Orlando, FL Short-Term Rentals: Primary-Residence-Only Rule (2026)

Section 58.989, General Requirements, allows owner-occupied home sharing only as an accessory use to a lawfully existing attached dwelling, mobile home, multifamily dwelling, multiplex dwelling, one-family dwelling, residential-office mixed development, or two-family dwelling: never as a freestanding commercial use. The ordinance requires that the home-sharing use 'must be incidental and subordinate in purpose, area and extent to the principal use, and located on the same property as the principal residential use,' which ties every registered listing to an owner's or tenant's actual home rather than a separately held rental property.

Two-family dwellings get one narrow exception: an owner can home-share an entire second unit of a duplex if the owner occupies the other unit, the two units are under the same ownership, and the home-shared unit's living area is no larger than the unit the owner actually lives in. Outside that carve-out, leasing an entire dwelling unit for short-term, transient use is not allowed at all under this Subpart unless the property separately qualifies as a Commercial Dwelling Unit or a hotel/motel use under the Code. Registration still applies on top of the primary-residence rule, and a property that stops being the applicant's residence loses its basis for the home-sharing accessory-use status.