Chicago Multifamily Property Blog

Market Trends, Sales Insights, and Investment Strategies

Explore the latest expert insights on Chicago multifamily property sales, investment strategies, and market trends. Stay informed with valuable updates from our real estate blog.

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Running a commercial real estate asset on a day-to-day basis can be expensive. As such, it is important for operators to manage costs relative to rental income to ensure that the given property is profitable. From a management standpoint, costs can be grouped into two buckets: Operating Expenses (or “OpEx”) and Capital Expenses (or “CapEx”). While they are both categories of expenses, there are material differences between capital expenses and operating expenses.

Good Time for Investors to Unload

Capital Expense vs. Operating Expense in Real Estate

Real estate investors have done well. Rents have risen and home price appreciation has been quite exceptional. In the past three years, the typical rental rate and typical home price have soared by 16.4% and 35.5%, respectively. Over the past five years, those figures are 24.9% and 50.8%. These returns were occurring at a time of low-cost financing.