What Condos and Townhomes Allow Airbnb in Clearwater, FL?

If you want a Clearwater Beach place you can rent for a few nights, start with the rule, not the listing photos. Most houses and condos in the city cannot be rented for fewer than 31 days in a row. The buildings that still allow a 1 to 7 day stay sit in a short list of tourist-zoned condos, condotels, and two townhome communities. Buy the wrong one and you own a second home with a fine attached.

I am Troy Nowak, broker of Mangrove Bay Realty (BK3436609). I screen these purchases for investors. The names below are the ones I still pull when a buyer asks for a legal short stay on Clearwater Beach. Association rules change. Read the current declaration, and the zoning, before you write an offer. A manager who says everyone does Airbnb here is not the document.

The citywide rule is in Are short-term rentals allowed in Clearwater?. The beach overview is the Clearwater Beach short-term rental guide. This post is the building list, the zoning split, and one cash-flow example.

Most of Clearwater still has a 31-day minimum

Clearwater restricted short rentals before Florida's 2011 preemption, so the city kept the limit. On residentially zoned land, a residential use does not include a rental under 31 days or one calendar month, whichever is less. Nightly and weekly turnovers belong in nonresidential districts, mainly Tourist. That is the language I use with buyers. The longer citation sits on the rules post above.

The city does enforce it. Fines I see quoted on these files run from $250 to $500 a day. Do not buy because someone at the pool said the association looks the other way.

Both gates have to be open. Tourist zoning without the association, or an association that allows Airbnb on a residential lot, still does not give you a legal nightly rental.

For a first screen on a legal beach unit I use an average daily rate around $330 and annual occupancy around 66 percent. February through April is the expensive stretch. None of that rescues a building that cannot legally take a short stay. Replace both numbers with that building's own trailing twelve months before you offer.

Clearwater short-term rental townhomes

Townhomes are the product families actually ask me for. Three and four bedrooms, a garage, and room for grandparents in the same unit. On a good one I underwrite gross rent in a wide band, roughly $75,000 to $160,000 a year, before dues, debt, tax, and insurance. A townhome under three stories is usually outside the condo milestone inspection in Florida SB 4-D. Confirm the legal form. Some projects sold as townhomes are still condominiums.

Moorings Townhomes

620 Bayway Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

I treat Moorings as a 1 to 7 day community. Recent sales I have used for pricing cluster around $1,070,000. The plans I see are multi-story, about 2,269 square feet and up, with a private two-car garage. Some have deep-water access. Families book them for the bedroom count, not for a hotel lobby.

• Minimum stay I underwrite: 1 to 7 days
• Gross rent range I use: $85,000 to $140,000 a year
• Milestone inspection: usually outside SB 4-D if the building is under three stories and it is not a condo
• Dues: about $852 a month on the budgets I last reviewed
• What I tell buyers: the three-bedroom plan is the one people fight over

Paradise Cove Townhomes

145 Brightwater Dr, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

Paradise Cove is the stricter of the two. I underwrite a 3-day minimum, not a one-night stay. Pricing I have seen sits around $1,200,000. These are waterfront townhomes with private entries. The guest is paying for a quiet dock, not a resort pool.

• Minimum stay I underwrite: 3 days
• Gross rent range I use: $95,000 to $160,000 a year
• Milestone inspection: same three-story question as Moorings
• Dues: I will not print a number I have not confirmed on the current budget. Ask me for the estoppel.
• What I tell buyers: read the dock rules and the rental cap in the declaration

If you want a call when one of these comes up, send me the building. I do not run a public alert list.

Condos and condotels that allow 1 to 7 day stays

These are resort-style condotels and a few older condo buildings where the paperwork still allows a short stay. A condotel with a front desk is a different loan than a plain condo. I wrote that up in how to finance a Pinellas short-term rental. Conventional financing often dies at the front desk.

Sales counts below are units I noted in a recent six-month look, not a live MLS feed. Prices and dues move. Confirm them on the current budget and the closed sales before you write a number into an offer.

CW Resort

411 E Shore Dr, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

Condotel. Minimum stay: 1 to 7 days. Built in the 2024 to 2026 window, so it skips the older milestone-inspection problem that hits pre-2000 towers. I counted 23 sales in that recent stretch, from about $635,570 to $1,400,000. Dues I last saw were about $652 to $716 a month. This is the new south-beach building I show buyers who want a hotel operation and a newer reserve study.

Enchantment Hotel

691 S Gulfview Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

Condotel, Marriott-flagged, built in 2023. Minimum stay: 1 to 7 days. I only saw 2 sales recently, from about $916,000 to $1,290,000. Dues are the shock: about $2,271 to $4,408 a month, because the fee is carrying the desk, the pool, and the hotel operation. Owner use is capped around 30 days a year on the documents I have read. You are buying a managed room, not a place you will spend the winter.

Coral Motel Condo

483 E Shore Dr, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

Condo, 1940, studios of about 212 to 260 square feet. Minimum stay: 3 days. This is the cheap door onto the beach. I saw 1 sale recently, roughly $147,000 to $175,000, with dues around $615 to $744 a month. The price is low because the unit is a studio in an old motel conversion. Underwrite it that way.

Avalon of Clearwater

1226 S Missouri Ave, Clearwater, FL 33756. Map.

Condo, built in 2000, on the mainland about 10 minutes east of the beach. Minimum stay: 7 days. Not a nightly rental. I saw 3 sales around $220,000 to $227,000, with dues about $330 to $655 a month. I use this when the buyer wants a lower dues number and will accept a weekly minimum. It is not a beachfront substitute.

Bayside Condo

800 Bayway Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

Condo, 1973, on the Intracoastal. Minimum stay: 1 to 7 days, and owners can usually self-manage. I saw 1 sale recently, about $249,000 to $421,000. Dues run high for the price, about $1,000 to $1,256 a month. Because of the year built, I want the milestone inspection and the reserve schedule in the file before anyone gets serious. The rental flexibility is the reason to look. The concrete is the reason to slow down.

Pelican Pointe

445 S Gulfview Blvd, Clearwater Beach, FL 33767. Map.

Condotel, 1973, studios across from a gulf-beach access. Minimum stay: 1 to 7 days. I saw 3 sales around $300,000 to $310,000, dues about $550 to $735 a month. Owner use is capped around 28 days a year on the copies I have read. It is the smaller beach unit with steady demand and an old building. Same inspection question as Bayside.

Where the city actually allows a short stay

Clearwater's Community Development Code kept these limits because they predate the 2011 state preemption in Florida Statutes 509.032. I sort an address into three buckets before I talk about rent. The city's own code-compliance page is here: Citizens' Guide to Code Compliance.

Residential zones

Low and medium residential neighborhoods, and a lot of coastal towers that are still residentially zoned. Under 31 days is not a residential use. This is the bucket that produces the fines.

Tourist district

Tourist zoning, mostly on the south end of Clearwater Beach along South Gulfview Boulevard and Coronado Drive. A short stay can be legal here. The association can still ban it, cap the number of stays, or force you onto an on-site manager. Zoning is permission from the city. It is not permission from the board.

Unincorporated Pinellas

A few pockets outside the city limits follow the county, not Clearwater's 31-day rule. The county path is a certificate of use plus tax registration. Confirm the current certificate fee before you budget it. A Clearwater mailing address does not mean the parcel is in the city. I check the jurisdiction on the parcel. The county map of rules is on short-term rentals in Pinellas.

Condos vs condotels vs townhomes

Buyers mix these up because the listing says condo on all three.

Criteria	Traditional condo	Resort condotel	Townhome
Daily rental	Rare. Most Clearwater condos are 31 days.	Common in the tourist district, if the documents allow it	Moorings and Paradise Cove are the two I screen
Who manages	Owner can usually pick Airbnb, Vrbo, or a manager	On-site program or an approved manager	Owner picks the manager
Down payment I plan for	20 to 25 percent, when the project is even eligible	25 to 30 percent. Front desk usually means DSCR or a portfolio loan	20 to 25 percent if the project is warrantable
Gross rent I underwrite	About $30,000 to $55,000 on the smaller beach units	About $50,000 to $110,000, and the dues can eat a lot of it	About $75,000 to $160,000 before dues, debt, tax, and insurance
SB 4-D reserves	High if the building is 3 stories or more and it was built before 2000	Cleaner on a new building such as CW Resort	Usually outside the condo inspection under 3 stories. Confirm it is not a condo

One cash-flow example

The blog cannot run a live calculator, so here is the same worksheet with the inputs written out. It is one set of assumptions, not a promise and not a quote.

Purchase price $750,000. Down payment 30 percent, which is $225,000. Interest rate 7.25 percent on a 30-year amortizing loan. Average daily rate $330. Occupancy 66 percent, which is about 241 nights. Monthly association dues $700. The owner keeps 80 percent of gross rent and a manager keeps the rest.

On those inputs, gross rent is about $79,500. The owner's 80 percent is about $63,600. Principal and interest is about $43,000 a year. Dues are $8,400. Cash left before property tax, insurance, utilities, repairs, and income tax is about $12,200. On the $225,000 down payment, that is roughly a 5.4 percent cash-on-cash return.

Two things that screen leaves out. The guest usually pays the 13 percent tax on top of the rate, so do not also subtract it from this ADR unless your rate already includes it. And $12,200 is not spendable cash. Wind insurance and a special assessment can wipe it out. Send me the unit if you want the dues, the tax bill, and a real loan quote in the same sheet.

The year is not flat. These are the monthly ADR and occupancy figures in this planning curve. They are not a substitute for the building's own trailing twelve months:

• January: about $310 a night, 68 percent occupied
• February: about $330, 76 percent
• March: about $360, 82 percent
• April: about $340, 74 percent
• May: about $315, 65 percent
• June: about $335, 71 percent
• July: about $325, 69 percent
• August: about $280, 49 percent
• September: about $255, 41 percent
• October: about $275, 52 percent
• November: about $295, 60 percent
• December: about $310, 64 percent

March is the month that pays for September. If the pro forma uses March rates for the whole year, it is wrong.

The 13 percent tax stack

Stays under six months in Pinellas County pick up three taxes that add to 13 percent. I break them down in Pinellas Airbnb taxes.

• Pinellas tourist development tax: 6 percent
• Florida sales tax: 6 percent
• Pinellas discretionary surtax: 1 percent

Airbnb and Vrbo usually collect this from the guest. If you take a direct booking, you remit it. Skipping it is not a pricing strategy.

Frequently asked questions

Why do most Clearwater condos require a 31-day minimum?

The city restricted short rentals before the 2011 state law that stopped other cities from adding new bans. On residentially zoned land, a stay under 31 days is not treated as a residential use. A nightly rental has to clear tourist zoning and the association documents.

Which buildings allow a 1 to 7 day Airbnb in Clearwater?

The ones I am willing to name today are CW Resort, Enchantment Hotel, Pelican Pointe, Coral Motel Condo, Bayside Condo, Moorings Townhomes, and Paradise Cove Townhomes. Avalon is a 7-day minimum on the mainland, so I do not call it a daily rental. Confirm the current declaration before you offer. Boards amend these.

What down payment does a Clearwater condotel need?

Plan on 25 to 30 percent. A front desk and a rental program take the building out of a Fannie Mae conventional loan. The loan is usually DSCR or a bank portfolio product. The exact number is the lender's, and it changes. Get it in writing. The financing checklist is in how to finance a Pinellas short-term rental.

Send me the building before you write an offer

The expensive mistake is a 31-day minimum hiding in the declaration, or a reserve study the listing agent did not read. I will tell you which of those you are looking at.

Contact Troy Nowak with the building name. If you already have an address, send that. I will tell you whether I would rent it nightly, and what I would want to see before you offer.