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

Pamplico Rental Market Overview

Pamplico is a small Florence County town of 1,061 residents (2020 Census), and its rental market is correspondingly thin -- thin enough that this guide could confirm only one apartment community operating inside town limits as of September 2026. That property, Pembrook Apartments at 464 E Sixth Ave, is not an open-market community: it runs on a USDA Rural Development Section 515 loan combined with Low-Income Housing Tax Credit financing, 21 of its 24 units carry project-based Rental Assistance that caps a qualifying tenant's rent at 30% of adjusted household income, and its own listing through management company CAHEC Management says only "Call for Rents." A 2021 South Carolina Housing market feasibility study prepared for the property proposed contract rents of $470-$634 for one-bedroom units and $527-$702 for two-bedroom units -- underwriting figures from a financing application, not a live quote, and now several years old. Separately, city-data.com's Census-modeled estimate puts Pamplico's town-wide median gross rent at $651/month as of 2024, a statistical area-wide figure rather than a rent quoted by any specific identified property. The one other in-town rental this guide could locate with an independently verifiable price, a single-family house at 215 W Coleman Ave listed on Zillow, was asking $1,400/month for 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths -- a single data point, not a market average, and worth treating as exactly that.

Common Lease Terms in Pamplico

With only one apartment community identified inside Pamplico, and no full lease document publicly available from it, what follows is what can be pieced together from that property's own program filings and from statewide default rules:

• Pembrook Apartments, built in 1985 as a two-story, 24-unit community, operates under USDA Rural Development Section 515 with Low-Income Housing Tax Credit financing, and 21 of its 24 units carry project-based Rental Assistance limiting a qualifying household's rent to 30% of adjusted income
• Units run 750 to 1,000 square feet per aggregator listings, and management is handled by CAHEC Management (phone 843-493-5898, email [email protected]) rather than an on-site independent landlord
• A 2021 South Carolina Housing market feasibility study proposed one-bedroom rents of $470-$634 and two-bedroom rents of $527-$702 as part of the property's own financing application -- underwriting figures, not confirmed current terms
• For any other rental arrangement in or near Pamplico -- most likely a privately owned single-family home, since no second apartment community was identified -- South Carolina's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act supplies the default terms absent anything more specific negotiated in writing

Local Tenant Protections

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

• No rental-registration, landlord-licensing, or other landlord-tenant ordinance specific to Pamplico could be located on Municode, eCode360, or any other public ordinance repository as of September 2026
• South Carolina law preempts local rent control statewide (S.C. Code §27-39-60) -- no South Carolina city or county, including Pamplico, may enact an ordinance regulating the rent charged on privately owned residential property
• Checking Pamplico Town Hall (180 W Main St), Pembrook Apartments (464 E Sixth Ave), and the one privately listed rental this guide identified on Zillow (215 W Coleman Ave) against the Census Bureau's public geocoder found all three resolve cleanly inside the incorporated Town of Pamplico -- a cleaner result than some other small Florence County towns this guide has checked, where an in-town mailing address turned out to sit on unincorporated county land instead

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

Mandatory Fees at Pamplico Communities

No open-market fee schedule could be independently verified for a Pamplico rental, since the one identified apartment community is federally rent-assisted rather than market-rate:

• Pembrook Apartments' own listing through CAHEC Management publishes unit count and program category but says only "Call for Rents" -- no application fee, pet fee, or deposit amount is published online
• The 2021 SC Housing feasibility study behind the property's financing lists proposed contract rents by unit type but not a separate fee schedule, and reflects underwriting assumptions from that filing rather than what a specific applicant would pay today
• For the one privately listed rental this guide found (215 W Coleman Ave), no fee schedule beyond the advertised monthly rent was published
• South Carolina law sets no statutory cap on application fees, pet fees, or administrative fees for a private-market rental -- whatever a specific lease states is what governs

A property running on Rental Assistance financing isn't a red flag -- it's simply a different pricing model than a market-rate apartment -- but it does mean the actual out-of-pocket cost depends entirely on a household's income calculation, which only the property's own leasing office can confirm.

What's Shaping Pamplico's Rental Market

Pamplico's Census-reported population has followed a clear arc: 452 residents in 1920, a rise to a peak of 1,314 in 1990, and a decline since -- 1,226 in 2010 and 1,061 in 2020, a real 13.5% drop in the most recent decade with no documented institutional-population mechanism (no prison, no group-quarters facility) behind it. City-data.com's 2024 Census-modeled estimates show a median household income of $36,132, roughly half South Carolina's $72,350 statewide figure, an overall poverty rate of 31.7% (7.3% among White residents and 51.8% among Black residents, a disparity worth noting plainly), and an April 2026 unemployment rate of 4.0% against South Carolina's 3.6%. The town's largest employment sectors among its own residents are health care and social assistance (16.7%), retail trade (16.4%), manufacturing (12.6%), and educational services (11.5%) -- a diversified, service-and-education-driven economy today, a considerable shift from the town's earlier identity.

That earlier identity ran through tobacco. Starting in 1884, Florence County farmer Frank M. Rogers helped introduce bright-leaf tobacco cultivation as an alternative to cotton, and by the 1950s and 1960s Pamplico had grown into one of South Carolina's largest tobacco markets, with manufacturers' buyers traveling from as far as Durham, North Carolina to bid at its warehouses. The town received its charter in 1910 and was formally incorporated in December 1916, per its own government, taking its name from Pamplico Branch, a creek that marked the western boundary of land once held by the Pee Dee Land and Development Company -- a name local historical sources trace back further to a Native American group that lived in the area. Today's Main Street corridor still carries small, long-standing businesses like Munn Hardware Co. and Service Motor Co. alongside a Pamplico IGA grocery and Wall Drugs of Pamplico pharmacy on South Walnut Street, and the town completed a state-commerce-department-funded Downtown Streetscape Project in 2010. South Carolina Highway 51, a secondary route to Myrtle Beach, still runs through the town center, and Pamplico's own government places it about 30 minutes from Florence, the county seat, and roughly an hour from Myrtle Beach.

Common Issues Renters Face in Pamplico

These are the most notable considerations this guide's research turned up for anyone looking to rent in Pamplico:

• Only one apartment community could be confirmed operating inside Pamplico as of September 2026, and it is federally rent-assisted rather than open-market, so there is no independent market-rate comparable to check a private landlord's asking rent against
• Pembrook Apartments' published rent figures come from a 2021 financing feasibility study rather than a current rent sheet -- worth confirming directly with CAHEC Management rather than assuming a several-year-old underwriting figure still applies
• National rental aggregators substantially overstate Pamplico's actual local market: ApartmentFinder's own Pamplico-scoped search returns exactly 1 property, matching this guide's own count, while other sites advertising 90 to 104 "apartments in Pamplico, SC" are searching a much wider county or metro radius rather than confirmed in-town inventory
• A town-wide median gross rent of $651/month (2024 ACS-modeled estimate) is a statistical average across all housing, not a figure tied to any specific identified rental -- there is no real per-unit comparison available beyond the single Zillow-listed house this guide found

Negotiating Your Lease in Pamplico

South Carolina is landlord-favorable with minimal statutory protections, and Pamplico's near-total lack of an open-market rental inventory means there is little published pricing to benchmark a specific offer against.

• Confirming current income limits, unit availability, and waitlist status directly with CAHEC Management is a reasonable first step for anyone considering Pembrook Apartments, given the most detailed published figures trace to a 2021 financing filing rather than a current rent sheet
• A written rent and fee breakdown from CAHEC Management, rather than relying on the "Call for Rents" listing alone, is more attainable before applying than after signing
• Comparing a quoted Pamplico-area rent against Florence or Lake City, both nearby South Carolina markets with more independently published pricing, is a reasonable way to gauge whether a private-market figure is reasonable for the region

A town with almost no confirmed open-market rental listings isn't a red flag on its own -- Pamplico is simply a very small town with a shrinking population -- but it does mean there's little published figure to check a private landlord's asking rent against, so getting any fee or term in writing before signing matters more here than in a market with public comparables.