Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
New Multifamily Housing Contractor Revenue Benchmark
A new multifamily housing contractor builds apartment buildings, townhome communities and other multi-unit housing for developers, investors and public agencies, coordinating design, permits, subcontractors and construction schedules on projects that can run for years. Large contracts, heavy subcontracting and a market driven by financing conditions define a business with very large receipts per firm.
Average Multifamily Housing Contractor Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every new multifamily housing contractor with paid employees, meaning general contractors, design-build firms and construction managers building apartment and condominium buildings for an owner rather than for sale, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of contractors gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$19,463,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
4,000
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $77.9 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $77.9 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 4,000 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $19,463,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: New Multifamily Housing Construction (except For-Sale Builders), NAICS 236116. The Census category is New Multifamily Housing Construction (except For-Sale Builders), which counts general contractors, design-build firms and construction managers building new apartment buildings and other multifamily housing for an owner. For-sale builders, single-family contractors and commercial building contractors are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 2361: 236115 New Single-Family Housing Construction (except For-Sale Builders); 236117 New Housing For-Sale Builders; 236118 Residential Remodelers. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group
Residential Building Construction, NAICS 2361, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
47.8%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 42.7 to 48.1 percent. This benchmark covers Residential Building Construction, NAICS 2361, as a whole, and this category accounts for 4,000 of the 205,642 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈8% |
Payroll share of receipts, New Multifamily Housing Construction (except For-Sale Builders), United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 8.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because apartment construction is delivered largely by subcontracted trades and materials, and the contractor's own staff manages rather than builds.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes subcontractor payments, materials, bonding, insurance and financing costs, which absorb most of the value of a multifamily contract.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 17.2 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.05 |
Scale and ownership, New Multifamily Housing Construction (except For-Sale Builders), United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 17.2 people, and the industry counted 1.1 employer establishments per firm. A contractor of that size runs project management, estimating and supervision staff over subcontracted crews, and the establishments per firm figure shows a trade of mostly single-office firms, with some regional contractors operating several.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
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Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
New Multifamily Housing Contractor: what large contracts and subcontracting do to an average.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- How large are the projects? A single apartment project can be worth tens of millions and take two years, so a contractor's revenue depends on a handful of contracts at any time. The average reflects lumpy, project-based receipts rather than a steady flow of work.
- How much flows to subcontractors and suppliers? Concrete, framing, mechanical, electrical and finishes are subcontracted, and materials are bought in bulk, so most of a contract's value passes through the contractor. Receipts measure project size, not what the contractor keeps.
- Who finances the project? Multifamily construction depends on developer financing, lender requirements and often public subsidies or tax credits, and a change in interest rates can stall starts across a region. The contractor's pipeline follows conditions it does not control.
- What do bonding and insurance require? Performance bonds, builder's risk insurance and general liability are required on larger projects and scale with contract value, and bonding capacity limits how much work a contractor can hold at once. Those requirements shape the trade and sit outside receipts.
- How is the contract structured? Maximum-price, cost-plus and lump-sum contracts allocate the risk of cost overruns differently, and change orders, delays and disputes are common on long projects. The margin behind a contract's revenue depends on that structure.
- Is a for-sale developer counted here? Developers who build condominiums or apartments for sale on their own land are counted separately and carry land and sales risk. This figure covers contractors building for an owner under contract, not speculative development.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each contractor with paid staff at a physical office. For-sale builders, single-family contractors and commercial building contractors are counted in separate categories.