Davenport sits on the western flank of the Disney corridor in Polk County, where tourist development taxes run a full percentage point lower than neighboring Osceola. Eight gated resort communities within a 15-mile radius of Magic Kingdom allow short-term rentals, all chasing the same guest: families visiting the parks. They differ sharply in price, fees, amenities, and distance. Here is what separates them.
The Davenport Market in 2026
The median property grosses $27,500 to $32,000 per year, but that average buries a massive spread. The top 10% of hosts earn $92,600+ while the bottom quartile pulls under $19,500. The gap is management quality, not luck.
Year over year, revenue per listing rose 2.2% while active listings dropped 14.8%. Weaker operators are exiting; remaining hosts are capturing more demand. The typical booking runs 6.1 nights with 74 days of lead time, and guests book an average of 18 stays per property per year. Peak revenue lands in March; the softest months are May, September, and October.
With Universal’s Epic Universe now open, average trip lengths are stretching from four or five days to seven to ten. Davenport’s larger share of five-plus-bedroom homes (51% vs Kissimmee’s 42%) positions it well for that overflow demand.
Eight Resort Communities Compared
All eight communities below are gated with 24/7 security, allow short-term rentals, and sit within 15 miles of Disney World. The table is sorted by distance to the parks.
Monthly fees include HOA, mandatory club dues, and CDD (annualized). They do not include mortgage, insurance, property taxes, utilities, or management. Entry price reflects the lowest realistic purchase price for an STR-eligible property in each community.
Festival Resort
Townhomes only, and the lowest absolute price point in the Davenport STR corridor. Minto Communities built roughly 500 luxury townhomes between 2015 and 2023, priced from $299K to $485K. Monthly HOA is approximately $320, one of the lightest fee loads in the market.
At five miles from Disney, Festival is the closest community to the parks. The amenity set punches above the price point: heated resort pool, water park, championship golf, mini-golf, fitness center, and a poolside bar and grill. The community is organized as individually gated neighborhoods rather than one large resort campus.
Festival works for investors who want to enter the market below $400K and are comfortable with townhome inventory. Revenue ceilings are lower than single-family communities, but so is the cost of entry and the monthly carry.
Reunion Resort
The highest revenue ceiling in the corridor, and the highest cost floor. Reunion’s 2,226 acres hold three championship golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, and Jack Nicklaus, a five-acre water park, 12 community pools, and seven on-site restaurants. Homes range from $300K Heritage Crossing condos to $2.5M+ luxury estates, including the Bears Den enclave.
Club membership is the catch. Without the $15,000 initiation fee and $420 to $660 monthly dues (Gold vs Platinum), your guests cannot access the water park, golf courses, or premium pools. Those amenities are the reason guests book Reunion over cheaper alternatives. Pair that with HOA fees ranging from $395 to $1,130 per month depending on neighborhood, and total carrying costs can exceed $1,700 monthly for luxury properties.
Reunion sits in Osceola County (6% tourist development tax vs Polk’s 5%) and just six miles from Disney. Professionally managed villas gross $58,000 to $85,000 annually; estates with eight or more bedrooms reach $95,000 to $185,000. The cost stack demands premium pricing to cash-flow, but properties that deliver on the luxury promise book consistently.
Paradise Palms
One of the lowest entry points and one of the few communities with zero CDD fees. Lennar built 546 homes between 2007 and 2014 on 120 acres, which makes Paradise Palms the oldest resort community on this list. That age is both the advantage and the risk.
The advantage: proven revenue history, lower purchase prices ($315K to $635K), and just seven miles from Disney. The 9,500-square-foot clubhouse with a movie theater, arcade, lagoon pool with water slide, and tiki bar still holds up. HOA runs $607 to $737 per month and covers landscaping, security, cable, internet, and all common areas.
The risk: older finishes and dated floor plans drag nightly rates unless the property has been renovated. Investors buying into Paradise Palms should budget $15,000 to $30,000 for interior updates and professional styling to compete with newer communities. After that investment, Paradise Palms properties can perform on par with newer resorts at a lower total cost basis.
Solara Resort
Mattamy Homes built Solara between 2018 and 2024 as a pure STR play. Every home comes standard with a screened, heated private pool. The community centerpiece is a FlowRider surf simulator, the only one in any Davenport-area resort, the kind of feature that sells a booking at first scroll.
HOA runs about $663 per month with no CDD, making the fee structure clean and predictable. The 13,000-square-foot clubhouse also houses a full restaurant, a poolside bar, an ice cream parlor, and a sports simulator. Eight miles from Disney in Osceola County.
Homes start around $390K for townhomes and reach $1.2 million for nine-bedroom estates. Floor plans run from 1,982 to 4,760 square feet. Solara competes directly with Windsor Island on distance and amenities. The differentiator: the FlowRider and the fact that every home includes a private pool, not optional.
Windsor Island Resort
The newest purpose-built STR community in the corridor. Pulte Homes delivered 600 homes between 2020 and 2023 with modern floor plans and nine distinct designs ranging from five to ten bedrooms.
Windsor Island’s fee structure is the simplest here: $550 to $600 per month covers club access, internet, daily trash pickup, and 24-hour manned security. Add roughly $167 monthly for CDD and the total lands near $750. No surprise add-ons, no mandatory initiation fees, no layered sub-association dues.
Eight miles from Disney with a lazy river, dual water slides, splash pad, mini-golf, fire pit, and a tiki bar. Homes start around $400K and run to $1 million. Early buyers have seen strong appreciation, the advantage of buying into a community before it reaches full inventory maturity. The Aloha Clubhouse includes an arcade, fitness center, and outdoor bar.
Bella Vida
Park Square Homes built this newer community with low HOA and no CDD fees. On paper, the monthly carrying costs look attractive. In practice, a $25-per-day resort fee is charged on every reservation, which adds up to $5,000+ annually on a property with 200 booked nights. That fee does not appear in the HOA line item, and investors who budget on HOA alone will misjudge their margins.
Homes range from $550K to $900K for four- to six-bedroom single-family properties. The amenity set is modest compared to larger resorts: a 6,700-square-foot clubhouse, community pool, game room, basketball courts, and 15 acres of lakes. At 10 to 12 miles from Disney, Bella Vida sits in the middle of the distance range.
For investors with a higher budget who want lower monthly fixed costs, Bella Vida can work. Run the full-year numbers including that daily resort fee before committing.
ChampionsGate
The most battle-tested STR community in the Davenport corridor. Lennar’s resort district spans over 1,500 acres with Greg Norman’s 36-hole championship golf course, the Oasis Club lazy river complex, and The Retreat waterpark. Inventory runs deep: three-bedroom condos to fourteen-bedroom estates across multiple resort villages, giving it the widest price band of any community on this list.
What ChampionsGate sells investors is liquidity. More comps, more booking history, more property managers with proven track records here than anywhere else in Polk County. Professionally managed five-bedroom pool homes gross $58,000 to $78,000 annually at 74% to 80% occupancy. The flip side is saturation: with that depth of inventory comes competition, and generic listings get buried.
Critical: ChampionsGate is not one neighborhood but several distinct villages. Only the resort district and townhome/condo sections allow short-term rentals. Primary-residence villages (Country Club, Stoneybrook) prohibit them. Verify the village zoning before making an offer. The community straddles the Polk/Osceola county line, so also confirm which side your property falls on before budgeting taxes.
Solterra Resort
The value play. Solterra’s base HOA is roughly $200 per month, the lowest of any community in this list. Add the $100 monthly club fee and $208 to $333 for CDD, and total carrying costs land between $508 and $633. That is two hundred dollars less per month than most competitors, a $2,400 annual advantage that goes straight to the bottom line.
The trade-off is distance: 15 miles from Disney, the furthest of the eight. That extra mileage can push nightly rates and occupancy slightly below closer-in resorts. Solterra works best for investors who plan to compete on value and amenities rather than proximity.
D.R. Horton and Pulte built 432 units starting in 2013. The four-acre amenity center includes a lazy river, water slide, Cafe Sol restaurant, hot tub, and poolside bar. Homes sell from $380K to $550K at the investment entry level. Solterra’s HOA enforces strict STR compliance: written notice is required before operating a rental, occupancy is capped at two guests per bedroom plus two, and fines can reach $15,000.
What You Actually Pay Each Month
HOA and CDD are only part of the cost stack. Here is what a typical five-bedroom, $475K pool home in Davenport costs to hold regardless of community:
| Expense | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Mortgage (7% on 75% LTV) | ~$2,370 |
| Property tax (non-homesteaded) | ~$475 |
| Insurance | ~$375 |
| HOA + CDD | $500 to $900 |
| Utilities | ~$350 |
| Pool maintenance | ~$180 |
| Pest control | ~$45 |
| Total (before management) | $4,300 to $4,700 |
That is $51,600 to $56,400 per year in fixed costs before a property manager takes their 20% to 25% cut. A property needs to gross roughly $65,000 to $75,000 annually just to break even on cash flow.
This is why community selection matters. The difference between $508 per month (Solterra) and $900 per month (ChampionsGate) in HOA and CDD is $4,700 per year. At that revenue level, the gap can be the difference between cash-flow-positive and cash-flow-negative. Dynamic pricing, professional photography, and listing optimization are what push a property from the $32K median into the $65K+ range where the math works.
The Polk County vs Osceola County Tax Split
Four communities sit in Polk County; four sit in Osceola. The distinction matters for your tax bill.
| Tax | Polk County | Osceola County |
|---|---|---|
| Florida state sales tax | 6% | 6% |
| Discretionary surtax | 1% | 1% |
| Tourist development tax | 5% | 6% |
| Total on rental income | 12% | 13% |
Polk County communities: ChampionsGate (resort district), Windsor Island, Solterra, Festival
Osceola County communities: Reunion Resort, Solara Resort, Paradise Palms, Bella Vida
On a property grossing $65,000 per year, the difference between 12% and 13% is $650. On a $100,000 gross, it is $1,000. Not a deal-breaker on its own, but it compounds over a hold period and stacks on top of the HOA differences.
Both counties require a Florida DBPR vacation rental license ($50 application, $170 annual renewal) and a county business tax receipt ($57.75 annually). All eight communities on this list are pre-approved for short-term rental use. Operating without a license for 150 or more days is a second-degree misdemeanor.
New Communities on the Horizon
Pulte Homes acquired 288 acres in January 2026 for $51 million to build its fifth Central Florida resort, with over 1,050 vacation homes planned. Land development began in February 2026; model homes are expected in late 2026 and production homes in early 2027. The planned amenity set includes a clubhouse, bar and grill, lazy river, waterslides, mini-golf, and sports courts.
The Azur Resort, a smaller 126-unit community, recently opened in Davenport. Highland Homes is also advertising Astonia, a new community with resort-style amenities, listed as coming soon. Both are early enough that investor track records have not yet formed.
New supply adds inventory competition. It also signals continued builder confidence in Davenport as an STR market. Investors in established communities should watch how new supply affects occupancy rates in 2027 and beyond.
Mistakes Investors Make in Davenport
- Buying on price alone. A $300K townhome at Festival and a $300K condo at Reunion Heritage Crossing look identical on a spreadsheet. One has $320 in monthly fees; the other has $800+ after club dues. Run the full cost stack before comparing.
- Trusting Zillow rental estimates. Zillow and Redfin project long-term rental income, not short-term. A property showing $3,500/month on Zillow might gross $6,000 on Airbnb with professional management, or $2,200 without it. Use STR-specific platforms like AirDNA, not residential rental tools.
- Forgetting the furniture budget. A five-bedroom vacation rental needs $25,000 to $40,000 in furniture, decor, linens, kitchen supplies, and pool equipment before it can accept a booking. That cost sits on top of the down payment and closing costs.
- Generic furnishing in a saturated market. Over 12,000 listings compete for the same guest. Themed bedrooms, professional photography, and design upgrades are not optional. They are what separate the $32K median from the $65K+ performers.
- Projecting revenue from peak-season rates. March grosses can triple what September produces. Investors who build their pro forma on spring break nightly rates end up cash-negative for five months. Model on trailing 12-month averages, not high-season snapshots.
- Buying without a reserve fund. Florida insurance hikes, HOA special assessments, AC replacements, and hurricane deductibles hit without warning. Investors who put every dollar into the down payment and furnishing have no cushion for the $5,000 repair that arrives six months in.
Work With a Davenport STR Specialist
Choosing a community is the first decision. What happens after closing determines whether the investment actually performs.
