each year from 10% to 5%, except for school-district taxes. The amendment also requires counties and municipalities to spend property tax revenue only on specified categories: public safety, education, infrastructure, natural-resource and flood-control projects, local bond repayment, employee retirement benefits, and government operations.
For owners who don’t live in Florida full-time — which includes most overseas buyers of Florida investment or vacation property — the headline exemption increase to $150,000–$250,000 will not apply, since Florida’s homestead exemption is reserved for an owner’s permanent primary residence; a non-homestead property instead gets the lower 5% assessment-growth cap. Legislative staff estimated the amendment would cut local government revenue statewide by $4.6 billion in the 2027–28 fiscal year and $8.4 billion in 2028–29. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who called the special legislative session that put the measure on the ballot, said at the time that “Florida homeowners need relief,” framing the push as a response to property tax revenue that had “nearly doubled in the past seven years.”
