Developer HTG has broken ground on Kissimmee Cove, a 73-unit affordable housing community going up at 1790 N Hoagland Blvd that will set aside every apartment for income-qualifying renters, with monthly rents ranging from roughly $592 to $1,660. The project arrives as one-bedroom rents in the surrounding submarket average more than $1,500 a month, putting Kissimmee Cove's lowest rents at a fraction of what's typical nearby.
According to Connect CRE, the complex will deliver 62 one-bedroom apartments and 11 two-bedroom apartments, all reserved for income-qualifying residents. The outlet reports that units will come with full-size appliances and energy-efficient windows, standard touches that aren't always guaranteed in subsidized housing stock.
Beyond the apartments themselves, Kissimmee Cove is slated to include a multipurpose club room with a community kitchen, a fitness center, a cybercafe and a swimming pool with a barbecue area, the report notes. A number of social services will also be offered on-site, according to the same account.
How the Project Is Being Paid For
Financing for Kissimmee Cove is a patchwork of public and private sources. Per the Connect CRE report, the project includes an $8.4 million CDBG-DR loan, a $12 million construction loan from Fifth Third Commercial Funding, and a $6.57 million permanent loan from Grandbridge arranged through Freddie Mac.
The deal also relies on $9.37 million in Florida Housing Finance Corporation tax credits syndicated by Raymond James, the outlet reports. A separate listing from bldup.com confirms the project as an affordable, 73-unit multifamily development in Kissimmee.
A Rental Market Still Under Pressure
Kissimmee Cove is landing in a market where affordability has become a persistent squeeze, even as headline rent figures have softened. Apartment List's October data shows the city's median rent at $1,389, down 0.5% from the prior month and 2.8% year over year — a decline that actually outpaces both the Florida average of negative 1.2% and the national average of negative 0.4%, according to Apartment List. Kissimmee's median also sits 8.1% below the broader Orlando metro median of $1,511, with Maitland posting the metro's highest median rent at $1,921 and Sanford the lowest at $1,385, per the same source.
Yet falling averages haven't translated into relief for lower-income renters. The Orlando Sentinel reported in July that the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment across Central Florida stood at $1,600, and that Orange County alone has an estimated 71,000 low-income, cost-burdened renters paying more than 40% of their household income toward housing.
Part of a Broader Regional Push
Kissimmee Cove joins a string of recent affordable developments across Central Florida aimed at closing that gap. The Sentinel noted that four complexes backed by Orange County's Affordable Housing Trust Fund opened in 2026, adding 542 subsidized apartments to the market, after the county allocated $58.5 million over three years in 2025 to help finance and preserve affordable housing. One of those projects, the Enclave at Canopy Park, offers 104 one- and two-bedroom units with rents between $400 and $1,500 depending on household income, with about half already occupied as of the Sentinel's reporting.
A similar project has also taken shape elsewhere in the state. In St. Augustine, a 92-unit development accepting applications offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units for residents earning 60% or less of the Area Median Income, with rents starting around $634 a month and rising to about $1,600 for a three-bedroom, according to Planetizen.
How Eligibility and Rents Get Set
Projects like Kissimmee Cove operate under rules set at the federal and state level rather than by the developer alone. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notes that for low-income housing tax credit units, a household must make no more than the income limit tied to a given unit to qualify, and that rents are set by those use restrictions rather than by what an individual tenant earns — with HUD also noting that LIHTC property owners accept Section 8 voucher tenants.
The Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which administers the tax credits backing part of Kissimmee Cove's financing, says its income and rent limits are drawn from figures supplied by HUD and are updated as new schedules are issued. Under the agency's 2026 schedule, Osceola County — part of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro area — carries a median income of $97,600, the benchmark against which affordability thresholds for projects like this one are measured.
