Florida's non-homestead assessment cap limits how much the taxable value of a second home, rental, or investment property can rise each year. Right now that cap is 10%. A ballot measure, HJR 1F, would cut it to 5% starting in 2027 if voters approve it on November 3, 2026. Here is what that swing actually does to your tax bill, and the spots where it does nothing at all.
A non-homestead property is anything that is not your homesteaded primary residence: a second home, a vacation place, a long-term or short-term rental, raw investment property, most commercial buildings. Florida caps how fast the assessed value of those properties can climb. Voters put that cap in place in 2008 under Amendment 1, and it took effect on the 2009 tax roll. The number is 10% a year.
Assessed value is the figure your taxes are actually calculated on, and it is not the same as market value. In a hot market, market value can jump 15% or 20% in a year, but the cap says the taxable assessment on a non-homestead property can only rise 10%. The gap between what the home is worth and what it is taxed on is the whole benefit of the cap. It builds slowly, and it belongs to you only while you own the property.
This is a different animal from Save Our Homes, the 3% cap on a homesteaded primary residence. Same idea, tighter limit, different property. If you live in the home full time and have filed for homestead, you get the 3% cap. If it is a coastal second home or a rental, the 10% non-homestead cap is the one that governs your assessment growth. Plenty of Florida owners mix the two up, and it changes the math on every deal.
HJR 1F, titled the Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes amendment, cleared the Florida Legislature on June 2, 2026 and goes in front of voters on November 3, 2026. For non-homestead property, it does one clean thing: it lowers the assessment cap from 10% to 5%. Cut the ceiling in half, and in a fast market the taxable value grows half as quickly.
Two conditions matter before you bank on it. First, it is a constitutional amendment, so it needs at least 60% of the vote, not a simple majority. Second, if it passes, most of it takes effect January 1, 2027, which is the assessment date for the 2027 tax year. Until both of those happen, the cap is still 10% and nothing on your bill changes. This is a planning question, not a settled fact.
The same measure carries a homestead piece too, a new exemption on a slice of assessed value for primary residences, phased in over 2027 and 2028. That part helps full-time homeowners, not investors. For anyone buying a coastal second home or a rental, the 5% non-homestead cap is the provision to watch, and it is the one our non-homestead cap calculator models year by year.
Here is the part most coverage skips. A cap only does something when the market would otherwise outrun it. If your property's market value rises 4% a year, a 10% cap and a 5% cap produce the exact same tax bill, because assessed value is tracking the market, not the ceiling. Neither cap is binding. Cutting the cap from 10% to 5% in that world saves you nothing.
The gap opens up only when appreciation runs above the cap rate. At 8% or 10% or 12% a year, market value pulls away from the capped assessment, and the lower cap holds your taxable value down harder. That is when a 5% cap starts to beat a 10% cap in real dollars, and because assessment growth compounds, the gap widens every year you hold. Ten years of a fast market with a 5% cap versus a 10% cap is a meaningful number. Ten years of a flat market is a rounding error.
That is why the appreciation assumption is the single most important input when you model this. It is also why the benefit stops growing once appreciation gets high enough. Past a certain point, both caps are fully binding and assessed value simply tracks the cap rate itself, so a hotter market does not widen the gap between 5% and 10% any further. The calculator shows exactly where that ceiling sits for your numbers.
Drop in a purchase price, an appreciation assumption, and your county millage. The tool shows the year-by-year tax difference between today's 10% cap and the proposed 5% cap, and tells you honestly when the answer is zero.
The non-homestead cap does not touch the school district portion of your bill. School levies are calculated on full market value every single year, cap or no cap. Only the non-school part of your millage, county, municipal, and special districts, gets the capped assessed value. That is written into the amendment, and it has been true of the 10% cap since 2008.
This is where a lot of online estimates go wrong. They apply the cap to your whole tax rate and hand you a savings number that is too big, sometimes badly so, because school millage is often the largest single slice of a Florida bill. To get an honest answer you have to split your millage into school versus everything else and let the cap work on only the non-school part. Pull your parcel's actual combined millage from your county property appraiser and make that split before you trust any number, including mine.
The capped assessed value resets to full market value when the property changes hands, and in some cases after major improvements or a change in use. A new buyer starts over at market value on the next assessment. So the cap does not transfer with the house, it rebuilds from scratch for each owner, and its value grows the longer you hold.
That points to who benefits most from a lower cap: the long-term holder in a strong market. A buy-and-hold investor keeping a Keys rental for a decade or two, in a market that appreciates faster than 5% a year, is exactly the profile where cutting the cap to 5% moves real money. A flipper who owns for eighteen months gets almost nothing, because the gap never has time to open. If you are shopping coastal rentals, the investor financing hub walks through how this fits with the rest of the numbers, and the coastal investor playbook covers the financing side.
The Florida Keys are close to a best case for this measure, because the market has been running hot. Monroe County has posted double-digit annual price growth in recent reporting, the kind of appreciation that pushes market value well past a capped assessment. When the market moves like that, the difference between a 5% cap and a 10% cap compounds into a number worth planning around for anyone holding non-homestead property.
Still, treat it as one line in a bigger picture, not the reason to buy. Coastal carrying costs are driven far more by insurance and the loan structure than by a future assessment cap that has not passed. The right move is to model the cap alongside the real payment, the flood and wind premiums, and the rate, so you are deciding on the whole number. That is what I do on coastal files: run the tax scenario, price the insurance, and put the true monthly cost in front of you before you write the offer.
What is Florida's non-homestead assessment cap?
A constitutional limit on how much the assessed value of a non-homestead property can rise each year. Voters approved a 10% cap in 2008 (Amendment 1), effective for the 2009 tax roll. It covers second homes, rentals, and most commercial and investment property, and it does not apply to school district taxes.
What is HJR 1F and what would it change?
The Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes amendment. It passed the Legislature on June 2, 2026 and goes to voters on November 3, 2026. It would lower the non-homestead cap from 10% to 5%, needs 60% approval, and if it passes, most provisions take effect January 1, 2027.
Does the cap apply to school district taxes?
No. The cap only limits assessed-value growth for non-school levies, county, municipal, and special district. School district taxes are calculated on full market value every year. Applying the cap to your total millage overstates the benefit.
When does the non-homestead cap reset?
It resets to full market value when the property changes ownership, and in some cases after certain improvements or a change in use. A new buyer starts fresh, so the cap builds a gap only while you hold, and the benefit compounds over time.
Is the non-homestead cap the same as Save Our Homes?
No. Save Our Homes is the 3% cap on a homesteaded primary residence. The non-homestead cap is a separate 10% limit for property that is not your homestead. Different amendments, different property.
Has the 5% cap passed yet?
No. HJR 1F is on the November 3, 2026 ballot and needs 60% approval. Nothing changes unless it passes, and the earliest it would apply is the January 1, 2027 assessment date.
How much could a 5% cap save on a Keys property?
It depends on appreciation. A flat market saves nothing; a fast market compounds the gap year after year. Monroe County's recent double-digit price growth is the exact condition where 5% beats 10%. Model your own price and appreciation in the calculator.
Coastal Florida specialist closing jumbo, DSCR, condo, and portfolio deals across the Florida Keys, Naples, Sarasota, and Palm Beach. I run the tax, insurance, and payment math on every coastal file before you write an offer. Not a CPA or tax attorney, confirm tax figures with a Florida tax professional and your county property appraiser. Licensed in Florida.
Send me the property. I will model the assessment cap, price the flood and wind insurance, and put the true monthly cost in front of you before you write the offer, whether the ballot measure passes or not. 30 minutes.