Knowledge Base
Cost Per Unit
Cost per unit is a property's total spend in a category divided by its number of apartment units, the standard normalization multifamily operators use to compare expenses across properties of different sizes.
How cost per unit is used
Divide any expense category by the unit count and properties of different sizes become comparable — a 150-unit garden asset against a 400-unit mid-rise, one year against the next. The National Apartment Association's 2024 benchmarking data give the standard anchors: $8,657 per unit in total operating expenses and $1,098 per unit in R&M. Owners use per-unit figures in budgets, acquisition underwriting, and monthly reporting; a category-by-category breakdown is here.
What per-unit averages hide
An average is a blender. R&M per unit blends emergency plumbing, HVAC parts, paint, and service contracts into one number, so a property can post a respectable per-unit figure while systematically overpaying for the items inside it. Stilwell's average finding — $22,546 a year for a 200-unit property — works out to about $113 per unit: invisible inside a four-figure R&M average, and real money at the property level. Per-unit numbers are for spotting which category to open; line-item pricing is for finding what is inside.
Common mistakes
Comparing per-unit costs across properties with different unit sizes, vintages, or climates produces noise dressed as insight — a 1970s asset with chillers will never benchmark cleanly against new construction with split systems. Using per-unit cost as a target rather than a reference invites scope cuts that surface later as deferred maintenance. And tracking the number annually instead of quarterly means drift gets a year's head start before anyone sees it.
Related terms
Start with one property and one quarter
Send us a quarter of invoices and we will show you what it should have cost. If there is nothing there, we will tell you that too.
