Sell Your Commercial Property In Tennessee

The Tennessee rental market at a glance

Tennessee had 933,708 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, 33.1% of 2,824,277 occupied homes. Owners hold the remaining 66.9%. Apartment-style stock runs smaller than many states: 442,739 Tennessee housing units, 14.1% of the 3,143,670 total, sit in buildings of five or more units, per ACS table B25024.

Tennessee rental vacancy stood at 6.1% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. Statewide median household income was $69,595, so the $1,189 median gross rent equals about 20.5% of a typical Tennessee household's gross income. Rent burden runs deeper for renters themselves: 48.8% of Tennessee renter households paid 30% or more of income on rent, per ACS table B25070.

Five-year trends in Tennessee

Tennessee median gross rent rose 36.8% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $869 to $1,189 a month. Median household income grew 30.5% over the same span, from $53,320 to $69,595. Rent outran income by 6.3 percentage points statewide.

Tennessee added 58,663 renter households between the two periods, a 6.7% gain. Units in five-plus buildings rose 13.6%, adding 52,952 units statewide. Tennessee's population grew 5.3% over the same five years, from 6,709,356 to 7,066,383.

Growth was uneven across Tennessee. Maury County rent rose 45.3% and Williamson County renter households rose 29.1% between the two ACS periods, while Shelby County renter households grew just 5.4%. Sumner County renter households rose 24.5%, the second-fastest among the eight counties covered here.

Tennessee county comparison

Median gross rent across Tennessee's eight largest covered counties ranges from $889 in Sullivan County to $1,969 in Williamson County. Rental vacancy runs from 5.1% in Sullivan County to 9.1% in Maury County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Shelby County leads this list on renter share, at 45.9%, and on share of units in five-plus buildings, at 21.2%. Williamson County is the most owner-heavy of the eight, with renters in just 21.2% of occupied homes, even though it posts Tennessee's highest median gross rent at $1,969.

Tennessee landlord, tax and transfer rules

Tennessee bars local rent control statewide. Tenn. Code Ann. 66-35-102(a) prohibits a local government from enacting an ordinance that controls the rent charged for private residential or commercial property, and 66-35-102(b) also bars mandatory below-market unit requirements.

The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act applies only in Tennessee counties with a 2010 census population above 75,000, per Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-102(a), and in those counties it preempts conflicting local landlord-tenant rules under 66-28-102(e).

Tennessee sets no statutory cap on security deposits. Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-301 requires a landlord to disclose the deposit account's location at lease signing and hold it in a dedicated bank account, or forfeit the right to retain any part of it.

Tennessee assesses apartment buildings of two or more rental units as commercial property at 40% of appraised value, versus 25% for residential property, per the Tennessee Constitution and the Comptroller's assessment glossary. Counties reappraise on four-, five- or six-year cycles and then set a revenue-neutral certified tax rate.

Tennessee charges a $0.37 realty transfer tax per $100 of the purchase price, paid by the buyer to the county Register of Deeds and remitted to the Department of Revenue.

What this means if you sell in Tennessee

Owners who sell commercial property in Tennessee are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the next reappraisal. A building in Sullivan County, at 5.1% vacancy, reads differently to a buyer than one in Maury County at 9.1%.

Taxes deserve a close look. Because Tennessee assesses apartment buildings of two or more units at 40% of value rather than the 25% residential ratio, a Tennessee multifamily tax bill runs higher than a single-family one at the same appraised value. The $0.37-per-$100 transfer tax also comes off the sale price at closing.

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