Florida Build-to-Rent Summit
Tue Oct 20, 2026
Florida Build-to-Rent Summit
To be held in Tampa
Investment, Capital Stack Strategy, Rent Growth & Portfolio Exits
$120.00
Registration Questions?
**Please note we have pricing tiers based on ticket availability. Ticket prices will increase once we sell out of the current pricing tier. We cannot redeem a lower price once the ticket prices have been raised.
**Bisnow is a cashless, checkless operation. Please only submit payment via credit card.
Why Attend Bisnow's Florida Build-to-Rent Summit
Florida has become the national proving ground for build-to-rent, but the next phase of growth will be shaped by more than demand. It will be shaped by policy, capital, and the evolving debate over who owns and operates the future of rental housing.
Population growth, a persistent housing shortage, and affordability pressures have made BTR one of the most important housing conversations in the country. But as institutional investors expand their presence in single-family rentals and purpose-built communities, policymakers are taking a closer look at the role large-scale ownership plays in the housing market.
New federal proposals aimed at institutional housing investors have raised questions across the BTR sector: Could future regulations impact how communities are financed, owned, and operated? Will institutional capital continue fueling growth at the same pace? And how can developers build durable platforms in a market where housing affordability is becoming a larger political and economic issue?
At the state level, Florida remains one of the most attractive BTR markets in the country. The 2026 updates to Florida’s Live Local Act have expanded incentives for qualifying rental housing projects, raising AMI rent limits across key markets including South Florida, Palm Beach, and Orlando. These changes are reshaping deal economics by creating new opportunities for mixed-income BTR communities, unlocking additional density, and improving the feasibility of projects that previously struggled to pencil.
But the capital environment is forcing a reset. Construction financing remains selective, exit timelines are extending, and investors are underwriting every deal with greater scrutiny around insurance costs, operating expenses, concentration risk, and long-term demand. The developers succeeding in this environment are those creating flexible capital stacks, building institutional-quality operations, and finding new ways to align returns with evolving housing expectations.
Can BTR scale as a purely institutional investment strategy, or will the next generation of communities need to serve a broader housing mission?
From AI-powered operations and smarter lease-up strategies to new ownership structures and public policy shifts, this event brings together the developers, investors, operators, and policymakers defining what comes next for Florida BTR.
Actionable Insights & Event Takeaways:
Policy & The Future of BTR Ownership
- How proposed federal housing legislation targeting institutional investors could impact BTR ownership models, investment strategies, and long-term portfolio plans
- What developers and investors need to understand about the changing regulatory environment around single-family rentals and purpose-built communities
- Whether new housing policy creates a threat to institutional BTR growth or an opportunity for operators who can adapt
Live Local & The New Economics of Rental Development
- How Florida’s Live Local Act is changing the BTR development equation through zoning flexibility, density bonuses, and tax incentives
- What the updated AMI thresholds mean for mixed-income BTR projects and future underwriting assumptions
- How developers are using policy incentives to unlock sites and compete in a higher-cost development environment
Institutional Capital: Still the Growth Engine?
- What institutional equity partners are underwriting in Florida BTR today and how return expectations have changed
- How potential regulatory shifts are affecting investment strategies, portfolio construction, and acquisition appetite
- What separates the BTR platforms still attracting capital from projects struggling to reach the finish line
From Fee Builder to BTR Platform
- How construction firms and developers are moving from fee-based models into ownership and operating partnerships
- What it takes to build institutional-quality BTR platforms in a changing capital environment
- How emerging developers can structure partnerships without overleveraging their balance sheets
Where Florida BTR Growth Is Moving Next
- Which Florida growth corridors are positioned for the next wave of BTR development
- How developers are balancing land costs, entitlement risk, insurance exposure, and long-term demand
- Why secondary and tertiary markets are becoming increasingly competitive alternatives to coastal Florida
The Next Generation of BTR Operations
- How AI and proptech are improving leasing, maintenance, pricing, and resident retention
- What operators are doing to protect NOI in a market with increasing competition and operating costs
- How technology is becoming a differentiator as BTR matures from a growth asset class into an operating business
For questions regarding content and speaking, please email our Event Producer, Elizabeth Herrgott, at elizabeth.herrgott@bisnow.com. Want to get involved? Contact Jordan.Hinsch@bisnow.com to get information on sponsorship, pricing and availability at this event. To request disability-related accommodations, please contact ariel.fromm@bisnow.com no later than seven business days prior to the event.
Agenda
| Time | Activity |
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8:00 AM 9:00 AM |
Registration, Breakfast & Networking
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9:00 AM 9:45 AM |
How Florida BTR Is Getting Financed in 2026: Capital markets, construction lending, JV structures, and the new rules of the exit
The financing environment has fundamentally repriced Florida BTR. Lenders have retightened underwriting, construction costs remain elevated, and the exit assumptions that made deals pencil three years ago need a rewrite. This panel puts Florida's most active capital partners, developers, and lenders in the same room to dissect what's actually getting financed and what isn't. From construction bridge lending and preferred equity structures to JV waterfalls and institutional takeout strategies, panelists will break down how they're adapting deal structures to a higher-for-longer rate environment, where insurance exposure now sits in every underwriting model, and what rent growth assumptions are realistic across Florida's coastal and inland BTR markets in the wake of the Live Local Act's updated AMI rent ceilings.
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9:45 AM 10:00 AM |
Networking Break
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10:00 AM 10:45 AM |
Built for Florida: Horizontal apartments, workforce housing, proptech, and what it takes to run a competitive BTR asset in 2026
Florida's BTR renter is being courted from every direction by for-sale builders offering lease-to-own, by luxury multifamily offering urban amenities, and by a growing inventory of product that launched two years ago and is now competing for the same resident. This panel moves past the macro and gets into the product and operations decisions that determine whether a BTR community stabilizes fast or bleeds concessions. Panelists will cover horizontal apartment design and amenity programming in Florida's suburban growth corridors, the real-world application of AI and proptech in lease-up and property management, and the policy opportunity embedded in the Live Local Act, including whether workforce-priced BTR is a viable strategy or a margin trap. Florida's new flood disclosure requirements and what they mean for tenant experience and operator liability will also be on the table.
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10:45 AM 11:15 AM |
Post-Event Networking
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Sponsors
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