Sell Your Commercial Property In Kansas

The Kansas rental market at a glance

Kansas had 385,651 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 32.8% of 1,174,060 occupied homes. Owners hold the other 67.2%. Buildings of five or more units hold 168,740 Kansas housing units, 13.0% of the total, per table B25024.

Kansas rental vacancy stood at 6.2% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. Median household income was $74,275, so the $1,060 median gross rent equals about 17.1% of a typical household's gross income. Among Kansas renters, 43.5% paid 30% or more of income on rent, per table B25070.

Five-year trends in Kansas

Kansas median gross rent rose 24.7% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $850 to $1,060 a month. Median household income grew 24.6% over the same span, from $59,597 to $74,275. Rents and incomes therefore moved almost in step.

Kansas added 4,547 renter households between the two periods, a 1.2% gain. Units in five-plus buildings rose 7.8%, adding 12,277 units statewide. The larger-building stock grew more than six times faster than the renter base, which is why vacancy matters when pricing a building.

Kansas county comparison

Median gross rent runs from $998 in Sedgwick County to $1,434 in Johnson County, the two Kansas county markets profiled here. Rental vacancy is 5.5% in Johnson County and 7.1% in Sedgwick County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Johnson County renter households grew 11.6% over the five years, against 4.5% in Sedgwick County. Across 17 Kansas cities in this series, median gross rent ranges from $881 in Hutchinson to $1,983 in Leawood. Lawrence and Manhattan are the most renter-heavy, at 56.4% and 56.5% of occupied homes.

Larger buildings cluster in a few cities. Lawrence has 32.2% of its units in five-plus buildings, Lenexa 31.4%, Manhattan 30.7% and Overland Park 28.2%. Wichita, the largest Kansas city, posts a $975 median gross rent and 7.2% rental vacancy, while Overland Park reaches $1,515 at 5.7%.

Kansas landlord, tax and transfer rules

Kansas bars local rent control entirely. K.S.A. 12-16,120 prohibits any county, city or township from enacting or enforcing an ordinance that controls rent on private residential or commercial property. No Kansas city can cap rent increases on an apartment building.

Under K.S.A. 58-2550, a Kansas security deposit may not exceed one month's rent for an unfurnished unit, 1.5 months if furnished, plus half a month for pets. The landlord must return the balance within 30 days after the tenancy ends. A clean deposit ledger lets a buyer confirm that liability.

K.S.A. 79-1439 assesses multi-family residential property at 11.5% of fair market value, while other urban commercial property is assessed at 30%. Kansas ended its mortgage registration tax in 2019. Recording a deed now costs a flat $17 for the first page and $13 for each added page.

What this means if you sell in Kansas

Owners who sell commercial property in Kansas are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the next tax bill. A building in Johnson County, at 5.5% vacancy and a $1,434 median rent, reads differently to a buyer than one in Sedgwick County at 7.1% and $998.

Assessment class deserves a close look. Because Kansas assesses apartment buildings at 11.5% and mixed commercial space at 30%, we confirm how the county appraiser classified the property before modeling the tax line. With local rent control barred under K.S.A. 12-16,120, buyers underwrite market rent growth.

We review Kansas buildings of five or more units in Johnson County, Sedgwick County and across the rest of Kansas. Send the rent roll and the latest Kansas tax statement, and we will set the property against these figures.