NAICS code for property management: 531311 or 531312

This page is for property management firms filling in a SAM.gov registration, a bank or insurance application, a vendor portal or a tax return, and for sellers building a list of property managers. It gives the codes, the cases where a different code applies, the SIC equivalent, Census counts and SBA size standards.

The property management codes and their neighbors

The Census definitions for 531311 and 531312 are one line each: establishments "primarily engaged in managing" residential or nonresidential real estate "for others". The words that matter are "for others". The cross-references send everything else elsewhere.

How to choose

A firm with both residential and commercial portfolios uses the code for the side that earns more of its fees and lists the other as a secondary code. An owner-operator that also manages third-party buildings faces the same test: compare rent from its own buildings with management fees from others.

The SIC code for property management

The SIC code is 6531, Real Estate Agents and Managers, which is also the answer to "SIC code for real estate management". It's a broad code. The Census concordance splits it across eight NAICS 2022 codes:

So a list pulled by SIC 6531 mixes property managers with brokers, appraisers and HOAs. Building owners sit in SIC 6512 (nonresidential) and 6513 (apartments), which map to 531120 and 531110. SIC 8741, Management Services, sounds close but covers construction management and office administration, not real estate.

The SEC applies its own SIC list, and it isn't consistent across similar firms: Jones Lang LaSalle files under 6531, while CBRE and FirstService file under 6500, Real Estate. A UK Companies House form uses UK SIC 2007, where property management is 68320, Management of real estate on a fee or contract basis.

How many property management businesses there are

County Business Patterns, 2023:

Both codes average about nine employees per establishment, but two thirds have fewer than five. CBP counts locations with paid employees, so a regional firm with six branch offices counts six times, and a one-person manager with no staff isn't counted. CBP 2023 is on a NAICS 2017 basis; neither code changed in 2022.

SBA size standards

These come from 13 CFR 121.201, effective March 17, 2023 and unchanged in the eCFR as of 28 October 2026. Receipts are averaged over your latest five complete fiscal years. SBA counts rents as receipts but excludes "amounts collected for another by a ... real estate agent" (13 CFR 121.104). If rents you collect and pass to owners could push you over $12.5 million, settle how they're treated before you certify as small.

Where the code is used

• Federal contracts. Each federal solicitation carries one NAICS code (13 CFR 121.402), and you must be under that code's size standard. List both 531311 and 531312 in SAM.gov if you'd bid on both kinds of property.
• Tax returns. Schedule C uses 531310, Real estate property managers, for both. Income from renting property you own usually goes on Schedule E instead, which is another sign you're a lessor, not a manager.
• Insurance and banking. A manager and an owner carry different risks, so give the code that matches whose property it is.

Finding property management companies

Most property managers are private, and Census doesn't name them. Where your state licenses property managers (often through its real estate commission), the licensee search is a starting list. For public companies, EDGAR lists registrants under SIC 6531 and SIC 6500. The largest with major property and facilities management businesses:

All three report in US dollars and earn revenue from more than property management, so the totals overstate it. For the private firms behind most of the 78,886 establishments, a Bebop search such as residential property managers with 50 to 500 units in one metro returns matching companies with the reason each fits.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The company and figures are invented.

Cedar Row Management (cedarrow.example) manages 1,400 apartment units and three neighborhood retail centers for 40 owners. Last year its fees were $3.4 million from residential and $1.1 million from retail. Its codes: 531311 primary, 531312 secondary.

It collects about $26 million a year in rent on behalf of owners. Its own fees over five years were $3.2 million, $3.6 million, $3.9 million, $4.2 million and $4.5 million: $19.4 million in total, or $3.9 million a year. If the rent pass-through were counted as receipts, its average would sit near $30 million, more than double the $12.5 million standard. That one question decides whether Cedar Row can bid on small business set-asides, which is why the treatment of pass-through rent belongs in its records before it certifies.

Next step: if you sell to landlords and managers, the guide to selling to real estate agents covers how the industry buys.