Rentals in The Villages, FL
Seasonal and annual rentals across The Villages, plus what renting here is actually like — furnished versus unfurnished, what the rent covers, and what stays the owner's problem.
What is renting in The Villages like?
There are two rental markets here, and they barely overlap. Seasonal rentals are short winter stays, usually furnished, usually taken by the month. Annual rentals are twelve-month leases, usually unfurnished, and priced the way a long lease is priced anywhere. A home listed for one is often not available for the other.
The part that surprises people coming from outside Florida is how little of the community's cost structure lands on a renter. The bond is a loan for the roads and pipes in a section. The CDD maintenance assessment funds the common areas. Both are lines on the owner's annual property tax bill, and both attach to the property. You never see that bill. The amenity fee is attached to the home's deed and the district bills the owner for it every month, not you.
What you do need in writing is the lease itself: the term, what is furnished, what utilities you carry, and what recreation access comes with the home. Rental rules and use covenants here vary by unit, not community-wide, so the answer depends on the specific address.
Who pays what
| CDD bond | Owner. A non-ad valorem line on their tax bill. |
|---|---|
| CDD maintenance | Owner. Also on their tax bill. |
| Property tax | Owner. |
| Amenity fee | Billed to the owner by the district. Attached to the deed, not to you. |
| Utilities | Depends on the lease. Seasonal often includes them; annual often does not. |
| Age rule | Applies to renters. It is an occupancy rule, not a purchase rule. |
| Get in writing | Term, furnishings, utilities, recreation access, and the deed restrictions for that unit. |
I'll send you new rentals
Pick a village and leave your email. When a rental comes up there, I'll send it to you. These are not automated alerts. I pick them and send them myself, so you can reply to any email with a question. There's no charge, and you can stop any time.
Your request is in.
When a rental comes up in that village, I'll email it to you. If you want to talk a village through before you tour it, call or text me at 352-780-1479.
Seasonal and annual are two different markets
People use the word "rental" for both. They behave nothing alike, and knowing which one you are shopping saves you weeks.
Seasonal
A seasonal rental is a winter stay. Snowbirds come down when the weather turns north and go home in the spring. These homes are generally furnished and generally rented by the month at a season rate, so you arrive with a suitcase rather than a truck.
Two things follow from that. The inventory is competitive, and it is booked early — owners line up the coming winter well before the winter starts. And the same home is often not available at all outside the season, because the owner lives in it the rest of the year.
Annual
An annual rental is a twelve-month lease. These are usually unfurnished, and they work the way a long lease works anywhere: you bring your own furniture, you carry the utilities in most cases, and you sign for a year.
Annual inventory here is thinner than seasonal inventory. A lot of owners would rather rent three or four months at a season rate than commit a home for a year. If you need an annual lease, start earlier than you think you need to.
Which one you want depends on why you are here
If you are testing the community before buying, a seasonal stay usually does the job and does not lock up a year. If you are selling a house somewhere else and need a place to land while that closes, you want an annual lease, or a seasonal one you can extend. Tell me which situation you are in and I will tell you which market to shop.
Furnished, unfurnished, and the gap in between
"Furnished" is not a standard. It is whatever that owner means by it, and it is worth pinning down before you sign.
A fully furnished seasonal home usually means you could move in with a suitcase: beds, seating, a table, a stocked kitchen, linens, towels. Some owners include a washer and dryer and a television. Some include a golf cart. Some do not, and a cart matters more here than it would almost anywhere else — without one you are driving to places your neighbors are riding to.
Unfurnished usually means appliances stay and nothing else does. In Florida that normally covers the range, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, and the washer and dryer, but "normally" is not "always." Ask.
Get a written list. Not a description in the listing — a list, in the lease, of what is in the home when you arrive. The disputes I hear about are almost never about the big things. They are about whether the cart was included, whether the lanai furniture stays, and who owns the television.
Ask about the lawn as well. In a lot of leases here the owner keeps the lawn service and it is simply handled. In others it becomes yours. It is a small line that people find out about in July.
The community's big costs are the owner's, not yours
This is the part buyers ask me about most, and the answer is better than they expect.
The bond is not yours
The bond is a loan for the roads and pipes in a section. It is paid back on the owner's annual property tax bill as a non-ad valorem line, and it attaches to the property. A home with a large bond balance and a home with none cost a renter exactly the same.
Neither is the CDD assessment
The CDD maintenance assessment funds the common areas and has no end date. It sits on the same tax bill as the bond, in the same non-ad valorem section, and it is the owner's line. So is the property tax itself.
The amenity fee is billed to the owner
The amenity fee is a contractual obligation tied to the home's deed — roughly $204 a month for a new buyer as of early 2026 — and the district bills the owner for it monthly. It is not a tax and it is not billed to a tenant. Whether the owner works it into your rent is between you and the owner.
Recreation access comes from the lease
Because the fee follows the deed, what a tenant may use is set by the lease and by district rules rather than by anything you pay directly. Ask the owner in writing what access the lease includes, and confirm it with the district at districtgov.org before you sign. I will not guess at it for you.
The rules are still the rules
There is no traditional HOA here, but deed restrictions and the Architectural Review Committee govern what happens at a home. Those rules vary by unit, and rental terms and pet rules vary with them. There is no single community-wide rental rule to look up — only the declaration for that address.
The age rule applies to you
The 55+ rule is an occupancy rule, not a purchase rule, so a lease does not sidestep it. At least one resident of the home must be 55 or older, no full-time resident may be under 19, and visitors under 18 are limited to 30 days per calendar year.
Renting before you buy
It works well for some buyers and wastes a season for others. Here is how I tell the difference.
The Villages is large. More than a hundred villages sit across three areas and five town squares, in three different counties, with tax rates that are not the same and a bond that changes by section. A stay here answers the questions a website cannot: what you can actually reach by golf cart, whether you want to be near the music or a buffer away from it, whether the older northern villages feel right or the newer southern ones do.
So renting first makes sense when the decision is still open. If you cannot name the area you want, a season here will name it for you faster than a week of touring will.
It makes less sense when the decision is mostly made. Plenty of buyers come down, look for a few days, and know. If you already know the area, renting a year mostly costs you a year — and you are shopping the same market when you come out the other side.
The middle path most people miss: rent seasonally and shop while you are here. You are on the ground, you can see homes the day they list, and you are not committed to a purchase or to a twelve-month lease.
If you want to narrow it before you book anything, start with which area is right for me — it compares the three areas on the things that actually differ. Then the golf cart guide for how far a cart really gets you, and the neighborhoods list to see the villages themselves.
Tell me when you would come down and how long you would stay. I will tell you whether renting first makes sense for what you are trying to do, and I will say so if I think it does not.
Renting in The Villages, FL: common questions
Yes. Owners rent homes here both seasonally and annually. What you cannot assume is that every home is available to rent — rental rules and use covenants vary by unit and by declaration, so the answer depends on the specific home. Confirm the rules for that home in writing before you sign anything.
The amenity fee is a contractual obligation tied to the home's deed, and the district bills the owner for it monthly — not the tenant. Whether the owner builds it into your rent, and what recreation access comes with your lease, is set by the lease and by district rules. Get both in writing from the owner before you sign, and verify amenity access at districtgov.org.
No. The CDD bond and the CDD maintenance assessment are non-ad valorem lines on the owner's annual property tax bill. They attach to the property. As a renter you never receive that bill, and a bond balance on the home you are renting is not your obligation.
A seasonal rental is a short winter-season stay, usually furnished and usually rented by the month at a season rate. An annual rental is a twelve-month lease, usually unfurnished, and priced the way a long-term lease is priced anywhere. They are two different markets with different inventory, and a home listed for one is often not available for the other.
Yes. The age rule is an occupancy rule, not a purchase rule, so it applies to a leased home the same way it applies to an owned one: at least one resident 55 or older in the occupied home, no full-time resident under 19, and visitors under 18 limited to 30 days per calendar year.
It works well for buyers who are not sure which part of the community they want. A stay tells you what you can actually reach by golf cart and whether you prefer the older northern villages or the newer southern ones. It is not required — plenty of buyers decide in a few days of looking. It depends on how much of the decision is still open.
Often, but not always, and the deed restrictions for your specific unit govern it — there is no single community-wide rental rule. Request the declaration for your unit from the district before you advertise. If you are weighing renting your home against selling it, send me the address and I will walk you through both sides.
Keep reading
If renting is a step toward buying, these are the pages that matter next.
Thinking about renting here first?
Tell me when you would come down and how long you would stay. I will tell you whether renting first makes sense for what you are trying to do, and where to look if it does.