Sell Your Commercial Property In Massachusetts

The Massachusetts rental market at a glance

Massachusetts had 1,043,884 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 37.5% of 2,785,042 occupied homes. Of 3,030,406 Massachusetts housing units, 672,067 (22.2%) sit in buildings of five or more units, per table B25024.

Rental vacancy in Massachusetts was 3.5% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile, a tight reading. The $1,762 median gross rent equals about 20.3% of the $103,960 median household income. Even so, 51.8% of Massachusetts renter households paid 30% or more of income on rent, per table B25070.

Five-year trends in Massachusetts

Massachusetts median gross rent rose 37.4% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $1,282 to $1,762 a month. Median household income grew 28.0%, from $81,215 to $103,960. Rents therefore outran incomes by 9.4 percentage points.

Massachusetts added 59,152 renter households over the same span, a 6.0% gain. Units in five-plus buildings grew 9.5%, adding 58,494 units. Population rose just 2.8% and employment 2.7%, so renter demand grew faster than the headcount.

Massachusetts county comparison

Median gross rent across the nine largest Massachusetts counties runs from $1,136 in Hampden County to $2,201 in Middlesex County. Rental vacancy ranges from 2.0% in Plymouth County to 6.5% in Hampshire County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Suffolk County is the renter stronghold, with renters in 63.5% of occupied homes and 44.8% of units in larger buildings. Essex County posted the fastest rent growth of the nine, at 41.5% since the 2015-2019 ACS, while Hampden County lost 0.1% of its renter households.

Massachusetts landlord, tax and transfer rules

Massachusetts bars local rent control under General Laws Chapter 40P, the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act. No city or town can cap what an owner charges on renewal, so a buyer can underwrite rent growth to the market.

Under Chapter 186, Section 15B, a Massachusetts landlord may collect no more than first month, last month, a one-month security deposit and the cost of a key and lock. The deposit must sit in a separate interest-bearing Massachusetts bank account, and refunds are due within 30 days after the tenancy ends.

When a building changes hands, Section 15B(5) moves each deposit to the buyer, who must notify tenants within 45 days. A tenant at will in Massachusetts can be ended on notice equal to the rent interval or 30 days, whichever is longer, per Chapter 186, Section 12.

Massachusetts local assessors set a fair cash valuation under Chapter 59, Section 38, and apartment buildings with five or more units fall in the tax classification their city or town assigns. Proposition 2½, in Section 21C, caps each city or town's total levy at 2.5% of full valuation and annual levy growth at 2.5% plus new growth.

Section 1 of Chapter 64D sets the Massachusetts deed excise at $2 for each $500 of consideration, with a $1.50 rate in Barnstable County.

What this means if you sell in Massachusetts

Owners who sell commercial property in Massachusetts are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the local tax bill. A building in Plymouth County at 2.0% vacancy reads very differently to a buyer than one in Hampshire County at 6.5%.

Deposits deserve early attention. Because Massachusetts requires segregated accounts and carries treble damages for violations under Section 15B, we ask for the deposit ledger and bank receipts first, so the transfer to a buyer is clean.

We review Massachusetts buildings of five or more units in the nine counties above and across the rest of Massachusetts. Send the rent roll, the deposit records and the latest tax bill, and we will set the property against these county figures.