Component Costs of Multifamily Development
A Brookings report breaks down the component costs for a mid-rise (four- to six-story) multifamily project into three categories (land costs, hard and soft costs) and estimates the contribution of each category to the total development costs as follows:
- Land acquisition accounts for roughly 10 to 20 percent of total development costs;
- Hard costs (construction labor and materials) account for roughly 50 to 70 of total costs; and
- Soft costs (all costs besides land and hard costs, including design, engineering, financing, permitting, and impact fees) average around 20 to 30 percent of total development costs.
These estimates may vary depending on factors such as geography, project type, project size and specific site characteristics.
The construction cost per square foot tends to be higher for taller structures which are typically built with concrete or steel (as opposed to wood). However, in part because of economies of scale, it costs almost as much to operate a 30- to 40-unit building as it does to operate a 100-unit building. This may explain why over 60 percent of new multifamily units completed in 2018 were in buildings with more than 50 units and only five percent were in buildings with less than ten units, according to the report.
Last Updated on May 24, 2020 by Ramin Seddiq