A homeowner in St. Petersburg wants a small second home behind her house, for a parent or for a tenant. Before she calls anyone, she types a question into Google, or asks an AI assistant: "can I build an ADU in St. Petersburg?" An ADU is an accessory dwelling unit: a second small home on the same lot as the main house. Her question names a city, and with good reason, because in Florida the answer is written in the code of the county or city where the lot is.
The state statute on ADUs leaves the decision to each local government, and a bill to change this failed in 2026. For a small builder, this fact about the law is also a fact about marketing. Your future clients ask about one place at a time, and for each place your website either has a page with the answer or has nothing to show.
One caution before we begin: laws and local codes change, so read the current statute and the local code yourself, or ask the building department, before you quote a rule to a client.
What does Florida law say about ADUs?
The statute is section 163.31771 of the Florida Statutes. It defines an accessory dwelling unit as "an ancillary or secondary living unit, that has a separate kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area, existing either within the same structure, or on the same lot, as the primary dwelling unit." The term therefore covers a unit inside the main house as well as a separate cottage on the lot.
Subsection (3) reads: "A local government may adopt an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units in any area zoned for single-family residential use." The verb is "may". A county or a city is free to adopt such an ordinance, and the statute sets no date for doing so.
Subsection (4) adds a condition that a homeowner should hear from you early: "An application for a building permit to construct an accessory dwelling unit must include an affidavit from the applicant which attests that the unit will be rented at an affordable rate" to a person in one of four income groups that the statute names, the highest of which is moderate income. An affidavit is a signed, sworn statement. The statute defines an affordable rental by a limit: monthly rent and utilities may not exceed 30 percent of the income figure the law uses for those groups.
The section was last amended by chapter 2020-27 of the Laws of Florida. The 2026 Florida Statutes show no later change.
Did the 2026 Legislature require every city to allow ADUs?
A bill to do so passed the Senate and failed in the House. Senate Bill 48 of 2026 would have replaced "may adopt" with "shall adopt": by December 1, 2026, every county and city would have had to adopt an ordinance allowing ADUs in single-family zones without a public hearing. The Senate passed it 38 to 0 on February 4, 2026. The Florida Senate's bill page records its last action, on March 13, 2026, as "Died in Messages" in the House. The bill never became law.
The same bill page names a housing bill that did pass: House Bill 1389, now chapter 2026-179, in force since July 1, 2026. We read that chapter law: it changes the Live Local Act, which we describe below, and it leaves section 163.31771 as it was.
So, as of September 29, 2026, Florida has no statewide ADU requirement. Whether a lot may have a second unit is decided by each county and each city, separately.
Does the Live Local Act allow an ADU or a duplex on a single-family lot?
The Live Local Act, first passed in 2023 and amended in every year since, applies to other land. Under section 166.04151(7) for cities and section 125.01055(7) for counties, a local government must allow multifamily and mixed-use residential projects on land zoned commercial, industrial or mixed use, if at least 40 percent of the units are rentals kept affordable for at least 30 years. Approval is given by staff without a board vote, and the whole subsection expires on October 1, 2033.
A single-family lot is outside this law, and so is an ADU. A small builder would use the Live Local Act only for a rental project on commercial, industrial or mixed-use land, with at least 40 percent of the units affordable.
Can a factory-built home go on a single-family lot?
Section 553.385, created in 2026 by chapters 2026-7 and 2026-63, covers a home that is built in whole or in part off site, is intended for single-family use, and is treated as real property. Such a home "must be permitted as of right in any zoning district where single-family detached dwellings are allowed." The phrase "as of right" means that the zoning itself allows the use, with no special approval needed. A local government may still apply design standards such as roof pitch, exterior materials and setbacks, provided that it applies them equally to site-built homes in the same district.
For a builder who offers factory-built homes, this statewide rule deserves a page of its own. The section covers single-family use in single-family districts; whether a second unit may stand on the same lot remains the local ADU question.
What do the permit counts show about small multi-unit building in Florida?
The U.S. Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey counts new residential buildings by the number of homes in each one. Its annual files have columns for buildings with one unit, two units, three to four units, and five or more units; an ADU has no column of its own. The figures are estimates that include imputed values (figures that Census fills in) for places that did not report.
| Florida, statewide | 2024 | 2025 | |---|---|---| | Single-family buildings | 123,359 | 111,173 | | Two-unit buildings (units) | 1,011 (2,022) | 1,323 (2,644) | | Three-to-four-unit buildings (units) | 246 (929) | 370 (1,405) |
Single-family buildings fell by 12,186 from 2024 to 2025. In the same year, two-unit buildings rose by 312 and three-to-four-unit buildings rose by 124.
| Metro area | Single-family 2024 | Single-family 2025 | Two-unit 2024 | Two-unit 2025 | Three-to-four-unit 2024 | Three-to-four-unit 2025 | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | 5,825 | 5,873 | 201 | 250 | 33 | 102 | | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | 13,205 | 13,596 | 76 | 114 | 13 | 39 | | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | 15,364 | 14,198 | 48 | 66 | 42 | 14 | | Jacksonville | 12,936 | 9,512 | 59 | 102 | 51 | 10 | | North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota | 10,889 | 11,297 | 26 | 134 | 20 | 55 | | Naples-Marco Island | 2,466 | 1,945 | 6 | 4 | 18 | 15 |
Both small multi-unit counts rose in the Miami, Tampa and North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota metro areas. In the city table, each cell gives single-family buildings, then two-unit buildings, then three-to-four-unit buildings.
| City | 2024 | 2025 | Months the city reported in 2025 | |---|---|---|---| | Jacksonville-Duval County | 5,037 / 47 / 34 | 3,611 / 13 / 0 | 12 | | Tampa | 912 / 7 / 0 | 948 / 7 / 0 | 12 | | Orlando | 914 / 8 / 1 | 945 / 6 / 1 | 12 | | St. Petersburg | 560 / 35 / 0 | 629 / 44 / 5 | 12 | | Fort Lauderdale | 227 / 14 / 0 | 262 / 24 / 3 | 12 | | Sarasota | 126 / 0 / 0 | 168 / 0 / 0 | 12 | | Miami | 145 / 73 / 5 | 152 / 91 / 6 | 12 | | Naples | 132 / 1 / 0 | 117 / 1 / 0 | 0 |
Naples reported 0 months in 2025 and 4 months in 2024, so its 2025 figures are fully imputed by Census and its 2024 figures are imputed for the 8 months it did not report.
Look at the city of Miami: 91 two-unit buildings in 2025 beside 152 single-family buildings. St. Petersburg went from 35 two-unit buildings to 44.
Why does a local rule become a local search?
Because the answer depends on the address. With no statewide rule to quote, the useful question names the place: "can I build an ADU in Sarasota", "garage apartment rules in Fort Lauderdale", "ADU builder in Pinellas County".
How do people begin when they look for a home? The National Association of REALTORS asked buyers who bought between July 2023 and June 2024. As a first step, 43 percent looked online for properties, and 1 percent contacted a builder or visited builder models. The internet is where 51 percent found the home they bought; 5 percent found it through a home builder or the builder's agent. The survey is national and describes home buyers, the nearest measured group to a builder's clients that we found.
But why does this matter to a builder of ADUs? Because for the largest group of buyers the first step is taken on a screen, before any phone call. Google's own beginner guide to search engine optimization (usually shortened to SEO: the work of making a website findable in search results) gives the instruction in one sentence: "Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content." In Florida, for ADUs, those words include the name of a county or a city.
What should the page for each city or county say?
We state no Florida city's ADU rule in this post, for a plain reason: we have not read each city's ordinance, and a rule repeated without reading the code can be wrong. You know which places you serve, so you can read each code yourself. For each place, the steps are these.
- Find the ADU section in that county's or city's land development code, and confirm with the planning or building department that it is the current text.
- Write the page title as the question, with the place in it, for example "Can I build an ADU in (your city)?"
- Answer in the first paragraph: say whether the place has adopted an ADU ordinance, and in which zoning districts it applies.
- State each condition the code sets, with its section number, in the code's own terms.
- Explain the state affidavit in section 163.31771(4), because it belongs to the permit application.
- Link to the ordinance itself, and write the date on which you last checked it.
- Show an ADU you have built in that place, with its size and the time from permit to completion.
Two of our guides explain this work in more detail: ADU and middle housing pages for builders and pages for each area you serve.
How do you write a page for each place without making what Google calls doorway pages?
Google's spam policies define the fault in two sentences: "Doorway abuse is when sites or pages are created to rank for specific, similar search queries. They lead users to intermediate pages that aren't as useful as the final destination." To rank means to appear high in the list of results. One of Google's own examples is a set of pages aimed at specific regions or cities that all send the visitor on to one page.
The ADU page described above is the contrary case. The rule of that city is on the page, so the page is the destination. And Florida law helps the honest builder here: since each place sets its own rule, each page has something different to say. Our post on pages for every town you serve and Google's rules explains where Google places the limit.
What do builders' websites show today? On September 29, 2026, we read 80 small builder websites in Arizona and Florida, wrote one note per site and kept it only when a second reading confirmed it, so every count is a minimum. At least 5 of the 80 had no page for any city or area served linked from the homepage. At least 12 had a homepage title or main heading that named no service or no city. One general contractor's homepage title and main heading said "General Contractor" and left out the custom homes and the ADUs the business builds. Google's guide says "a good title is unique to the page, clear and concise, and accurately describes the contents of the page."
Do Google's AI answers need something different from this page?
Google says they need nothing more. AI Overviews and AI Mode are the AI answers inside Google Search, and Google's page on them states: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."
The AI-readiness part of our free Get Found Check looks at seven things, and three of them describe the page above: question-and-answer content, cited sources and figures, and content that answers specific questions directly.
Which other local questions should a Florida builder answer?
After a hurricane, the questions are how long a permit takes, how high the floor must be, and what the 50 percent rule means for a repair; our second Florida post sets out the permit, flood and rebuild rules a builder's website should explain. For the full plan, read our guide to marketing for home builders and our page on search work for home builders.
Licheo does this work as one service in three parts: we build the website, we make it findable on Google and citable by AI assistants, and we make each page tell a visitor what you do, why to trust you and what to do next. It is one flat monthly fee, month to month, with no contract; contact us for pricing.
To check your own site today, run the free Get Found Check. You enter your website address, and in under 60 seconds you receive a letter grade from A to F, findings in six areas, and a separate grade for readiness for AI assistants. It reads one page, so the grade is a place to start.
Sources
- Section 163.31771, Florida Statutes: Accessory dwelling units, The Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine), 2026 Florida Statutes, accessed 29 September 2026.
- CS/CS/SB 48: Housing (2026), The Florida Senate, last action March 13, 2026, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Chapter 2026-179, Laws of Florida (House Bill 1389), Florida Department of State, approved June 26, 2026, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Section 166.04151, Florida Statutes: Affordable housing (cities), The Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine), 2026 Florida Statutes, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Section 125.01055, Florida Statutes: Affordable housing (counties), The Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine), 2026 Florida Statutes, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Section 553.385, Florida Statutes: Zoning of off-site constructed residential dwellings; parity, The Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine), 2026 Florida Statutes, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Building Permits Survey, state annual file 2024, U.S. Census Bureau, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Building Permits Survey, state annual file 2025, U.S. Census Bureau, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Building Permits Survey, metro area annual file 2024/cbsa2024a.txt), U.S. Census Bureau, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Building Permits Survey, metro area annual file 2025/cbsa2025a.txt), U.S. Census Bureau, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Building Permits Survey, South Region place annual file 2024, U.S. Census Bureau, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Building Permits Survey, South Region place annual file 2025, U.S. Census Bureau, accessed 29 September 2026.
- 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, National Association of REALTORS Research Group, April 1, 2025, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central, last updated August 28, 2026, accessed 29 September 2026.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, Google Search Central, last updated December 10, 2025, accessed 29 September 2026.
- AI features and your website, Google Search Central, last updated December 10, 2025, accessed 29 September 2026.