Let’s just answer the question: how much does it actually cost to live at Esplanade at Kingston, beyond your mortgage payment? Short answer — somewhere between about $7,700 and $12,000 a year in HOA and CDD fees, depending on your lot size, plus a handful of one-time fees at closing. Here’s exactly where that comes from, straight from the community’s own fee sheet as of August 31, 2026. Worth remembering these numbers can change, so always double-check current figures with the association before you write an offer.
Here’s What You’ll Pay Each Year, by Lot Size
Esplanade splits its yearly costs into three pieces: the HOA assessment, a separate landscaping and irrigation assessment, and the CDD assessment (more on what that actually is in a second). Add in the community’s $800 minimum for food and drinks at the clubhouse, and here’s your real annual number by lot size:
| Lot Size | Association Assessment | Landscape & Irrigation | CDD Assessment* | Est. Annual Total† |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47′ Lot | $4,304.52 | $1,512.00 | $1,699.47 | $8,315.99 |
| 52′ Lot | $4,762.56 | $1,725.00 | $1,872.34 | $9,159.90 |
| 62′ Lot | $5,678.36 | $1,915.00 | $2,218.09 | $10,611.45 |
| 72′ Lot | $6,594.28 | $2,000.00 | $2,563.83 | $11,958.11 |
| Villa | $3,663.52 + $680.00‡ | $1,200.00 | $1,371.01 | $7,714.53 |
*The CDD portion gets billed with your property taxes — pay in November and you get a 4% discount, December is 3%, January is 2%, and February is 1%. Wait until March and you pay it in full. ‡Villa owners pay a little extra toward maintaining, and eventually repainting and re-roofing, the shared villa buildings. †These totals include the $800 food & beverage minimum, but not utilities or insurance, since those depend on your own usage.
Wait, What’s a CDD?
If you haven’t bought new construction in Florida before, the CDD is usually the part that throws people. Here’s the plain-English version: a CDD (Community Development District) is basically a small local government that Florida lets developers set up to pay for a new community’s roads, drainage, and other infrastructure up front, instead of everyone waiting years for the county to get around to it. The community borrows the money to build all of that, and homeowners pay it back a little at a time through the CDD assessment on their tax bill.
It’s completely normal — almost every large new community built in Lee and Collier County over the last couple decades has one. It’s not part of your HOA; it’s a separate charge that rides along with your property taxes. The good news is that part of it — the piece paying off the original construction debt — actually goes away eventually, usually after 20 to 30 years. The maintenance piece sticks around for as long as the CDD exists, since it stays responsible for things like the neighborhood’s lakes, drainage, and the roads it owns.
The One-Time Fees at Closing
On top of the yearly costs, plan on a handful of one-time fees at closing — nothing crazy, but worth budgeting for. Altogether it comes to roughly $11,350 to $11,649, depending on whether a lender estoppel is required: a $5,000 community contribution and a $2,000 builder fee, both paid to the seller; a $1,500 irrigation connection fee; a $200 panther mitigation fee (a Florida habitat requirement, not anything specific to your home); a $2,500 initiation fee for the amenity campus; and a $150 transfer fee for the management company. Financing through a third-party lender? Add a $299 estoppel fee on top.
So What Do You Actually Get for All This?
Honestly, once you see what’s included, it starts to make a lot more sense. Your dues cover the resort-style pool, the Bahama Bar — Esplanade’s outdoor pool bar that doubles as where most of the social life happens, sunset parties and live music included — tennis, pickleball, and bocce courts, the Wellness Center with The Spa and a full gym, and the Culinary Center, home to Olive & Vine today and eventually a second, more formal restaurant with a wine room and teaching kitchen. There’s also Toasted Café for coffee, an amenity center for events and activities, and a walking trail tying the whole campus together.
Running all of that takes people, and that’s really what a good chunk of your dues goes toward: the gate, your lawn mowing and irrigation, a professional management company, the staff who actually run the restaurants and amenity center day to day, and — per Taylor Morrison’s plans for the community — a lifestyle team whose whole job is planning events and keeping the social calendar full. Part of your dues also builds up reserves, so when it’s time to repaint a building or resurface the courts, the association already has the money set aside instead of hitting everyone with a surprise bill.
A couple of things worth knowing on the flip side: if your lawn or landscaping actually dies, replacing it is on you — routine mowing and care is covered, but not replacement. And day-to-day items like your water, sewer, trash, internet, cable, and your own homeowners and flood insurance are on you too, same as anywhere else.
None of this is meant to scare you off — Esplanade is genuinely one of the most amenity-packed communities I show buyers, and these numbers are pretty in line with what you’d pay for a similar lifestyle anywhere else in Southwest Florida. I just think you deserve to see the real numbers before you’re sitting at the closing table, not after. If you want to run these against a specific home you’re considering, or see how it stacks up next to Kingston South, just give me a call.
