Sell Your Commercial Property In Georgia

The Georgia rental market at a glance

Georgia had 1,398,009 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 34.3% of 4,074,366 occupied homes. Owners hold the other 65.7%. Another 735,655 Georgia housing units, 16.2% of the total, sit in buildings of five or more units, per table B25024. Georgia counted 4,541,835 housing units in all, with a median year built of 1992.

Georgia rental vacancy stood at 6.8% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. Median household income was $77,353, so the $1,393 median gross rent equals about 21.6% of a typical household's gross income.

Five-year trends in Georgia

Georgia median gross rent rose 38.5% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $1,006 to $1,393 a month. Median household income grew 31.8% over the same span, from $58,700 to $77,353. Rents therefore outran incomes by 6.7 percentage points.

Georgia added 16,984 renter households between the two periods, a 1.2% gain. Units in five-plus buildings rose 9.7%, adding 65,232 units statewide. Georgia's population grew 5.2% to 10,940,407 over the same span. Employed Georgia residents rose 7.8% to 5,213,857, per the ACS.

Georgia county comparison

Median gross rent in the seven Georgia counties profiled here ranges from $1,471 in Chatham County to $1,810 in Gwinnett County. Rental vacancy runs from 5.1% in Gwinnett County to 10.9% in DeKalb County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Fulton County leads this list on both renter share, at 45.7%, and units in five-plus buildings, at 41.0%. Henry County has the smallest larger-building stock, at 9.8% of units, and Cherokee County the lowest renter share, at 22.7%.

Rent growth was strongest in Cherokee County, up 45.0% between the two ACS periods. Chatham County rose 35.6%, the slowest of the seven, though still well ahead of incomes.

Georgia landlord, tax and transfer rules

Under O.C.G.A. 44-7-19, no Georgia county or municipality may enact or enforce an ordinance regulating the amount of rent on privately owned residential rental property, including multiple-unit buildings. A buyer can therefore underwrite Georgia rent growth without a local cap.

For a tenancy at will, O.C.G.A. 44-7-7 requires 60 days' notice from a Georgia landlord and 30 days' notice from the tenant. On deposits, Section 44-7-34 requires the full deposit back within 30 days after the landlord obtains possession.

Georgia assesses real property at 40% of fair market value, per the Department of Revenue and O.C.G.A. 48-5-7. Property is revalued every year, so a strong rent year can surface in the next assessment notice.

Georgia taxes deeds under O.C.G.A. 48-6-1 at $1.00 for the first $1,000 of value plus 10 cents per additional $100. That works out to $1 per $1,000 of consideration, before any liens left in place.

What this means if you sell in Georgia

Owners who sell commercial property in Georgia are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the next assessment. A building in Gwinnett County, at 5.1% vacancy, reads differently to a buyer than one in DeKalb County at 10.9%. Henry County sits between them, at 6.5% vacancy and a $1,674 median rent.

Georgia rents rose 38.5% in five years, but incomes rose 31.8%, so buyers test whether current rents can keep climbing. Because there is no local rent cap, a documented rent history carries real weight. Expect the transfer tax at the closing table.

We review Georgia buildings of five or more units in the seven counties above and across the rest of Georgia. Send the rent roll and the latest Georgia assessment notice, and we will set the property against these county figures.