How a Once Unpaved Stretch of Highway Became One of Florida’s Hottest Rental Markets

Around 20 years ago, when Justin Allred started vacationing along Florida’s Scenic Highway 30A, it cost a few hundred dollars a night to rent a nice house. “The first time I visited 30A, I was 18 years old and in college and there wasn’t much,” said Allred, 37, an Alabama-based investor.

The area along Scenic Highway 30A has seen explosive growth over the past two decades, with the development of new communities with golf courses, bike trails, boutique stores and high-end restaurants. Vacation rental prices have gone up too: Earlier this summer, Allred rented Gulf Front Sanctuary, a half-acre property with a roughly 7,800-square-foot home, in Seagrove for two weeks at a cost of $114,000, including taxes and fees. 

Located on the Emerald Coast, between Pensacola and Panama City, the area’s popularity has skyrocketed since the pandemic, according to local real-estate agent Jonathan Spears of Spears Group. While wealthy Southerners have flocked to vacation on the Emerald Coast for decades—earning 30A the nickname “the Hamptons of the South”—the area has seen a recent influx of renters coming from further North as well, according to Spears, which has increased prices in recent years. As of July 17, the average daily rental rate in the 30A area for this summer season is $753, up 42% from $530 during the same period of time in 2019, according to travel data company Key Data Dashboard.

The area around Scenic Highway 30A started to become popular following the paving of the highway, which began in the 1940s and was completed in the 1970s, according to local historian Robert Reynolds. Reynolds, who published the book “Pathway to Paradise on Florida’s Emerald Coast” in 2020, began vacationing in the area with his family in the 1960s. “We lived near the guy who built the first little store in Seagrove,” he said. “It had gasoline, so you didn’t have to drive up Highway 98 anymore to fill your tank. It was a pretty big deal.”

Today, the area is home to over a dozen beach communities including Rosemary Beach, Seagrove, Alys Beach and Seaside, which was the setting for the 1998 film “The Truman Show.” Many of these communities are mixed-use and walkable, said Spears, which gives them a city-like feel. A paved trail, called the Timpoochee Trail, runs along Scenic Highway 30A, according to Reynolds, and is often used by residents and visitors for biking, walking and jogging. It makes traveling through the beach communities without a car easy, he said. 

Growing retail and infrastructure have brought increasing demand for vacation rentals to the 30A beach communities. The area also received a boost of popularity during the pandemic because Florida was one of the few states that kept its beaches open, according to Spears. Many visitors vacationed in the area for the first time during Covid, he said, and have either bought property there or continue to visit regularly. 

Like many vacation-rental markets across the country, the 30A area has experienced an occupancy slowdown this summer season from last year, with an occupancy rate of 64% as of July 17, down from 72% during the same time last year and down from 68% during the same time in 2019, according to Key Data dashboard. Spears believes the slowdown is due to a string of temporary factors including the market leveling off after inflated demand caused by the pandemic, would-be renters flocking overseas as international Covid restrictions ease and an increase of new rental supply. However, pricing remains steady with the average daily rental rate down 7%, from $806 last year. 

Ultraluxury rentals along 30A have only been moderately impacted, according to property manager Sam Cobb, founder and CEO of ELP Luxury Vacations.

Cobb, who manages some of the area’s priciest short-term rentals, said he has an occupancy rate of 80.4% this summer season, down slightly from 82.6% during the summer season last year.

This season, his homes are bringing in anywhere from $12,000 to $64,425 a week including taxes and fees. According to Key Data Dashboard, the average daily rate of the most expensive rentals on the market this summer season with five-plus bedrooms is $2,793, up from $1,979 during the same period in 2019 and down 4% from $2,897 during the same period last year.

“Some of our weekly rates were lowered this year if the home was new and unbooked close to traditional check-in dates,” Cobb said. 

“But it isn’t a race to the bottom for us. What’s the difference between bringing in $450,000 and $500,000 when you’ve already got an $8 million house?” he added. “It isn’t about the price as much as it’s about the significance of the asset.”

Restrictions on building heights in the 30A beach communities have limited the number of high-rise hotels and condominiums, Spears said, so the area has become popular with investors who buy properties and list them on short-term rental platforms like Vrbo and

The demand for short-term rentals in the area has led to a number of homes being built specifically to accommodate affluent renters, according to local developer and builder Ben Giles, who built Gulf Front Sanctuary. He also owns two newly built homes along 30A that he is renting out this summer on Vrbo for around $2,500 a night. 

Vacation rentals in the area have also gotten fancier. Giles said when he started building homes along 30A in the 1990s, even the area’s higher-end homes tended to have basic amenities such as rectangular swimming pools. But today, they come with all the bells and whistles a renter might expect to find in an ultraluxury market like Malibu or the Hamptons, including large infinity-edge pools and spas, residential elevators and outdoor kitchens and bars, Giles said.

Many of these homes are typically rented by multiple families at a time, according to Giles, which is why the layouts often include multiple primary suites, bunk rooms and several living areas. Gulf Front Sanctuary, for example, was first designed as a personal home, Cobb said. “But then the owner brought me in for a tour while it was still under construction and asked me if it would work well as a rental too,” he said. To increase the sleeping capacity, Giles converted one of the bedrooms into a bunk room.

With a saltwater pool, spa, glass-enclosed wine room and a home theater, Gulf Front Sanctuary is booked for 156 nights so far this year, Cobb said. The property also comes with a one-bedroom, 560-square-foot guesthouse.

Cobb said his company offers an array of services, from daily housekeeping to booking tee times and making dinner reservations. They have access to private chefs, private yoga instructors and private airport transportation.

Illinois-based real-estate developer Scott Jenkins and his wife, Lauri Jenkins, use their Seagrove home during the winter months and rent it out the rest of the year. The couple, who have been visiting the Emerald Coast since the 1990s, went under contract on their home while it was still under construction in January 2021. They had spent years waiting for a turnkey home to become available that was large enough for them to rent out while they aren’t there, Scott Jenkins said. Their roughly 7,000-square-foot home has eight bedrooms and can sleep around 22 people. The grounds contain an outdoor kitchen, a swimming pool, a pool house and a spa. Completed in June 2021 by Giles, the house was rented out through Cobbs company for the first time that summer.

“We closed on the home in June, and we didn’t even get a chance to stay in it because it was rented out until October,” Scott Jenkins said. “The day after we closed, we had a renter in there.”

So far this year, the Jenkinses’ home has been booked for 188 days, according to Cobb, and is renting for a weekly average of $29,569 this summer season, including taxes and fees. Last year the home brought in a gross revenue of $550,000.

“The beaches are some of the prettiest beaches I’ve seen in the whole world,” said Scott Jenkins. “You’ve got these cute little beach towns. Each one has its own character. It’s kind of like East Hampton.” 

Write to Libertina Brandt at [email protected]