Renting in Arcadia Lakes? Here's What You Need to Know Before You Sign

Arcadia Lakes Rental Market Overview

Arcadia Lakes' population has barely moved across six decades of census counts: 316 in 1960 (the year after incorporation), a jump to 741 by 1970, then settling into a narrow band -- 899 in 1990, 882 in 2000, 861 in 2010, and 865 in 2020, per the Census Bureau's decennial counts as reflected on the town's own Wikipedia entry. That stability tracks a town that's essentially built out: nearly two-thirds of its 0.66 square miles is developed as single-family residential, per its own comprehensive plan, and 2024 estimates put the median household income at $106,690 (up from $66,382 in 2000) against a median home value near $395,526 -- a genuinely affluent, aging enclave (median resident age 65.6, more than 20 years above South Carolina's statewide median). Against that backdrop, this guide could not identify a single apartment or condominium community with an address confirmed inside Arcadia Lakes' town limits. National rental aggregators do list dozens of "Arcadia Lakes" apartment results, but a Census Bureau jurisdiction lookup on several of the most-cited addresses -- Springtree Apartments (250 Springtree Dr) and Mill Run Apartments (7502 Hunt Club Rd), both in the 29223 ZIP code several miles northeast -- places them outside any incorporated municipality entirely, in unincorporated Richland County, not inside the actual town. The closest thing to a verified in-town rental this guide found is an individually owned single-family house: a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home at 135 Arcadia Springs Circle, listed at $1,795/month, which does resolve to Arcadia Lakes via the same Census Bureau method.

Common Lease Terms in Arcadia Lakes

With no apartment or condo community confirmed inside town limits, there's no standardized community lease to describe -- rentals here are individually owned single-family homes, leased directly by an owner or a property manager rather than a corporate leasing office:

• The one confirmed in-town rental this guide located, 135 Arcadia Springs Circle, is a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom single-family house listed at $1,795/month; the listing aggregator did not publish lease-length, pet, or fee terms.
• A second nearby house, 332 Eagle Feather Loop, lists at $1,995/month for 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms with pets welcome -- but it carries the identical "Columbia, SC 29206" mailing address as the Arcadia Springs Circle listing, and a Census Bureau jurisdiction lookup places it inside Columbia city, not Arcadia Lakes, so its terms aren't treated here as representative of the town itself.
• Because individual owners set their own terms property by property, there's no single "typical" lease length, deposit amount, or pet policy to benchmark against in Arcadia Lakes the way a multi-building community would offer -- each listing needs to be read on its own.
• No property management company or corporate landlord operating multiple Arcadia Lakes addresses was identified in this guide's research.

Local Tenant Protections

South Carolina law provides the baseline for tenant rights, but Arcadia Lakes may have additional local ordinances that affect your lease.

• No local rent control; South Carolina Code §27-39-60 expressly bars any county or municipality, Arcadia Lakes included, from regulating rent on privately owned residential property.
• No ordinance was found among the Town of Arcadia Lakes' 9 published ordinance chapters (General, Government, Public Safety, Building Regulation, Planning & Zoning, Health & Sanitation, Taxes/Franchises/Business License, Storm & Sediment, Streets & Sidewalks) that creates landlord-tenant rights or remedies beyond South Carolina's statewide baseline below.
• Arcadia Lakes has no municipal property tax and no police department of its own -- law enforcement runs through the Richland County Sheriff's Office and most municipal services run through intergovernmental agreements with Richland County, per the town's own site.

For full South Carolina statewide tenant rights, see our South Carolina tenant rights guide.

Mandatory Fees for Arcadia Lakes Rentals

No published fee schedule exists for either confirmed Arcadia Lakes-area listing, as of September 2026 -- unsurprising for individually owned homes rather than a managed community.

• Neither 135 Arcadia Springs Circle nor 332 Eagle Feather Loop publishes an application fee, pet fee, or move-in fee schedule on the aggregator listing where this guide found them; 332 Eagle Feather Loop's listing does note "pets welcome" without stating a pet deposit or rent amount.
• South Carolina law sets no statutory cap on application fees, pet fees, or administrative fees for residential rentals -- whatever a specific lease states is what governs.
• With an individual owner rather than a management company on the other side of the lease, confirming any fee directly, in writing, before applying is the only way to know the real total cost of an Arcadia Lakes-area rental.

Arcadia Lakes Market Dynamics

Arcadia Lakes sits on a 2,288-acre tract once known as the Douglas mill tract in the 1880s -- agricultural land dotted with lakes and pine forest that early Columbia families began settling as a retreat from the city starting in the early 1900s, per the town's own history page. A petition filed October 9, 1959 led to an incorporation vote of 46 in favor to 30 opposed on October 30, 1959, certified by South Carolina's Secretary of State days later; the 1960 census then counted 316 residents. During the mid-1960s the town drew a zoning map setting aside two residential districts (today's RS-1 and RS-2) and one small commercial section, later amended to allow planned unit developments -- a structure still visible today, since nearly two-thirds of the town's land remains single-family residential. The one commercial property this guide could confirm sits inside town limits via a Census Bureau jurisdiction lookup is the Arcadia Lakes Shopping Center, a roughly 36,884-square-foot strip retail center at 6432 Two Notch Road built in 1986, whose tenants (per a 2025 commercial listing) include Rent-A-Center, Pizza Hut, Boost Mobile, and Heights Finance alongside smaller local operators, running about 75% occupied at rents averaging $10 per square foot against an estimated $18-20 per square foot market rate. The town's namesake lakes have also drawn real development pressure at their edges: the South Carolina Environmental Law Project's "Arcadia Lakes" case challenged a state stormwater permit for a proposed high-density apartment complex on a 15-acre tract bordering the town, over a shallow pond feeding the Gills Creek watershed that runs through Arcadia Lakes' own chain of lakes -- the permit was ultimately upheld and the project built before the litigation concluded, illustrating that development pressure near the town's water features doesn't necessarily stop at its own boundary.

Common Issues Renters Face Near Arcadia Lakes

These are the most frequent considerations this guide's research turned up for anyone renting in or near Arcadia Lakes:

• Multiple national rental aggregators return "Arcadia Lakes" apartment results by ZIP code or neighborhood label rather than actual town boundary -- a Census Bureau jurisdiction lookup on two of the most-cited complexes, Springtree Apartments and Mill Run Apartments (both ZIP 29223), places both in unincorporated Richland County, several miles from the real town, not inside it.
• Even a genuine single-family address can mislead: 135 Arcadia Springs Circle and 332 Eagle Feather Loop both carry an identical "Columbia, SC 29206" mailing address, yet only the first resolves to Arcadia Lakes town -- the second resolves to Columbia city.
• Checking Arcadia Lakes' own Town Hall address (6911 N Trenholm Road) against the Census Bureau's free public geocoder does not return a match inside the town's own incorporated boundary -- most likely an artifact of the geocoder's address-range interpolation, whose margin of error can exceed a town this small (0.66 square miles), rather than genuine evidence Town Hall sits outside its own town. It's a useful caution on its own: for a town this tiny, treat any single geocoder result near a boundary as a data point to double-check, not a final answer.
• Because no apartment community or corporate landlord operates inside town limits, a renter can't fall back on a leasing office's standard terms or fee schedule the way a typical apartment search would allow -- every listing here needs individual verification with the owner.

Negotiating Your Lease in Arcadia Lakes

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Arcadia Lakes' near-total lack of a distinct rental market means there's no in-town benchmark to negotiate against.

• Confirming that a specific address actually sits inside Arcadia Lakes, rather than a similarly labeled Richland County listing miles away, is worth doing before assuming any town-specific fact applies to it.
• Because listings here are individually owned rather than community-managed, negotiating lease length, pet terms, or a move-in date directly with the owner is more attainable than it would be with a corporate leasing office working from a fixed template.
• Comparable rent data from neighboring Forest Acres or Columbia is a more useful benchmark than any Arcadia Lakes-specific figure, given how few confirmed in-town rentals exist to compare against.
• Written, itemized confirmation of any application, pet, or move-in fee is worth requesting before applying, since neither confirmed listing publishes one.

A "Columbia, SC 29206" mailing address covering an Arcadia Lakes-area listing doesn't confirm which government -- Arcadia Lakes or Columbia -- actually has jurisdiction over that specific address, as this guide's own side-by-side check of two nearly identical listings found.