VillageWalk of Bonita Springs

VillageWalk of Bonita Springs is 1,655 homes inside the city limits of Bonita Springs, in Lee County. DiVosta built them between 2004 and 2015, and the community is finished: every lot carries a completed house, and nothing new is going up. Behind the one gate there are three kinds of home: detached houses, attached villas built in pairs, and two-story townhomes.

The thing buyers misread here is the maintenance. Lawn care comes with the house, and the outside of the house does not. Under the declaration you paint and clean your own exterior walls and clean your own roof, whichever of the three you buy. Lawn care included isn't the same as maintenance-free, and the difference is yours to budget for.

What does the association fee pay for?

The fee is around $550 a month, billed quarterly on the first of January, April, July and October. It's set by home style rather than by the individual house, in six published tiers running from the townhomes at the bottom to the largest detached homes at the top. One association covers the whole community: one set of documents, one board, one bill, and no second assessment from a neighborhood association on top.

The association buys lawn maintenance, irrigation, internet and cable television in bulk for every home, and those are the largest things the fee pays for. The landscape contract alone is about a third of the annual budget. The association puts it this way: "Your home's lawn maintenance, irrigation, internet and cable TV are all provided by the Homeowners Association."

For 2026 the board raised the fee by roughly 8 to 11 percent depending on the tier, and more than doubled what the budget transfers into the replacement fund. Read the approved budget for the year you buy in, because a figure printed on a listing may be an older one carried forward.

Can you buy here and move straight in?

No. The association takes an application with the sales contract attached, runs a background check, and the board approves the buyer before anyone occupies the house. It has 30 business days to decide, a non-refundable application fee is due when the application goes in, and that wait belongs in the closing date.

There is money due at the closing table too, and it isn't shown on the listing. The association charges a fee when a home changes hands, so ask the management office what is payable before you sign.

When an application comes in, the association inspects the property for outstanding violations and tells the seller to put right anything it finds before closing. Ask what that inspection turned up.

How hard is it to rent one out?

Hard, by design. The declaration sets a floor of four months on any lease and caps the home at three leases in any 12-month period. Every lease and every renewal needs the association's prior written approval. A tenant application, a fee and board approval all come first, so weekly and monthly vacation rentals are out.

Pets are allowed. The declaration permits dogs, cats and other domestic household animals, with no breed list and no weight limit, leashed in the common areas and cleaned up after.

Where does everybody park?

A garage or a driveway, and overnight those are the only two options. The members tightened the rule by amendment in March 2023, and it is stricter than most buyers expect:

• Nothing parks overnight on the roads, or anywhere that is not a garage, a driveway or a spot the board has designated.
• The designated overnight spots are for guests only. An owner's car or a tenant's car may not use them, and that includes the roadside cut-outs by the townhomes.
• Into the garage: commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles, trailers, campers, boats, watercraft, motorcycles and boat trailers, unless the board says otherwise.

So count the cars against the garage spaces before offering, because a household with more vehicles than the garage holds has a problem here.

What is at the Town Center?

The association owns the Town Center and runs it, on a lake at the middle of the community. It holds a heated pool, a playground, a fitness center and courts for bocce, basketball, pickleball and tennis. A restaurant, a bagel shop, a hair salon and a spa trade from the building as tenants. Entry is controlled around the clock at a gatehouse the association pays a guard service to staff.

That water is an interior lake. Not one of the homes has a dock or a seawall behind it.

What are the homes like?

The mix is about 60% detached houses, about 26% attached villas built in pairs and about 14% townhomes. Count on 2 to 4 bedrooms, with floor areas starting at about 1,400 square feet and stopping at about 2,700. Every one of the 1,655 homes has a garage, and about half have a pool of their own.

Detached houses have sold from the $420,000s, with the top of that band around $900,000. Attached villas and townhomes have sold from the $310,000s, topping out around $550,000. One number covering all three averages homes that do not trade together, so settle on which one you are shopping for before comparing anything.

The Town Center also has a filling station, run by the association, with a touchless car wash beside it and a post office counter in the same building.