Florida Homes & Travel

The stereo-typical image of a Florida Villa is a light colored single story detached villa with its own pool, surrounded by lush green grass, palm trees and perhaps over-looking a lake and/or golf course. The appearance of this type of villa next to any mention of Florida vacations purely reinforces the image. This is not though, the whole picture. Condominiums are legendary in America – in fact when Americans think of hiring a home to stay in, a condo is what they are thinking of in the same way as Brit’s think of villas. Increasingly townhomes are becoming a common sight in resort style developments, these benefit the developer by allowing more homes per acre than individual villas. Some developments have private pools, spas or splash pools attached to the townhomes bridging the gap between condos and villas. A newer concept, effectively forced on the developers by the price of land close to Walt Disney World, is Condohotels. We have mentioned these before and the concept is basically a condo development around a large top-brand hotel with elite resort facilities, run by the hotel management, but each condo individually owned.

All of these concepts have their place and their guest market but they tend to suit a variety of owners. Owners tend to fall into one of three categories: the second home owner who is often at their house, but lets family and friends use it when not in residence to help cover the running costs; the owner who buys a house hoping that rental rates WILL cover running costs and even make a profit as a small business. This group tends to be hands on and works hard to achieve that goal. Then there are those who view their house as an investment – a property portfolio and prefer to leave it to managers to run and to achieve the income.
This last group particularly suit the concept of the Condohotels, where units can be snapped up at a good price early on and then appreciate in value as the resort develops, benefiting from the enormous corporate presence of these top-brand hotels.
If one is looking about for a new place to be, the next big thing, or even your first purchase, we have received details of a few ideas in Central Florida around the Disney area. Ideally placed for convention trade is Pulte Homes new Vista Cay development of condominiums – on land bordered on one side by the new extension of the Orange County Convention Center and on the other by a fantastic golf course. Prices for these condo’s are between $200,00 and $300,000. Rental rights for these properties could potentially reach $200 - $300 per night as with the top hotels in the area. As Vista Cay will be centrally managed this is one for the hands off investors. Although this is Orange County, zoning for Short-Term-Rental has been given to this development.
A similar development is on the books for the western side of Disney. An as yet unnamed condominium development is planned off the Western Beltway to the west of Walt Disney World. The key to this development is access to Disney. A road is being cut through Disney property to meet SR 429 at the junction with Hartzog road just behind Orange Lake Country Club, and exit within Walt Disney World near to the Speedway at the Transportation and Ticket Center. This has implications both for the expected use of the Western Beltway from its southern end near Reunion resort and for the potential convention trade possibilities of the new development. Once again, early investors in this development will achieve the best prices, which should start below $300,000. At the moment interested parties can only register their interest, but to avoid missing these early prices that is worth doing. This development is not currently targeted for single management so could suit the more hands on owner seeking both investment potential and business involvement.
Park Square Homes have a new development at the former RV site of Secret Key, between Sunset Lakes and Emerald Island – to be named Encantada. The plan here is for more of their successful townhomes with pools on end lots and splash pools for the internal homes. Each private pool area is individually screened and the site already features a clubhouse and lake. Prices for a 4-bed end unit with pool are expected to start at under $300,000. This development would probably most suit a hands on owner seeking to keep close to Disney and perhaps upgrade an older home. These homes won’t be ready before 2006, and possibly later than that if this year’s hurricane season impedes construction.
To register interest for any of these developments please contact Tom Schmidt of Global Real Estate Services Inc who can be reached through our website here

Posted on 5 May 2005