Florida's Amendment 3: What the Property-Tax Overhaul Really Means for Luxury Homeowners

On November 3, 2026, Florida votes on the most consequential property-tax change in a generation. Amendment 3 — the "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes" amendment placed on the ballot by the Legislature this June — is being sold with a simple headline: property taxes are going away. If you own, or are building, a residence at the level we work at, the honest answer is more layered. The headline exemption barely moves your bill. Two quieter provisions matter considerably more. And one of them rewards acting before January 2027.

We are builders, not tax advisors, and nothing here is advice for your situation. But property taxes are a real line in the carrying cost of every residence we deliver, our clients keep asking about this amendment, and most of the coverage is written for the median homeowner — not for someone holding an eight-figure coastal asset. So here is the builder-side read.

What Amendment 3 actually does

The amendment needs 60 percent approval to pass. If it does, the mechanics as passed by the Legislature look like this:

• The homestead exemption on non-school property taxes rises from today's $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, then $250,000 in 2028, indexed to inflation after that.
• School-district levies are untouched. In Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County, school taxes are roughly a third of your total bill — that portion does not change at all.
• The annual cap on assessed-value increases for non-homestead property — second homes, investment property, anything held outside your primary residence — drops from 10 percent to 5 percent starting in 2027, again on non-school levies.
• New Florida residents who establish homestead in 2027 or later get a reduced $50,000 exemption for their first five years before reaching the full tier.
• The Legislature gains authority to create a procedure letting local governments raise the homestead exemption all the way to full assessed value — the pathway to actual elimination of non-school homestead taxes, with no timeline attached.

The state's Revenue Estimating Conference puts the recurring cost at roughly $12 billion a year once phased in, and municipal governments stand to lose an average of about 38 percent of their property-tax revenue. Hold that thought — it matters later.

The honest math on a high-value homestead

Start with the number everyone leads with. A $250,000 exemption sounds substantial, and for a median Florida home it is. On a homesteaded residence assessed at $10 million to $20 million, it is not. Non-school millage in the coastal municipalities where we build typically runs 10 to 13 mills. An extra $200,000 of exemption on top of today's $50,000, at those rates, saves you roughly $2,000 to $2,600 a year. On a property whose total annual tax bill runs $150,000 to $350,000, that is a rounding error — real money for most households, immaterial at this level.

The protection that actually shields long-term homestead owners at our clients' level is one that already exists: the original Save Our Homes cap, which limits assessed-value growth on a homestead to 3 percent a year regardless of what the market does. Owners who homesteaded an oceanfront property a decade ago are often taxed today on a fraction of market value. Amendment 3 does not change that mechanism — it layers a modest exemption on top of it.

The provision that matters more: the 5 percent non-homestead cap

Here is the part of the amendment written, perhaps unintentionally, for the luxury market. A large share of high-value South Florida property is not homesteaded at all — second homes, residences held in LLCs or trusts that forgo homestead, spec houses awaiting sale, investment property. Today those assessments can rise up to 10 percent per year. Under Amendment 3, that cap halves to 5 percent on non-school levies from 2027.

For a newly delivered coastal residence, this is where the real dollars are. Assessments on new construction get set at completion — the cap does not protect you in the year the improvement first hits the roll, and it resets when a property changes hands. But from that point forward, in a market where waterfront valuations have been repricing aggressively, the difference between compounding at 10 percent and compounding at 5 percent on a $15 million assessment is meaningful within just a few years — far more than the homestead exemption is worth. If you hold Florida property outside a homestead, this cap, not the exemption, is the provision to price in.

If you are relocating: the calendar now has a cost

A large share of the principals we build for are arriving from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Chicago, or California. For them, the amendment as passed contains a detail worth reading twice: establish Florida homestead in 2027 or later, and you sit at a $50,000 exemption for five years before reaching the full tier. Establish it earlier, and you ride the full schedule from the start.

Florida homestead already has hard calendar rules: you must own and occupy the residence as your permanent home on January 1 to claim the exemption for that year, with the filing deadline the following March 1. If Amendment 3 passes, that January 1 line does more work than it used to. For anyone mid-build with us, it puts a sharper point on a conversation we already have about delivery sequencing: a certificate of occupancy and genuine occupancy in December versus February has always shifted your first tax year — under the new-resident provision, it can shift which exemption track you are on entirely. It is also one more reason the domicile question — which state you are actually a resident of, with everything that implies — deserves a deliberate answer before 2027 rather than after.

What could take the shine off

We would be doing you a disservice presenting only the upside. Three cautions:

• Millage is not frozen. The amendment cuts the tax base, not the tax rate. Municipalities facing an average 38 percent revenue loss can respond by raising millage rates within their statutory caps, adding assessments and fees, or both. Coastal towns with small tax bases and expensive service obligations — precisely where we build — feel that pressure first.
• School taxes are exempt from all of it. Roughly a third of your bill continues exactly as before, compounding as valuations rise.
• Full elimination is a mechanism, not a promise. The amendment authorizes a future legislative procedure with no date and no obligation. Underwriting a purchase or a build on the assumption that Florida property taxes are going to zero would be a mistake. Underwrite the exemption schedule and the 5 percent cap — those are written down.

Where this leaves you

• Already homesteaded at high value: expect a modest, almost symbolic reduction. Your real protection remains the existing 3 percent Save Our Homes cap you are already accruing.
• Holding non-homestead Florida property: the 10-to-5 percent cap change is the genuine economic event in this amendment for you. Model it.
• Relocating to Florida: if the amendment passes, when you establish homestead now carries a five-year consequence. The calendar deserves the same attention as the closing date.
• Mid-construction: delivery timing relative to January 1 has always mattered for your first assessment; it may soon also determine your exemption track. Raise it with your builder and your advisors together.
• Everyone: this passes at 60 percent or not at all, and polling on constitutional amendments is unreliable. Decisions that only make sense if it passes should wait for November 3.

We will be tracking the vote and, if it passes, the implementing legislation that follows — because it will shape carrying costs on every residence we deliver from 2027 on. In the meantime, the numbers above are the framework, not counsel: what Amendment 3 means for your structure, your domicile, and your closing calendar is a conversation for your CPA and tax advisor. Bring them the two provisions that actually move money at this level — the non-homestead cap and the new-resident window — and leave the headline to the campaign ads.