Roughly 3,000 single-family homes and townhouses are on tap for the booming Central Florida suburbs near Walt Disney World, as two prominent Canadian homebuilders count on lower mortgage rates to drive demand in the coming years.
Greenpark Group and Treasure Hill paid $165 million for more than 2,300 acres in Lake County, west of downtown Orlando, according to Troy Finnegan of the Akerman law firm that represented the buyers.
The partnership, known as GT USA, plans to build roads and add utilities before eventually selling developed home lots to builders, Finnegan said in an interview. The two homebuilders already have deals in place to sell some of the properties to Ashton Woods Homes and Dream Finders. The first homes are likely to be ready in 2028.
PulteGroup, Sun Terra Communities, Meritage Homes and other builders have entered Lake County in recent years, and shops, restaurants and other businesses have followed. Land is becoming scarce in Orlando's Orange County, and Lake County residents have more space and easy access to entertainment options while remaining close enough to work in Orlando's job center, brokers and analysts say.
"Orlando started out being touristy just because of Disney, but now it's much more diversified," said Jack McCabe, a U.S. housing analyst with McCabe Research & Consulting, in an interview. "The prices and the standard of living are good, and there are a lot of good recreational opportunities that most areas of Florida don't have. From a long-term standpoint, Orlando has a lot to offer."
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Large, publicly held builders have been bullish on demand for new houses, pointing out that the supply of existing homes for sale is constrained because homeowners are reluctant to move and give up historically low mortgage rates obtained during the pandemic. That has crimped the supply of homes on the sales market.
Incentives boost sales
While homebuyers have faced elevated interest rates over the past two years, builders have been offering incentives, such as mortgage rate buy-downs, to drum up sales. In a buy-down, builders lower the mortgage rate temporarily or over the life of the loan, making the monthly payment more affordable.
Builders and analysts say the Federal Reserve's decision last month to lower interest rates by half a percentage point will be a boon for the housing market.
The GT USA land in Lake County is in a 15,000-acre area known as Wellness Way, a corridor expected to include more than 16,000 residential units, although that number will change as more development occurs.
An expressway near the site is due to be completed around the time the land is ready for house construction, putting residents within a 20-minute drive of downtown Orlando, Akerman's Finnegan said.
He noted the county developed a master plan for Wellness Way to guide builders as they seek necessary entitlements for their land holdings.
"They had the foresight," Finnegan said. "They knew growth was on the way so they said, 'Let's plan for this.'"
GT USA said it has invested more than $275 million in Florida land since 2021. It also has built more than 80,000 homes across the country over the past 55 years.