Amendment 3 Passed: Your 2027 Florida Property Tax

Florida voters approved Amendment 3 on November 3, 2026, with 61.98% voting yes, according to the Florida Division of Elections results page read November 4. The Amendment 3 Florida property tax changes start January 1, 2027: a 5% cap on non-homestead assessment increases and a $150,000 homestead exemption for non-school levies.

That reaches landlords with rental houses, duplexes and small apartment buildings, owners of shops and offices, and every homeowner with a homestead. It does not touch school district taxes, and it does not change the 3% Save Our Homes cap on homesteads.

What happens to my property taxes now that Amendment 3 passed

Nothing changes on the 2026 bill that tax collectors mail in November. On January 1, 2027, the enrolled text of CS/HJR 1-F takes effect. Your county property appraiser then caps non-homestead assessment increases at 5% for non-school levies, and a homestead's non-school exemption becomes $150,000. The 2027 bill, mailed in November 2027, is the first to show it.

The amendment rewrites three parts of Article VII of the Florida Constitution: section 4 on assessments, section 6 on homestead exemptions and section 9 on local taxes. A new section in Article XII sets the January 1, 2027 effective date. Everything below comes from that enrolled text unless another source is named.

Amendment 3 results: 61.98% yes against the 60% threshold

The Florida Division of Elections results page, read November 4, 2026, lists Amendment 3 as "Increased Homestead Exemption; Lower Cap On Increases In Non-Homestead Property Assessments." It shows 4,917,796 yes votes (61.98%) and 3,016,195 no votes (38.02%) as unofficial election night results. The same page notes that amendments require 60% to pass, and the Florida League of Cities bill summary of June 4, 2026 says the same.

WUSF, publishing at 11:30 p.m. on election night, reported the measure passing with nearly 62% and 99% of the vote counted. Two other amendments on the same ballot fell short, at 40.9% and 58.21% yes on the state's page.

The Legislature put the question on the ballot during a special session in June. The House passed CS/HJR 1-F 75 to 26 and the Senate 30 to 9 on June 2, 2026, according to the Florida Senate bill page. It was filed with the Secretary of State on June 16.

The title voters saw was not the Legislature's. The enrolled resolution proposed "Save Our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes." On August 3, 2026, Circuit Judge David Frank called the title "a political slogan" and found the summary "clearly and conclusively defective." The Attorney General then rewrote the title and summary, Central Florida Public Media reported on WLRN on August 14.

The Amendment 3 Florida property tax changes, date by date

School district levies keep the $25,000 homestead exemption in section 6(a)(1)a.1. The Legislature must also write a uniform procedure for counties and cities to raise the exemption further for their own levies, up to all remaining assessed value. A special district may do the same by referendum, no more than once in 12 months, under section 6(a)(4)b.

Amendment 3 rental property 5% cap: the landlord math

Section 4(g) covers residential real property of nine units or fewer that is not a homestead: a rented house, a duplex, a fourplex, a small apartment building. Section 4(h) covers other real property outside the homestead rules, which takes in shops, offices and warehouses. Both now read the same way. Assessments may not rise more than 10% a year before January 1, 2027, and 5% from that date, "for all levies other than school district levies."

Two rules stay as they were. No assessment can exceed just value. Section 4(g)(3) puts a property back at just value on the next assessment date after a change of ownership or control. That includes a change in ownership of the legal entity that owns the property. For section 4(h) property, the Legislature may provide the same, and must provide it after a qualifying improvement.

Take a duplex assessed at $400,000 for non-school levies on January 1, 2026, in a year when its just value rises 12%. Under the old 10% cap, the 2027 assessment could reach $440,000. Under the 5% cap it stops at $420,000. At 11 mills, the non-school rate in the Florida Department of Revenue's own worked example, that $20,000 gap is $220 of tax in 2027. The rates themselves can still move.

Each year's cap applies to the prior year's assessment. A property whose market value keeps running ahead of the cap builds a wider gap between just value and assessed value. That gap closes on a sale or a change of control, when the new owner starts from just value.

School taxes sit outside the cap. Non-homestead property pays school district levies on just value, so a 12% rise in value shows up in full on that part of the bill.

Owners of commercial space had one change in 2025 already. Our article on the Florida commercial rental tax repeal covers the end of the state sales tax on commercial rent on October 1, 2025.

Florida homestead exemption $150,000 in 2027, $250,000 in 2028

Today a homestead gets $25,000 off for all levies, plus a second $25,000 off non-school levies on value between $50,000 and $75,000. The enrolled text strikes that bracket. Beginning January 1, 2027, the non-school exemption runs "up to the assessed valuation of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars." The amount becomes $250,000 from January 1, 2028. From January 1, 2029, the $250,000 figure adjusts each year by the prior year's change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, if positive.

On a homestead assessed at $300,000, non-school taxable value is $250,000 in 2026, $150,000 in 2027 and $50,000 in 2028. At 11 mills that is $2,750, then $1,650, then $550, if the millage rate does not move. School taxes on $275,000 do not change under the amendment.

A buyer who had no permanent residence in Florida on December 31, 2026 gets $25,000 for school levies and $50,000 for non-school levies. The full amount starts in the fifth year of the exemption. From January 1, 2030, a county or city may shorten that wait by a two-thirds vote of its governing body for a "critical local need."

Why the assessment cap is not your tax bill

The Florida Department of Revenue puts the formula in three lines. Assessed value is just value minus assessment limits. Taxable value is assessed value minus exemptions. Tax is taxable value times the millage rate. Amendment 3 changes the first two lines. The third belongs to your county commission, city council, school board and special districts. They set millage each year after the property appraiser mails the Truth in Millage (TRIM) notice in August.

Those governments lose money under the amendment. WUSF reported on election night that a state economic analysis projected local governments could lose nearly $5 billion. Losses would approach $9 billion the next year, with a recurring figure of nearly $12 billion, the station said. A county or city can answer with a higher millage rate, within the 10-mill limits in section 9(b) of Article VII. A companion law, CS/SB 4-F (Chapter 2026-240), changed the TRIM calculation. Under it, a county or city may adopt up to 110% of the rolled-back rate by a two-thirds vote, the Florida League of Cities summary says.

Amendment 3 also limits what county and city property taxes may pay for. Section 9(a)(2) lists public safety, education and public schools, infrastructure, natural resource projects, and local bonds and debt service. It adds retirement benefits of local employees and the operations of county officers, commissions and municipalities. Special districts are not named in that list.

What Amendment 3 does not change

What to look at before the 2027 bill

Where SMAART fits

SMAART Company manages residential and commercial property for South Florida owners and associations, including commercial property with lease administration and owner reporting. Our tax planning team can model what a 5% cap or a $150,000 exemption does to an owner's numbers, parcel by parcel.

Questions about Amendment 3 and Florida property tax

This article explains what the enrolled text of CS/HJR 1-F, the Florida Division of Elections and the Florida Department of Revenue say as of November 4, 2026. It is not tax or legal advice. Confirm how the amendment applies to your own parcels with your CPA and your county property appraiser.