Florida · Orlando
Orlando Feasibility Studies
The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro covers Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties in Florida, and it added 37,690 residents in the year to July 2025, the 10th-largest gain of any U.S. metro 1. Visitors still set the tone: Orange County hotels filled 72.5% of their rooms in June 2026 at an average rate of $213.19 6. An Orlando feasibility study has to separate tourist demand from resident demand and prove which of the two the subject actually captures.
Tenth in the nation for people added, with one county counted.
The Census Bureau's latest metro estimates rank Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford tenth in the country for raw population gain: 37,690 more residents in the year to July 2025, as Florida Phoenix reported them 1. Because it covers a single year, the rank shows the metro's growth still running in 2025, which a change measured from the 2020 base cannot show. The market spans four Florida counties: Orange, home to the City of Orlando; Osceola, home to Kissimmee; Seminole, home to Sanford; and Lake on the western side. Orange County alone counted 1,528,002 people on July 1, 2025 2. It is the only one of the four counties with a 2025 headcount in the research.
The metro held 438,916 residents aged 65 and over in the 2020 to 2024 five-year American Community Survey estimate, and 377,641 renter households in the same 2020 to 2024 five-year American Community Survey estimate 20. Against that renter base, Orange County alone permitted 13,140 housing units of all types in 2025 2, so the core county was approving new supply in the same stretch in which the metro was adding residents, not after it.
The 2020 to 2024 five-year American Community Survey estimate puts metro median household income at $78,533 20. In the same 2020 to 2024 five-year American Community Survey estimate the median owner-occupied home was valued at $369,800 and median gross rent stood at $1,760 20.
Visitors pay a large share of the bills, and the job count is flat.
The metro total barely moved; the sector beneath it did. BLS puts total nonfarm employment in the metro at 1,508.3 thousand in August 2026, preliminary, against 1,496.4 thousand in August 2025, a rise of 11.9 thousand or 0.8% that the agency itself marks as not statistically significant 3. FloridaCommerce counts 1,499,200 nonfarm jobs in July 2026 for the CareerSource Central Florida region, up over the year 4, a workforce area drawn on a different map and read a month earlier.
Underneath the flat total, hospitality is pulling. Leisure and hospitality added 8,100 jobs in the CareerSource Central Florida region between July 2025 and July 2026, the largest gain for that sector in any Florida region 4. That fits the visitor economy's recent anchor: Universal's Epic Universe opened on May 22, 2025, and the Orange County Comptroller tracked the opening through its tourist development tax reports 5. A hotel, restaurant or attraction near the parks borrows that strength directly. A suburban medical office or a light industrial building does not, and its study needs a demand driver of its own.
| Measure | Value | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonfarm employment, metro (BLS) | 1,496.4 thousand to 1,508.3 thousand | August 2025 to August 2026 (preliminary) | 3 |
| Twelve-month change (not statistically significant) | +11.9 thousand (+0.8%) | August 2025 to August 2026 | 3 |
| Nonfarm employment, CareerSource Central Florida region | 1,499,200 | July 2026 | 4 |
| Leisure and hospitality job gain (largest in Florida) | +8,100 | July 2025 to July 2026 | 4 |
I-4, the toll ring and International Drive.
Interstate 4 is the spine. It runs southwest from Sanford through downtown Orlando to the theme parks and on into Polk County, so visitors and commuters share one road. Around it sits a ring of toll expressways: SR 417 on the east and south, SR 429 on the west, SR 528 toward the airport, and Florida's Turnpike.
International Drive is the hospitality corridor the market is built around 8. A hotel or restaurant study there faces branded neighbors along the same strip, so its competitive set is narrower and more exact than any countywide average. Industrial evidence comes from a different part of the metro: Lee & Associates reported a single 330,000 sq ft lease in the Northwest submarket in Q2 2026 11.
Visitor and commuter traffic on I-4, along International Drive and at the SR 417 and SR 429 interchanges goes uncounted on this page: no FDOT station figure for the metro turned up in the research.
Apartments surged in 2025; hotels and storage carry the best data.
Multifamily and housing
Permitting jumped in 2025. Acren's tabulations, a secondary source standing in for the Census metro file, show 13,463 units permitted across the metro in buildings of five or more units, up 58.16% on 2024, and 13,647 in buildings of two or more units 9. Buildings of five or more held 48.35% of every unit permitted in the metro that year 9, so nearly half of new housing approved is apartment-scale. Orange County by itself permitted 13,140 housing units of all types in 2025 2. For units already under way, The List Orlando reported 11,367 apartments under construction in Q4 2025 10; the research flags that source as low reliability.
No current apartment asking rent for the metro came back in the research, so the census gross rent above is the only Orlando rent figure on this page, and it describes renters as they were in the survey years. Our multifamily feasibility page lays out the lease-up test.
Hotels
Orange County hotels ran 72.5% occupancy in June 2026 with an average daily rate of $213.19, both lower than in June 2025, by Visit Orlando data in the Comptroller's tourist tax report 6. Florida Politics, citing the same Visit Orlando data, reported a $222.42 average rate for May 2026, up on the year 7. In the Comptroller's June 2026 report, collections of $33,557,300 came in 0.4% below the year before and ended a run of 14 straight record months 6: the June comparison month in 2025 was the first full month after Epic Universe opened 5, so year-over-year growth now has to clear the opening's own base. County Business Patterns counted 515 hotel and motel establishments (casino hotels, inns and other lodging excluded) in 2023 (County Business Patterns), with 54,605 employees in 2023 (County Business Patterns) 19. Orange County RevPAR and a list of rooms in the pipeline are the two hotel figures the record lacks; our hotel feasibility page covers how a study fills them.
Industrial
CBRE reported Orlando industrial asking rent of $10.29 per square foot in Q2 2026, with vacancy at 10.2% against 9.6% a year earlier 12, and the 330,000 sq ft Northwest submarket lease noted above shows that large-format users are still signing 11.
Self-storage
StorageCafe counted 1,195,200 sq ft of self-storage delivered across the Orlando metro in 2025, a 5.0% addition to inventory, and 310,903 sq ft due in the City of Orlando during 2026 13. Our Tampa page can show its city's storage pipeline shrinking year on year; Orlando's record gives the 2026 city figure without a prior-year comparison, so whether the city's pipeline is slowing is not known. The self-storage page explains the competitor census.
Blanks in the record
Senior housing, retail, office, RV parks and gas stations are blanks in the Orlando record.
| Class | Measure | Value | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multifamily | Units permitted, buildings of 5+; change versus 2024 | 13,463; +58.16% | 2025 | 9 |
| Multifamily | Units permitted, buildings of 2+ | 13,647 | 2025 | 9 |
| Multifamily | Share of all permitted units in 5+ unit buildings | 48.35% | 2025 | 9 |
| Housing, Orange County | Units permitted, all types | 13,140 | 2025 | 2 |
| Multifamily | Units under construction (low reliability) | 11,367 | Q4 2025 | 10 |
| Hotel, Orange County | Occupancy; average daily rate | 72.5%; $213.19 | June 2026 | 6 |
| Hotel, Orange County | Average daily rate | $222.42 | May 2026 | 7 |
| Industrial | Asking rent per sq ft | $10.29 | Q2 2026 | 12 |
| Industrial | Single lease, Northwest submarket | 330,000 sq ft | Q2 2026 | 11 |
| Self-storage, metro | Space delivered; inventory growth | 1,195,200 sq ft; +5.0% | 2025 | 13 |
| Self-storage, City of Orlando | Space due | 310,903 sq ft | 2026 | 13 |
Four county tourist taxes, and Orange County's monthly collections.
The Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research lists the 2026 tourist development tax at 6% in Orange and Osceola counties, 5% in Seminole and 4% in Lake 21. A lodging or vacation rental project's tax line therefore turns on the county line: a Clermont site in Lake carries a lower rate than one on International Drive or in Kissimmee, and a Sanford site in Seminole sits between the two.
Only Orange County's collections appear in the record. Its Comptroller publishes them monthly 6, and those reports tracked the opening of Epic Universe 5; they are the series the hotel section above draws on. The other three counties' collections were not captured. The Comptroller's June 2025 report, with Visit Orlando data, also shows short-term rental demand up 18% on the year while the average nightly rate for those units fell 3% 5.
For zoning, fees and utility capacity on a particular Orlando parcel, the confirmations to obtain are listed on our Florida page.
Two SBA districts split one metro.
SBA reporting splits the metro. The North Florida District lists Orange and Seminole counties in its county lending release 14, while Osceola County is on the list of counties served by the South Florida District's second office 15. The research did not establish which district reports Lake County. A sponsor comparing lender appetite across the metro should therefore not read one district's total as the market's. The same North Florida release is the source of the county lending on our Jacksonville market page, so both pages take their county lending from the same district report.
Within the North Florida release, Orange County borrowers received 507 loans worth $278.1 million under 7(a) and 504 in fiscal 2025, against 481 loans and $257.4 million in fiscal 2024 14. Seminole County's dollar volume moved from $62.6 million in fiscal 2024 to $103.7 million in fiscal 2025 14.
The SBA's loan-level FOIA data give the longer view for the metro: 4,113 loans approved in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, net of cancellations, totaling $2,247.9 million of 7(a) credit approved in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, net of cancellations 18. 504 debentures came to $603.1 million approved in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, net of cancellations 18. The federal rule is 13 CFR 120.160(b): SBA may require professional appraisals, a survey, or a feasibility study. A study prepared under that rule meets the tests on our SBA 7(a) and 504 practice page. 22
The FDFC's closing list adds a lodging line to Orlando's capital picture: a C-PACE financing for a Hyatt House in Orlando closed on December 15, 2025, amount not given 16. In a metro whose best-documented demand is hotel demand, lodging is also the asset class where that route has been used locally.
| County or channel | Figure | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange County, 7(a) and 504 | 507 loans; $278.1 million | FY2025 | 14 |
| Orange County, 7(a) and 504 | 481 loans; $257.4 million | FY2024 | 14 |
| Seminole County, 7(a) and 504 dollars | $103.7 million | FY2025 | 14 |
| Seminole County, 7(a) and 504 dollars | $62.6 million | FY2024 | 14 |
| District assignment | Orange and Seminole: North Florida; Osceola: South Florida, second office; Lake: not confirmed | Current | 1415 |
| C-PACE, Hyatt House Orlando | Closed (amount not stated) | December 15, 2025 | 16 |
A disaster declaration, and no program result settled.
SBA administrative disaster declaration FL-20030, issued November 7, 2025 for Brevard County, names Orange, Osceola and Seminole as contiguous counties, and Lake is not among them 17. On USDA rural eligibility, Opportunity Zones and HUBZones the record reached no result for any of the four counties; the parcel checks are on our Florida page.
No published case names an Orlando-area location.
No worked case we have published names a site in Orange, Osceola, Seminole or Lake County, where the county tourist tax rates in the rules section above are the ones any lodging case would carry. The Florida cases, and the lender tests each one walks through, are on the Florida feasibility page.
What a lender should confirm in an Orlando file.
Visitor or resident demand
Which of the two the subject depends on, given that leisure and hospitality added jobs in the region while the metro total barely moved.
The months after the record run
Hotel revenue built from June 2026 onward, the month whose tourist tax collections ended the run of record months, not from the run itself or the Epic Universe opening month.
Orange County series against the set
How the subject's own competitive set compares with the Orange County occupancy and rate series, plus the RevPAR and room pipeline the research lacks.
The county's tourist tax rate
For lodging or a vacation rental, the rate of the county the parcel sits in, not Orange County's by default.
What credit officers ask about an Orlando project.
What does a feasibility study in Orlando have to prove?
Three things in order. First, which demand the subject lives on: the metro added 37,690 residents in the year to July 2025 1, yet much of its spending arrives with visitors, so a hotel on International Drive 8 and a daycare in Seminole County are measured against different bases. Second, which county's numbers apply: Orange County counted 1,528,002 people on July 1, 2025 and permitted 13,140 housing units in 2025 2, and it is the only one of the four with a 2025 headcount in the research. Third, for lodging, the tourist tax of the county the parcel sits in, which for 2026 is 6% in Orange and Osceola, 5% in Seminole and 4% in Lake 21.
What does an SBA feasibility study for an Orlando hotel have to show?
That the opening-year lift is a base, not a trend. Universal's Epic Universe opened on May 22, 2025 5, so June 2025 was the first full month with the park in the base. In June 2026 Orange County hotels ran 72.5% occupancy at a $213.19 average rate 6, below the $222.42 rate reported for May 2026 7, and June 2026 tourist tax collections ended a run of 14 straight record months 6. The study should show the subject's competitive set across the months since the opening and supply the RevPAR and room pipeline the research did not find.
Which SBA district office handles a loan in Orlando?
It depends on the county. The SBA North Florida District reports Orange and Seminole counties in its lending release 14, while Osceola County is assigned to the second office of the South Florida District 15. Orange County borrowers received $278.1 million across 507 loans in fiscal 2025 14, and Seminole County's volume rose from $62.6 million in fiscal 2024 to $103.7 million in fiscal 2025 14.
Which apartment supply numbers belong in an Orlando market study?
Acren's tabulation of 2025 permits shows 13,463 units permitted metro-wide in buildings of five or more units, up 58.16% on 2024 9. A local listing site puts units under construction at 11,367 for Q4 2025, a figure the research rates as low reliability 10. Permits measure future supply and the under-construction count measures supply that is already coming; a lease-up study should use the permit series for the trend and treat the second number as a cross-check only.
Should an Orlando market study rely on metro job growth?
Only cautiously. BLS shows nonfarm employment of 1,508.3 thousand in August 2026 against 1,496.4 thousand a year earlier, a preliminary change of 11.9 thousand (0.8%) that the agency does not call statistically significant 3. The stronger signal is sector-specific: leisure and hospitality added 8,100 jobs in the CareerSource Central Florida region over the year to July 2026, the largest gain of any Florida region 4. A study that leans on employment should name the sector that feeds the subject rather than cite the metro total.
What does a market study for an Orlando warehouse need?
Evidence that large users are still signing, and a current asking rent. Lee & Associates recorded a single 330,000 sq ft lease in the Northwest submarket in Q2 2026 11, and CBRE put asking rent at $10.29 per square foot in the same quarter 12.
Do Orlando projects qualify for SBA disaster loans or USDA guarantees?
Orange, Osceola and Seminole were named contiguous counties under SBA administrative disaster declaration FL-20030, issued November 7, 2025, for Brevard County 17; Lake was not named. USDA Business and Industry eligibility turns on the parcel, and the research found no rural determination anywhere in the metro. The parcel checks are set out on our Florida page.
Financing a project in Orlando? Start with the demand it depends on.
We measure whether the subject lives on visitors, residents or both, test it against the county's own rules and dated sources, and write it for the lender's committee. Send the address, the program and the lender.
Request a methodology briefingData sources and dates.
Each figure on this page is cited to a named, dated source. Where Orlando's series cover different areas or months, the page says which.
- Florida Phoenix, Census data show population increases in Orlando... (title as truncated in the research), March 27, 2026 (change July 2024 to July 2025).
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts V2025: Orange County, Florida, Vintage 2025, accessed October 2026 (population July 1, 2025; permits calendar 2025).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Over-the-year change in total nonfarm employment for large metropolitan areas, September 30, 2026 (August 2025 to August 2026, preliminary).
- FloridaCommerce, Overview of the CareerSource Central Florida Region, release undated, accessed October 2026 (July 2026 data).
- Orange County Comptroller, TDT Collections - June 2025, August 5, 2025 (June 2025 collections).
- Orange County Comptroller (Visit Orlando data), TDT Monthly Collections - June 2026, 2026 (June 2026 collections and hotel data).
- Florida Politics (Visit Orlando data), Orange County hotel tax, 2026 (exact headline not given; slug: orange-countys-hotel-tax-revenue-is-up-9-from-last-year-phil-diamond-says), 2026 (May 2026 data).
- The List Orlando, Orlando Hotel Investment 2026, page undated, accessed October 2026 (2025 market).
- Acren, Multifamily Building Permits by Metro, September 12, 2026 (calendar 2025 permits).
- The List Orlando, Orlando Multifamily Real Estate 2026, page undated, accessed October 2026 (Q4 2025 data).
- Lee & Associates Central Florida, Q2 2026 Industrial Market Report, July 20, 2026 (Q2 2026).
- CBRE, Orlando Industrial Figures - Q2 2026, 2026 (Q2 2026 data).
- StorageCafe; RentCafe, Where Self Storage Boomed in 2025; August 2026 self storage report, 2026 (2025 deliveries; space due in 2026). Also https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/self-storage/self-storage-monthly-report/
- SBA North Florida District Office (reposted by Nassau County Chamber), SBA North Florida District Achieves Record-Breaking Lending for FY2025, December 2, 2025 (fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024).
- U.S. Small Business Administration, South Florida (district page), current as of October 2026.
- Florida Development Finance Corporation (FDFC), Closings, accessed October 2026 (closing of December 15, 2025).
- U.S. Small Business Administration (Federal Register), Administrative Declaration of a Disaster for the State of Florida, November 17, 2025 (declaration issued November 7, 2025).
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Capital Access, 7(a) and 504 FOIA loan-level data, loan status as of June 30, 2026 (approval fiscal years 2016 to 2025); retrieved October 16, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns (Census Data API), 2023 (employment for the pay period including March 12, 2023); retrieved October 16, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Detailed Tables (Census Data API), 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates; retrieved October 16, 2026.
- Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR), 2026 Local Option Tourist/Food and Beverage Tax Rates, September 4, 2026 (2026 rates).
- eCFR, 13 CFR 120.160, Loan conditions, current to October 7, 2026.