For Multifamily development any good sources for comps - land price / allowable unit?

Question

land per acre price info is not as useful - I'm interested in land price per buildable unit -

any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks!

Robert Ellis · Answer

I'm working on projects in florida and ohio. entitled or unentitled is a big difference. we typically look for land in larger tracts in columbus ohio for under 50k per acre. that's mostly rural land that is then entitled through engineering and zoning variances, a huge money maker if you don't do it. entitled land depends on density. lowest I've seen is typically 6 dwelling units per acre and highest I've seen in suburban markets might be 26. i think there is a lot of missing things to answer your questions like how big of projects, but I can give you a very recent lot we featured for investors who build a stacked triplex with us around Orlando and other markets in florida. it was a 43k piece of land on about .3 acres. through planned development you can get a duplex approved it was in poinciana in Osceola county. that's on the small side and it's hard to find land and it wouldn't really increase in value there but that's about 5k or less in fees to get that done. so all in 50k for a 2-3 unit. so 25k a door would be a good price to look at. normally as you buy at scale it gets much cheaper because you are doing all the value and creating something from rural land or wetlands, etc. entitled land typically sells for 11k-13k per door I would say on average in suburban markets on a national average. that is extremely difficult to track but we work with groups in land entitlement all over the country who co -develop with us and we create benchmarks that's more of an internal conservative and we push high density and multifamily to maximize profits on the exit once the project is entitled.

Jim Weller · Answer

Thanks - wow - for multifamily in Orlando MSA - Cantral FL land $/unit varies but generally well under $50k.

Bryant Brislin · Answer

For larger projects, i.e. a few dozen units or higher, developers usually are running a financial model in excel, like a proforma to solve to Return On Cost, i.e. 6%, etc.  Sometimes in the bigger cities that have a decent amount of land trades/sales, if you talk to brokers, you'll get a sense of where they commonly trade at, i.e. 50k/door, 100k/door.  In California, multifamily is pretty soft right now, and most deals aren't penciling due to the capital markets, etc.