Sell Your Commercial Property In South Carolina

The South Carolina rental market at a glance

South Carolina had 595,868 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 28.1% of 2,117,989 occupied homes. Owners hold the other 71.9%. Larger buildings make up a modest share of the stock: 315,203 South Carolina housing units, 12.9% of the total, sit in buildings of five or more units, per ACS table B25024.

South Carolina rental vacancy stood at 8.3% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. Statewide median household income was $69,324, so the $1,180 median gross rent equals about 20.4% of a typical household's gross income. Renters themselves feel more strain: 52.1% of South Carolina renter households paid 30% or more of income on rent, per ACS table B25070.

Five-year trends in South Carolina

South Carolina median gross rent rose 32.0% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $894 to $1,180 a month. Median household income grew 30.3% over the same span, from $53,199 to $69,324. Rents outran incomes by only 1.7 percentage points statewide.

South Carolina added 7,845 renter households between the two periods, a 1.3% gain, while units in five-plus buildings rose 8.5%, adding 24,760 units. The larger-building stock grew faster than the renter base it serves.

Growth was uneven across South Carolina. York County rents rose 41.5% and Greenville County rents 37.5% between the two ACS periods. Horry County lost 2.4% of its renter households even as Horry County's population grew 15.3%, the fastest rate among the counties profiled here.

South Carolina county comparison

Median gross rent in the nine South Carolina counties profiled here ranges from $989 in Anderson County to $1,653 in Beaufort County. Rental vacancy runs from 4.0% in Lexington County to 19.4% in Beaufort County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Charleston County leads this list on renter share, at 36.1%, and Horry County leads on units in five-plus buildings, at 25.1%. Lexington County is the most owner-heavy of the nine, with renters in 22.6% of occupied homes.

South Carolina landlord, tax and transfer rules

Under S.C. Code Section 27-39-60, no South Carolina county or municipality may enact, maintain or enforce an ordinance regulating rent on privately owned residential or commercial rental property. No South Carolina city can impose rent control outside property the local government itself owns.

South Carolina assesses an apartment building held for income at 6% of fair market value under Section 12-43-220(e). A sale is an assessable transfer of interest under Section 12-37-3150, which resets assessed value to the purchase price; the 15%-per-five-years cap in Section 12-37-3140 gives a buyer no protection at transfer.

South Carolina sets no statutory cap on security deposits. Section 27-40-410(a) requires an itemized deduction notice within 30 days after the tenant surrenders the unit and asks for one. Section 27-40-410(b) lets a tenant recover triple the amount wrongfully withheld.

South Carolina charges a deed recording fee instead of a separate transfer tax. Section 12-24-10(A) sets the fee at $1.85 per $500 of a property's value, or $3.70 per $1,000, due at closing.

What this means if you sell in South Carolina

Owners who sell commercial property in South Carolina are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the next reassessment. A building in Lexington County, at 4.0% vacancy, reads differently to a buyer than one in Beaufort County at 19.4%.

Taxes deserve the closest look. Because a South Carolina sale resets assessed value under the assessable-transfer-of-interest rule in Section 12-37-3150, we model the first post-sale tax bill at the 6% income-property ratio, not the seller's current bill.

We review South Carolina buildings of five or more units in Greenville, Charleston, Horry and the other counties above, and across the rest of South Carolina. Send the rent roll and the latest South Carolina tax statement, and we will set the property against these county figures.