Sell Your Commercial Property Fast In Nashville, TN

Who rents in Nashville-Davidson

Renters occupy 47.6% of the 313,513 occupied homes in Nashville-Davidson, per the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey. Tennessee's renter share is 33.1% in the same survey. Nashville-Davidson counts 149,179 renter households.

Davidson County held 153,381 renter households in the 2020–2024 ACS, so the Nashville-Davidson balance accounts for 97.3% of county renters. Population of the balance was 690,130, against 715,388 for Davidson County.

Three payrolls carry most tenant demand. HCA Healthcare runs its corporate campus at One Park Plaza in Nashville. HCA employed more than 320,000 people company-wide as of March 31, 2026. Vanderbilt University enrolls 7,500 or more undergraduates and 6,300 or more graduate students. Vanderbilt reports being the largest private employer in the Nashville area. Vanderbilt University Medical Center anchors Vanderbilt Health, an academic health system based in Nashville.

Rents and what Nashville tenants can carry

Median gross rent in Nashville-Davidson is $1,586 a month, per the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey. Davidson County records $1,582 and Tennessee $1,189 in the same survey.

Median household income in Nashville-Davidson is $77,371, against $69,595 for Tennessee. Rent burden stays wide even so. Some 53.8% of Nashville-Davidson renter households paying cash rent spend 30% or more of income on housing. Another 25.5% spend 50% or more, per ACS table B25070.

As of HUD's FY2027 fair market rents, effective October 1, 2026, Davidson County falls in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN HUD Metro FMR Area. That area also covers Cannon, Cheatham, Dickson, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Trousdale, Williamson and Wilson counties.

HUD's FY2027 two-bedroom rent for the Nashville area is $1,798, up from $1,730 in FY2026.

The Nashville apartment stock

Nashville-Davidson holds 115,751 housing units in buildings of five or more units, or 33.6% of its 344,794 housing units, per the 2020–2024 ACS. Tennessee's share in buildings of five or more units is 14.1%.

The split by building size runs 20,754 units in 5 to 9 unit buildings and 28,055 units in 10 to 19. Buildings of 20 to 49 units hold 19,369 units, and buildings of 50 or more hold 47,573 units.

Median year built for all Nashville-Davidson housing is 1987 in the 2020–2024 ACS. Units built before 1980 number 140,542, or 40.8% of the stock. Construction since 2010 accounts for 21.5% of units, and 18,674 units, 5.4%, date from 2020 or later.

Vacancy in Nashville-Davidson is 9.1%, covering 31,281 vacant units, against 10.2% for Tennessee. A 1987 median build year puts much of the older five-plus stock where roofs, HVAC and parking surfaces come due. When owners sell commercial real estate in Nashville, TN, buyers reserve for those items and read the Metro Codes history.

Property taxes in Davidson County

Tennessee assesses a dwelling property containing two or more rental units at 40% of appraised value. The Tennessee Comptroller classes such property as industrial and commercial. Property with not more than one rental unit is assessed at 25% instead.

Under the 2025 rates set by the Mayor and Metro Council, the Urban Services District rate is $2.814 per $100 of assessed value. The General Services District rate is $2.782, per the Metro Nashville Assessor of Property. The Urban Services District covers the fuller service package, including garbage pickup and street lights.

Davidson County runs a four-year reappraisal cycle, with three years of visual inspection and revaluation in the fourth year. The 2025 reappraisal produced a 45% median value increase countywide, and Tennessee law set revenue-neutral certified rates before Metro raised them.

Take a $2 million apartment building as a worked example. At the 40% ratio it is assessed at $800,000. That carries about $22,512 a year in the Urban Services District, or about $22,256 in the General Services District. Owners preparing to sell commercial property in Nashville, TN should model the tax at a buyer's basis, not the current bill.

Tennessee's realty transfer tax is $0.37 per $100 of purchase price. A $2 million transfer therefore carries about $7,400. The grantee pays it to the county Register of Deeds.

Landlord rules that apply in Davidson County

Tennessee's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act applies only in counties above 75,000 people in the 2010 federal census, under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-102(a). Davidson County recorded 626,681 residents in the 2010 Census. The Act therefore governs Nashville leases.

Section 66-28-102(e) provides that in covered counties the Act occupies and preempts the entire field of legislation on landlords and tenants. Tenn. Code Ann. 66-35-102 separately bars a local government from enacting or enforcing any ordinance controlling the rent charged for private residential or commercial property.

Security deposits must be held in an account used only for that purpose at a regulated bank, and the tenant must be told the account's location at signing, under Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-301. That section sets no ceiling on the deposit amount.

For unpaid rent, Tenn. Code Ann. 66-28-505 lets a landlord serve written notice that the agreement terminates if the breach is not cured within 14 days. A month-to-month tenancy ends on at least 30 days' written notice under 66-28-512, and a week-to-week tenancy on 10 days.

Metro ordinance requires owners or agents to register residential rental property with the Metro Codes Property Standards Division. The registration fee is $10 for all units an owner holds in Davidson County, and noncompliance can draw $50 per week for each dwelling unit.

What this means if you own a Nashville building

Nashville-Davidson pairs a 47.6% renter share with a 40% assessment ratio on any building holding two or more rental units. Those two numbers set most of the distance between gross rent and net operating income when you sell commercial real estate in Nashville, TN.

We buy 5+ unit apartment buildings across Nashville, including Antioch, Madison and Hermitage, and in nearby Murfreesboro. If you want to sell your apartment building in Nashville, three inputs move our number most. Those are the rent roll, the 2025 assessed value and the deferred capital items.

Run the math yourself with our cap rate calculator, read the full process in our guide to selling an apartment building, and check our plain-English guide to Nashville landlord-tenant laws. Owners ready to sell commercial property in Nashville, TN can start with an address and a unit count.