Conway is the unincorporated southeast Orlando community built around the Conway Chain of Lakes — about six miles from downtown, seven from Orlando International Airport, and the area Bear Team Real Estate has worked from for four decades. Our office sits on South Crystal Lake Drive, inside it.
Life in Conway is organized around the water. Four public ramps reach the chain — Randolph Avenue and Ferncreek in unincorporated Orange County, Perkins and Venetian operated by neighboring Belle Isle — and Lake Conway itself covers roughly 1,771 acres with a mean depth of about 23 feet. Barber Park on Gatlin Avenue, an 81-acre Orange County park, carries the area's non-water recreation: a dog park, skate park, pickleball and sand volleyball courts, a splash playground, and rental pavilions. The nearest Orange County Library System branch is the Southeast Branch on South Semoran Boulevard, just outside the community's boundary.
Location Context
Conway is a census-designated place in unincorporated Orange County, covering about 3.4 square miles of land per the 2020 Census. South Conway Road — signed as State Road 15 — runs north and south through it and gives the community its name. State Road 408, the East-West Expressway, crosses the northern edge with interchanges at Conway Road, Crystal Lake Drive and Bumby Avenue, putting downtown Orlando roughly twelve minutes away in free-flowing traffic and Orlando International Airport about seventeen. Because Conway is unincorporated, there is no city hall and no municipal police department: parks, boat ramps, environmental permitting and code enforcement all run through Orange County.
Housing Overview
Conway holds about 5,143 housing units, and the median one was built in 1975. Roughly three-quarters of the housing stock — about 74 percent — went up between 1950 and 1989, which is the single most useful fact about buying or selling here. Post-2010 construction is nearly nonexistent: fewer than thirty units in the whole community. This is an established area of detached houses, not a development pipeline. Just over 91 percent of units are single-family detached homes, one of the highest shares of any Orlando-area community, with small pockets of townhomes, low-rise condominiums and a modest number of mobile homes.
Detached single-family homes (about 91% of units)
Lakefront and canal-front homes on the Conway chain
1950s-1980s homes on established lots
Limited townhomes and low-rise condominiums
Occasional teardown and infill redevelopment
The Conway Chain of Lakes
Two bridges divide the chain into separate basins. Orange County’s code names them Little Lake Conway to the north, then the middle lobe of Lake Conway below the Hoffner Avenue bridge, then the south lobe below Nela Avenue. Which basin a property fronts decides where its dock can take you without a bridge transit.
This is the part of a Conway purchase that costs people money, and it is almost never explained before a contract. The chain is four connected bodies of water and Orange County's code names them precisely: Little Lake Conway at the north end, the middle lobe of Lake Conway below the Hoffner Avenue bridge, the south lobe below the Nela Avenue bridge, and Lake Gatlin to the west. Canals and under-road channels connect them — the Hoffner bridge carries a fender system, which tells you real vessel traffic passes beneath it — but which basin a house fronts still decides what its dock reaches without a bridge transit.
A private dock in unincorporated Conway is permitted by the Orange County Environmental Protection Division under Chapter 15, Article IX of the county code, and that approval has to come before the building permit. Applications inside the Lake Conway Water and Navigation Control District carry a minimum thirty-day review. Jurisdiction changes at the city line: the City of Belle Isle has its own dock ordinance, and whether a Belle Isle dock also needs county approval is genuinely unsettled in the published code — confirm with both EPD at (407) 836-1400 and Belle Isle City Hall before planning any dock work on that side.
A seawall is a much heavier lift than a dock and sellers routinely underestimate it. Building, replacing or hardening a shoreline requires a Shoreline Alteration / Dredge and Fill permit, which needs engineer-sealed plans, a site inspection, and approval at a Board of County Commissioners public hearing — then a thirty-day appeal period before the permit issues, and it is only valid for a year. That is a months-long path, not a pre-closing repair.
Two things worth budgeting for. Orange County has proposed steep increases to environmental permit fees that have not changed since 2007, with a phase-in proposed to begin in October 2026 — anyone planning dock or shoreline work should confirm the adopted figures rather than the old ones. And the county is rewriting its boating ordinance, with a final Board hearing scheduled for December 2026 that would add idle-speed and slow-speed zones across the Conway chain. Those zones are not law yet, and any source telling you otherwise is ahead of the county.
One myth worth killing: there is no local boat sticker for Lake Conway. Florida state vessel registration is all that is required to operate here — neither the navigation district, nor Orange County, nor Belle Isle imposes a local vessel registration. What people are thinking of is Belle Isle's ramp decal, and that is a parking permit for the tow vehicle at the Perkins ramp, not a registration for the boat.
Launching, and keeping a boat at the house
Four public ramps reach the chain. Randolph Avenue is open twenty-four hours for launching; Ferncreek runs sunrise to sunset; both are Orange County. Perkins and Venetian belong to Belle Isle — Perkins requires a resident parking decal for the tow vehicle and Venetian has no public parking at all. County ramp rules cap docking at a ramp to fifteen minutes and prohibit commercial activity, including picking up or dropping off passengers.
Keeping the boat at home is governed by Orange County's zoning code, and the limits are specific. On a lot of a quarter-acre or less you may keep two boats or boat trailers total, with one in the front yard; up to a half-acre allows three; over a half-acre allows four. Boats and trailers of twenty-four feet or under can sit in a garage, carport, driveway, or on an approved surface immediately contiguous to the driveway — not elsewhere in the front or side yard. Anything stored in the rear half behind the house has to be screened from the right-of-way and set back from the lot lines. Canoes, jon boats and sailboats sixteen feet or under, and personal watercraft, are not counted as boats for these purposes, and length is measured bow to stern excluding the motor.
If a boat, RV or trailer is part of why you want the property, check the lot size and the code together before you write the offer. It is a common and expensive surprise.
Buyer Considerations
—Which basin a property sits on matters. Orange County's code names them Little Lake Conway to the north, then the middle lobe of Lake Conway below the Hoffner Avenue bridge, then the south lobe below the Nela Avenue bridge, plus Lake Gatlin to the west. Waterfront value, boat access and navigability differ across those divisions — ask before assuming a dock reaches open water.
—Waterfront parcels fall under the Lake Conway Water and Navigation Control District, a dependent special district of Orange County created by special act of the Florida Legislature in the late 1950s. Its millage appears on the property tax bill and is not a city tax. Buyers relocating here regularly mistake it for one.
—Dock, seawall and shoreline work is permitted through the Orange County Environmental Protection Division under Chapter 15 of the county code, and applications inside the navigation district carry a minimum thirty-day review before a building permit can follow. Plan any dock project around that timeline rather than a closing date.
—With a median build year of 1975, roof age, electrical panels and plumbing materials drive insurability more than they do in newer Orlando suburbs. Get an insurance quote early in the inspection period, not at the end of it.
—Florida reassesses property at market value in the year following a sale, so the taxes a seller currently pays are not the taxes a buyer will pay. On long-held Conway properties — and many here are long-held — that gap can be substantial.
Seller Considerations
—Conway's scarcity of new construction is a selling point worth making explicit. A buyer who wants this location has almost no new-build alternative inside it.
—If the home is on the water, assemble the dock documentation before listing: permits, any navigation district correspondence, and seawall history. Buyers and their lenders ask, and gaps surface late.
—Homes built between 1950 and 1989 sell faster when the insurability questions are answered up front. A current four-point inspection and wind mitigation report, in hand at listing, removes the objection that most often stalls a Conway contract.
—Lot size and mature tree canopy are genuine differentiators against newer inventory further out, and they photograph better in some seasons than others. Timing the listing to the property is worth a conversation.
—Sellers moving within Florida should ask about transferring accumulated Save Our Homes benefit to the next homestead. It is not automatic, it is capped, and the filing deadline is March 1.
Nearby Amenities
✓Conway Chain of Lakes (Lake Conway, about 1,771 acres)
✓Barber Park, Gatlin Avenue — 81 acres, Orange County
✓Randolph Avenue Boat Ramp (Orange County)
✓Ferncreek Boat Ramp at Waterwitch Drive (Orange County)
✓Lake Gatlin (about 68 acres)
✓Orange County Library System, Southeast Branch
Transportation
✓South Conway Road (State Road 15)
✓State Road 408 (East-West Expressway) — Conway Road, Crystal Lake Drive and Bumby Avenue interchanges
✓State Road 528 (Beachline Expressway) toward the airport
✓Orlando International Airport — about 17 minutes
✓Downtown Orlando — about 12 minutes
Market information is provided for general education, may change without notice, and should be independently verified before making real estate decisions.
Curious About Conway?
Ask us anything — property types, timing, or how this community compares to others you're considering.
Belle Isle is its own incorporated city inside metropolitan Orlando — roughly 7,000 residents wrapped around the Conway Chain of Lakes, with more of its area under water than on land. It has been Bear Team territory for four decades.
Detached single-family homes (about 85% of units) · Lakefront homes on Lake Conway and Little Lake Conway · Pre-1940 homes — the oldest stock on the chain
Edgewood is the smallest of the three cities on the Conway chain — an incorporated city of about 2,758 people packed into roughly a square and a quarter of land on the chain's western side, with its own police department and city hall. Bear Team's office is a few minutes east of it.
Detached single-family homes (about 61% of units) · Townhomes, condominiums and small multi-family · 1970s homes — nearly half the city's stock
The City of Orlando is a municipality of about 320,000 people inside an Orange County of roughly 1.47 million — which means most addresses that read “Orlando, FL” are not in the city at all.
Historic bungalows and frame vernacular homes · Downtown high-rise condominiums · Mid-century ranch homes
