EVstudio has been involved in a significant number of multifamily projects, both for architectural design as well as engineering. All of these projects start with a pro forma and a fundamental question: How much does it cost to build a Multifamily Apartment building?
Because this is time sensitive data, we try to post as much information as we can on a regular basis in order to inform our clients’ programs. This post is relevant for 2012 and the data below is excerpted courtesy of RSMeans, the industry leader in construction cost estimating. These costs are for the construction of the buildings themselves, and do not include land costs, soft costs, financing costs or FF&E costs.
The Apartment buildings that we are studying in this post are 4-7 stories. Above is a chart, representing the construction cost per square foot for these projects, classified by region. Note, there are wide differences in cost depending on location, and New York City tops the chart at $232.14 per square foot while Winston-Salem is on the low end at $133.28 per square foot. The median falls around $178 per square foot.
It is important to note, however, that every project is unique, and index pricing cannot be relied upon solely for outlining your project budget. Many factors must be considered – not only geographic location. Building complexity, program, amenities and level of finish all serve to inform the estimated cost of the project and a qualified full service design firm like EVstudio can help design to your budget. If you would like to discuss your project, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we can help you with any phase from entitlements to architecture and engineering to final punchlist.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
is the $/sf based on net-rentable (NRSF) or gross-sf ?
Hi Brad,
All of these figures are based on gross square footage. Hope that helps!
-Dean
Does this include land costs? Also, you give costs per foot. What is the assumption on rental rate per foot?
John,
These figures are direct building costs and do not include land, financing, site improvements, soft costs or FF&E (for furnished apartments). The data does not consider rental rate as that is a variable that doesn’t affect cost of construction. Also, locale and type of product will considerably influence both construction costs (as you can see in the chart) as well as rental rates. We would be happy to discuss your project further with you and see how we might be able to serve your design needs.Just let me know how we can help!
-Dean
Hello Dean,
we are planning to build a Multi Family house in downtown Detroit. It will have 3 stories with 4 x 1-2 bedroom appartments for rent and one penthouse where we like to live.
All together the house will be around 8000 sq ft. The house is rectangular and will have a pitch metal roof. All in all it will be a very simple design.
What do you think will be the cost per sq ft???
Thanks and hve Happy Easter,
Connie
Connie,
Thanks for your question. The RSMeans numbers for Downtown Detroit hover around $180 per square foot for this type of building. You have fewer stories than the index data, which would tend to put upwards pressure on the construction cost per square foot, however your description of the project is that it would be simple, which could lower the cost expectations to some degree. With that said, I think you would fall somewhere between $160-$190 per square foot, or for 8,000 square feet, $1.3M-$1.5M project. Let us know how we might be able to help you move forward on the project. EVstudio has a multifamily studio which designs apartments across the country and in Canada, and would be happy to discuss this project further with you. Thanks!
I’m looking into building an apartment complex in NC. How much would it cost to build a 20 unit complex? Would it be more efficient to build 10 townhouses instead? And if I had a 3 million dollar budget, on average how many units could that generate? This is including the office and parking pavement.
Dominic,
Thanks for your inquiry. While a detailed response to your question would require much more information (unit mix, type, amenities, level of finish, etc), the simplest analysis would put your average unit size at 800-1000 sq.ft. including common space, yielding approximately 20,000 sq.ft. of building. A $3M budget would leave $150 per square foot for that, and you could get pretty nice units for that. Townhomes would not be as efficient in construction, but obviously, that is a different product for a different market, so may or may not look as good in your pro forma. But $3M for 10 Townhomes is a very generous budget. Let me know if you are working with a design team and we would be happy to discuss further. Multifamily projects is a specific strength within our team and we are licensed in most of North America. Thanks!
On multi-family projects, what trades do you consider to be land development or off-sites, that wouldn’t be typical of SFD? Trades such as flatwork, fencing, landscaping, utility trenching, etc? What budget are they included in and why?
Ashleigh,
The RSMeans numbers are for the buildings themselves, which would include any improvements to within 5′ of the structure (underground utilities or adjacent sidewalks for example). Site improvements vary considerably from one location to the next, and are not included in these numbers. So, exclusions to these figures would include site excavation, parking lot pavement, curb and gutter, on-site detention, site landscaping or outdoor amenities (pools, pavilions, gardens, etc.), underground utilities, fencing and offsite improvements to traffic control or access which is common to larger campus projects and higher densities. These costs should certainly be in a project’s pro forma, however, they’re not appropriate in a basic cost per square foot analysis such as this for the buildings because of the wide number of variables that would influence costs and skew the data away from the building costs as a function of their size alone. I hope that helps to answer your question. EVstudio specializes in multi-family projects and we would be happy to discuss a specific project in greater detail if you are looking for a design team. Thanks!