At a time when housing affordability is a major concern among constituents, Florida state lawmakers produced mixed results in the realm of real estate during their 2026 session, taking some significant actions but also not reaching consensus on numerous proposals, including the most prominent — property tax reform.

Friday marked the end of the Florida Legislature’s annual, 60-day regular session, but the two chambers passed fewer bills than in recent years. And for the second year in a row, they were unable to agree on a budget — their one constitutionally required task — amidst ongoing tension between state leaders.

“There were a lot of eggs cracked in this session, and we are still inspecting the omelets that are being served up to the governor, but overall the Legislature continued its multiyear push to increase housing supply, most notably by expanding the Live Local Act in H.B. 1389,” South Florida attorney John Shubin of Shubin Law Group told Law360 Real Estate Authority. “That said, the session also showed the limits of Tallahassee consensus: some broader land-use reforms stalled … and ongoing uncertainty around local planning authority and environmental constraints remains a challenge for developers.”

Bills aimed at authorizing accessory dwelling units, large-scale “blue ribbon” development projects, a “rural renaissance,” uniform impact fees and property insurance reforms were among those that gained traction in one chamber but ultimately fell short.

“The bottom line is that Florida is still moving toward more state-driven housing policy but, as I continue to maintain, the real test will be how these laws translate into actual projects and whether local governments cooperate in implementation,” Shubin added.

Here is a look at notable real estate-related actions the Florida Legislature took in this year’s regular session.

Property Tax Debate

Arguably the most consequential matters have yet to be resolved: the state budget and the controversial question of reducing or eliminating property tax — a major source of funding for local governments.

With a push from Gov. Ron DeSantis, property tax cuts became the hottest topic heading into the session. While the governor and Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Bartow, spoke of waiting to take up the issue in a special session, the House forged ahead under Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami.

Any significant change to property taxes will have to go before voters in a statewide referendum to amend the Florida Constitution. Most of the proposals failed to advance, but representatives voted 80-30 in favor of House Joint Resolution 203, which would have asked voters to weigh in this November on a phased elimination of all nonschool taxes for homesteads by 2037.

The measure prohibited cuts to first responder services, but it was still met with concerns, including in a report commissioned by the Florida League of Cities, about local governments’ ability to absorb significant tax cuts without cutting essential services and potential disparate impacts across municipalities. The report found property taxes account for nearly 79% of local government’s tax revenues and 43% of all general fund revenues. The Senate never took the measure up for a vote.

Legislative leaders said members will return to Tallahassee in a few weeks after the Easter and Passover holidays for a special session to complete the budget. Failing to do so before July 1 would result in a partial government shutdown.

DeSantis also previously called a special session starting April 20 to focus on congressional redistricting, and he expressed a preference to pursue property tax cuts in a special session, so the topic may yet have some life.

H.B. 1389: Affordable Housing 

The focal point of the Legislature’s efforts on affordable housing came in H.B. 1389, which lawmakers described as Version 4.0 of the state’s landmark Live Local Act, first passed in 2023.

Attorneys say the new legislation makes significant refinements. It expands on the existing law — which required local governments to open commercial and industrial properties to affordable housing projects — by adding land owned by county and city governments, school districts and religious institutions to that list. It also makes land near airports eligible for Live Local projects if the airport’s governing body approves.

To address concerns from lenders, the bill establishes a vesting period to ensure that property owners who have received a building permit have a window to retain or still apply for tax exemptions under the Live Local Act if a local government exercises opt-out provisions, and it also tightens the rules for opting out.

It also extends Florida Fair Housing Act protections to prohibit local governments from treating Live Local projects differently, and it closes some loopholes on local preemptions, including prohibiting local governments from using setbacks or similar measures to overly restrict height allowances.

Additionally, the bill specifies that “multifamily” and “mixed-use” development includes certain collections of commonly owned buildings, which would cover garden-style apartments, for instance. And along with S.B. 962, it also takes steps to preserve agricultural land by clarifying that land used for farms or farm operations is excluded from definitions of commercial, industrial or mixed-use zoning under the Live Local Act, which would otherwise require local governments to approve affordable housing projects on them.

While the Legislature drew positive reviews for these steps, this is not likely to be the last word to address the Live Local Act’s slow implementation in the face of local opposition, according to some attorneys, including Keith Poliakoff of Government Law Group, who said “it still leaves numerous open issues, which will require further refinement in the next legislative session.”

H.B. 399 and S.B. 1434: Land Use and Development

The theme of preemption of local government control over real estate matters continued to be a major theme in Tallahassee despite controversies, attorneys noted.

“This year’s legislative session witnessed a continued shift in land use authority from local governments to the state and an attempt to reign in regulatory costs for the real estate development industry,” said Steven J. Wernick, a Miami-based partner at Day Pitney LLP.

Lawmakers passed H.B. 399, which takes steps to impose more uniform fees and processes for permitting and application reviews, and ties fees more closely to actual administrative costs.

Wernick also noted provisions in H.B. 1139, which was passed in the House but not the Senate, that would have created new caps on future impact fee increases and given prevailing property owners access to recoup costs and attorney fees for unlawful impact fee assessments.

However, the debate over H.B. 399 revealed what Neisen Kasdin, co-office managing partner of the Miami office of Akerman LLP, suggested was a “somewhat more nuanced” approach to the preemption push. Before passing the bill, the Senate removed provisions that would have made it easier to change or remove Miami-Dade County’s urban development boundary, which restricts sprawl toward the Everglades, and other counties’ similar rural boundaries. However, it left intact a provision that preempted Miami Beach’s review of a water park proposal at the historic Fontainebleau resort, despite heavy opposition from local officials and residents.

While going against the preemption grain, the Legislature’s rejection of the attempts to loosen local development boundaries were consistent with its approval of S.B. 1434, which preempts certain local land development regulations to promote residential infill development of polluted urban properties.

“The Infill Redevelopment Act is a potential game-changer for South Florida’s real estate market,” said Kerri Barsh, a Miami shareholder at Greenberg Traurig LLP and co-chair of the firm’s environmental practice. “By broadening the types of environmentally impacted lands eligible for redevelopment and streamlining the approval process, the bill could pave the way for significant new residential opportunities.”

S.B. 484: Data Centers

Lawmakers also took steps to prepare for the development of data centers. While Florida, has not seen much activity in this red-hot sector for various reasons, it seems like only a matter of time before these often massive projects arrive.

In S.B. 484, they left authority with local governments for comprehensive planning for these projects but took steps to protect general ratepayers from risks of nonpayment to electrical utilities by data center owners and against harmful water use by these facilities.

In the final stages of debate on the bill, several senators expressed concern about the House’s removal of provisions meant to ensure transparency in government dealings with data center developers, but they said they thought it was important to get some regulations in place.

“This is what we have,” Sen. Carlos Smith, D-Orlando, said on the Senate floor. “My fear is we have no bill pass, there’s no regulation of data centers whatsoever, and it’s just the Wild Wild West.”

–Editing by Nicole Bleier.

Article Link: Fla. Lawmakers Expanded Housing Efforts In Slow Session
Author: Nathan Hale