NAICS code for real estate: brokers, landlords, investors and developers

This page is for brokers, investors, landlords and developers filling in an industry code for a bank, an LLC filing, an insurer, a grant or SAM.gov, and for sellers building lists of real estate firms. If you manage property for others or own rentals, the property management and rental property code pages go deeper on those two.

The real estate codes

The Census Bureau's definition of subsector 531 covers renting or leasing real estate to others, managing it for others, selling, buying or renting it for others, and related services such as appraisal. It includes equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) that lease property, and it sends mortgage REITs to subsector 525.

Employees per establishment is our calculation from County Business Patterns.

How to choose: match the code to the business model

The Census Bureau classifies by what earns the revenue. For real estate that means asking whether you earn commissions, rent, management fees or sale proceeds from property you built:

The development rows come straight from the 531 definition: subdividing and building for sale belongs in 236, subdividing land for sale to builders in 237, and building to rent or lease in 5311. So "the NAICS code for real estate development" depends on the exit, not on the word developer.

The SIC codes for real estate

The 1987 SIC system puts real estate in Major Group 65. From the Census concordances:

So the SIC code for a real estate agency is 6531, and for real estate investment it's 6798 for a REIT or the operator code for what you own (6513 for apartments, 6512 for commercial buildings). SIC 6531 alone feeds nine NAICS codes, which is why SIC-based lists of "real estate companies" mix brokers, managers, appraisers and cemeteries. The SEC adds group codes of its own, 6500 Real Estate and 6510 Real Estate Operators and Lessors. Check any pair in the NAICS to SIC converter.

How many real estate businesses there are

County Business Patterns 2023 counts 414,824 establishments in subsector 531, with 1,819,631 employees and $126.3 billion in annual payroll, about $69,400 per employee (our calculation). The three industry groups:

The sector is small-establishment: 82.1% of all 531 establishments, and 92.2% of brokerage offices, have fewer than five employees. Brokerages are concentrated in California (22,558 establishments), Florida (21,144), Texas (11,405), Colorado (7,456) and North Carolina (6,880). Residential lessors are led by New York (11,120), ahead of California (9,686), Texas (6,074) and Florida (4,957).

Read these counts with care. CBP counts establishments with paid employees, so agents paid by commission as independent contractors aren't in the employee figures, and the many brokerages and rental LLCs with no employees aren't counted at all. CBP uses NAICS 2017 codes; none of the 531 codes changed in 2022.

SBA size standards

From SBA's table effective 17 March 2023, still current in the eCFR on 28 October 2026, in average annual receipts:

Two SBA rules matter more than the numbers. The brokerage standard is measured on revenue excluding money received in trust for a third party, so commissions count and the sale price doesn't. And 13 CFR 120.110 makes passive businesses owned by developers and landlords, ones that don't use or occupy the property the loan pays for, ineligible for SBA business loans. The exception, in 13 CFR 120.111, is an eligible passive company that leases the property to an operating company for that company's business. A rental-holding LLC coded 531110 can't get around the rule by picking another code.

Where the code is used, and what a wrong one costs

• Tax returns. Most rental income goes on Schedule E, not Schedule C. Schedule C's codes include 531100 for lessors, 531210 for agents and brokers, 531310 for property managers and 531320 for appraisers.
• Banks and insurers. A lender sees 531110 and underwrites a landlord; it sees 531210 and underwrites a commission business. Give the code that matches how you earn.
• Federal work. Agencies buy appraisal (531320), property management (531311) and leased space (531120) under those codes, and each solicitation names one.

Finding real estate companies by code

On EDGAR, public brokers and managers file under SIC 6531, REITs under SIC 6798 and some of the largest service firms under SIC 6500. Examples, with revenue from each company's latest 10-K:

Most real estate firms are private. State real estate commissions publish license lookups for brokers and agents, county assessor and recorder files name property owners, and the guide to selling to real estate agents covers how brokerages buy. Bebop finds firms from a description, such as commercial brokerages with 10 to 50 agents in one metro, with a reason each fits.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The firm and its figures are invented; the size standard is SBA's.

Harbor Point Realty (harborpoint.example) closed $80 million of home sales last year at an average 3% commission, earning $2.4 million. It also manages 140 rentals for owners, earning $0.5 million in fees, and owns a small office building through a separate LLC that collects $0.3 million in rent.

1. Primary code. Commissions are $2.4 million of the brokerage's $2.9 million (82.8%), so its code is 531210, with 531311 as a secondary code for management.
2. The LLC files separately. The building-owning LLC is a lessor of a nonresidential building, so it uses 531120 on its own forms.
3. Size. SBA measures the brokerage on the $2.9 million it earns, not the $80 million of sales that passed through escrow, so it's far under the $15.0 million standard.
4. SIC. A form asking for SIC gets 6531 for the brokerage and 6512 for the LLC.

Next step: if you manage property for owners, see the NAICS code for property management for the 531311 and 531312 details.