Sell Your Commercial Property In Arkansas

The Arkansas rental market at a glance

Arkansas had 405,123 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 33.6% of 1,205,987 occupied homes. Buildings with five or more units hold 145,780 Arkansas housing units, 10.5% of the 1,394,673 total.

Arkansas rental vacancy was 6.4% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. The $947 median gross rent equals about 18.7% of the $60,773 median household income. Even so, 44.8% of Arkansas renter households paid 30% or more of income on rent, per table B25070.

Five-year trends in Arkansas

Arkansas median gross rent rose 27.1% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $745 to $947 a month. Median household income grew 27.7%, from $47,597 to $60,773. Incomes therefore kept pace with rents, finishing 0.6 percentage points ahead.

Arkansas added 6,507 renter households between the two periods, a 1.6% gain. Units in five-plus buildings rose 5.4%, adding 7,492 units. Population grew 1.7% to 3,049,391, and employment rose 2.9%.

Growth was concentrated in the northwest. Benton County rents rose 41.4% and its stock of five-plus unit buildings 33.7%. Pulaski County rents rose 25.4%, while its population grew only 1.7%.

Arkansas county comparison

Median gross rent in the three Arkansas counties profiled here runs from $1,071 in Washington County to $1,277 in Benton County. Rental vacancy runs from 4.2% in Washington County to 8.7% in Pulaski County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Washington County has the highest renter share, at 44.4%, while Pulaski County has the largest share of units in five-plus buildings, at 22.2%. Benton County posts the highest rents but the lowest renter share, at 33.0%.

Arkansas landlord, tax and transfer rules

Arkansas Code Section 14-54-1409 bars cities, and Section 14-16-601 bars counties, from controlling rent, application fees or rental deposits on private residential or commercial property. Act 459 of 2025 widened the fee and deposit limits. No local rent cap applies to Arkansas apartment buildings.

Section 18-16-304 caps an Arkansas security deposit at two months' rent, and Section 18-16-305 requires its return within 60 days after the tenancy ends. Individual owners of five or fewer units are exempt from that subchapter, so a buyer should confirm which side of the line a building sits on.

Arkansas Code Section 18-17-704 sets 30 days' written notice for month-to-month tenancies and 7 days' for week-to-week ones. Nonpayment cases begin with a three-day written notice to vacate, per the Arkansas Attorney General.

Section 18-17-502 implies six habitability standards in Arkansas leases signed or renewed after November 1, 2021. They cover water, electricity, sewer, roof, and heating and cooling already in place. A tenant's remedy is lease termination after 30 days' written notice, not withholding rent.

Arkansas assesses real property at 20% of market value as of January 1 under Section 26-26-303(c). The state Assessment Coordination Division treats multifamily housing as commercial property. Amendment 79 limits yearly growth in taxable value on non-homestead parcels to 10%.

A sale removes that cap. The new owner is assessed at 20% of full value starting the following January 1. Arkansas also charges a transfer tax of $3.30 per $1,000 of consideration on deeds above $100.

What this means if you sell in Arkansas

Owners who sell commercial property in Arkansas are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the reset tax bill. A building in Washington County, at 4.2% vacancy, reads differently to a buyer than one in Pulaski County at 8.7%.

Taxes and transfer costs deserve the closest look. Because a sale lifts the 10% cap, we model the buyer's post-sale assessment, not just your current bill. At $3.30 per $1,000, the transfer tax on a $2,000,000 sale is $6,600.

We review Arkansas buildings of five or more units in the three counties above and across the rest of Arkansas. Send the rent roll and the latest Arkansas tax statement, and we will set the property against these county figures.