Vacation Rental Investment at Vilano Beach

The Governing Rule: County Ordinance, Not City Code

St. Johns County adopted a Short Term Vacation Rental Ordinance in 2021, and it -- not any city-level rule -- governs short-term rental activity in unincorporated areas of the county, including Vilano Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, and the World Golf Village area. The ordinance requires each dwelling unit used as a short-term vacation rental to be registered with the county and renewed every 12 months, and it establishes basic health, safety, parking, and solid-waste requirements aimed at mitigating the effects of short-term rentals on surrounding neighborhoods. St. Johns County Code Enforcement administers and enforces the ordinance, including through a dedicated STR complaint hotline at (904) 320-2442.

This is a genuinely different regulatory path than a comparable purchase in incorporated St. Augustine Beach, where the city's own transient-rental ordinance (City Code Section 3.09.00) applies on top of, or instead of, county rules depending on the specific requirement. A Vilano Beach short-term rental owner deals with one regulatory authority -- the county -- rather than navigating both city and county requirements.

Registration and Documentation Requirements

Owners operating a short-term vacation rental in unincorporated St. Johns County, Vilano Beach included, typically need to provide a Local Business Tax Receipt, a Florida DBPR (Department of Business and Professional Regulation) license as a Transient Public Lodging Establishment, and a Certificate of Sales and Use Tax registration, among other documentation, as part of county registration and ongoing compliance. This page does not walk through the complete, current application process step by step, since municipal and county ordinances can be amended and this page is not a substitute for reviewing the ordinance's current text directly -- confirm the full, current requirements with St. Johns County's own Short Term Vacation Rentals office before listing a property.

Tax Exposure: 7.5% Sales Tax Plus a 5% Tourist Development Tax

Short-term rental income at Vilano Beach carries two layers of Florida tax exposure that a rental investor needs to model into net income: the standard combined St. Johns County sales tax rate of 7.5% (6% state plus 1.5% county), which applies to short-term accommodations the same as most other taxable transactions, plus a separate 5% county Tourist Development Tax (the 'bed tax'), levied under County Ordinance 21-34 on hotel rooms, campground spaces, condominiums, apartments, and private home rentals when rented for six months or less. Combined, that's a real 12.5% tax load on gross rental revenue before any income tax obligation, platform fees, property management costs, or operating expenses are factored in -- a meaningful number to build into any rental income projection for a Vilano Beach property.

The Resident-Pushback Reality Worth Knowing

Short-term rentals are a genuinely live, ongoing topic of community discussion in Vilano Beach specifically -- the North Beach Community Alliance, a local civic group, maintains an active section of its site dedicated to short-term rental issues, covering topics including quality-of-life concerns, tax questions, enforcement updates, and how residents can escalate concerns to St. Johns County. This isn't unique to Vilano Beach -- short-term rental friction between investors and long-term residents is common across coastal Florida -- but it is a real, documented, current conversation in this specific community, not a settled or uncontroversial topic. A prospective rental investor should be aware that county-level regulation could tighten over time in response to this ongoing community pressure, and should not assume today's rules represent a permanent regulatory floor.

Revenue Expectations: A Small, Price-Disparate Market

Vilano Beach's real estate market shows real disagreement between sources on median home price -- Redfin's own data cited $667,000 in November 2025, while separate 2026 market-tracker snapshots cited $859,000 and $900,000 -- and no reliable, source-attributed short-term rental income or occupancy figure specific to Vilano Beach was found in this research pass. This page does not state a projected rental income, cap rate, or occupancy percentage for a hypothetical Vilano Beach rental property, because doing so responsibly requires current, property-specific data (comparable rental listings' actual booked rates and occupancy, not aspirational listing prices) that a local property manager or short-term rental data service, not a general research pass, is positioned to provide accurately.

HOA and Condo-Specific Rental Restrictions

County ordinance compliance is necessary but not sufficient for a short-term rental purchase -- individual HOAs and condo associations, including gated communities like Villages of Vilano, may impose their own, separate rental restrictions (minimum lease terms, rental caps per year, owner-occupancy requirements) independent of and potentially stricter than the county's own rules. St. Johns County's zoning framework does not override private deed restrictions or HOA/condo association rules, meaning a property that's fully compliant with the county's short-term rental ordinance can still be barred from short-term rental use entirely by its own association's governing documents. Confirm any specific community's current rental policy directly with its HOA or condo association's management company before assuming a property is rental-eligible.

What This Page Does Not Cover

This page describes the regulatory and tax framework applicable to short-term rental ownership in unincorporated Vilano Beach. It does not project rental income, cap rate, or occupancy for any specific property, and it is not a substitute for reviewing St. Johns County's current ordinance text directly or consulting a local property manager and accountant familiar with short-term rental taxation. Confirm current registration requirements, tax obligations, and any HOA restrictions directly with St. Johns County's Short Term Vacation Rentals office, a Florida-licensed accountant, and the relevant HOA or condo association before purchasing a property for rental investment. Nothing on this page is tax, legal, or investment advice.