Ponte Vedra Beach, FL Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Regulations 2026

Regulation Overview

An affluent Atlantic beach community south of Jacksonville, known for golf, the TPC Sawgrass tournament and a high-end second-home market.

Governing jurisdiction: St. Johns County (unincorporated). Local position: County short-term vacation rental registration.

Florida State Preemption — and the 2011 grandfather clause

Florida is a partial preemption state, and the detail decides everything.

Fla. Stat. § 509.032(7)(b) bars local governments from adopting new ordinances that prohibit vacation rentals, or that regulate their duration or frequency of rental, or that regulate them based solely on their classification, use or occupancy.

What Florida local governments do retain regardless:

• Local business tax receipt and registration programmes.
• Fire and building code inspections.
• Noise, nuisance and parking enforcement not based solely on rental classification.

State licensing. Under Fla. Stat. § 509.241, anyone operating a transient public lodging establishment — a unit rented more than three times a year for periods under 30 days, or advertised as regularly available for such stays — must hold a Florida DBPR vacation rental licence before operating. State sales tax plus the county Tourist Development Tax apply on top.

2026 status: SB 280 (2024), which would have centralised vacation rental regulation under DBPR, was vetoed by the Governor in June 2024, and no equivalent preemption-expansion bill has since passed. The 2011 framework above remains the operative law.

Ponte Vedra Beach Rules

Ponte Vedra Beach is unincorporated, sitting east of the Intracoastal Waterway, so it is governed by St. Johns County's Short-Term Vacation Rental Ordinance (Ord. 2021-23).

Because that ordinance was adopted in 2021 — well after the June 2011 cutoff — the county cannot cap how often or how long you rent. What it can and does do is register and regulate:

• Registration required, renewed every 12 months.
• Occupancy cap: two transient occupants per bedroom and common area, capped at 10 total occupants. Children aged 12 and under are excluded from the count. The 10-guest ceiling was phased in over three years for pre-existing rentals.
• Exemptions: full-time owner-occupied homestead single-family homes; two-family dwellings where one unit is owner-occupied homestead; and multifamily units under an HOA or condo association with on-site management.
• Enforcement runs through county code enforcement under Florida Statutes Chapter 162.

For an investor the occupancy cap is the number that matters: a 10-guest ceiling limits what a large beach house can earn regardless of how many bedrooms it has. Model revenue against 10 guests, not bedroom count.

Two things to confirm for a specific parcel: unincorporated areas west of the Intracoastal Waterway are treated differently under parts of the county programme, and we were not able to confirm the current registration fee or the exact penalty schedule against primary county documents. Check both with St. Johns County before you rely on them.

Buyer Due Diligence Checklist

Before you write an offer on a short-term rental in this market:

• Get a written determination from the governing jurisdiction for the specific parcel. Verbal guidance from anyone else is not diligence.
• Establish which jurisdiction governs — incorporated city and unincorporated county can differ sharply within a few miles.
• Ask whether an existing permit transfers on sale. In several markets it does not, and a listing marketed as a running short-term rental may convey nothing of the sort.
• Read the HOA or condo CC&Rs during your inspection period. Private covenants bind even where the jurisdiction permits the use, and discovering a prohibition after closing is not grounds to unwind the sale.
• Model revenue against the legal occupancy cap, not the bedroom count. Where a cap is low, it — not the house — sets your ceiling.

Frequently Asked Questions