What CAM benchmarks are most reliable for commercial real estate?

BOMA's annual Experience Exchange Report and IREM's Income/Expense Analysis publications are the two most widely used and methodologically rigorous benchmark sources. NCREIF provides data for institutional properties. CBRE and JLL publish market-specific benchmarks. No single source covers all markets and property types — use multiple sources and adjust for your specific market, building age, and lease structure.

What should I do if my CAM rates are significantly above benchmark?

First, verify the comparison is apples-to-apples: same property class, comparable market, similar building age, and similar lease structure (full-service vs. NNN affects what's in the CAM pool). If the comparison is valid and you're still significantly above benchmark, investigate by expense category — which categories are elevated? Above-benchmark utilities often indicate an energy efficiency problem; above-benchmark management fees may indicate an affiliated fee issue; above-benchmark repairs may indicate deferred maintenance catching up.

CAM Benchmarks for Commercial Real Estate: Portfolio Comparison Guide

By Angel Campa·Founder, CapVeriUpdated March 19, 20264 min read

Benchmarks tell you what normal looks like. Without a reference point, an $8/SF CAM rate might seem fine — until you discover that comparable buildings in the same market are running $5/SF. Or it might reveal that you're running lean at $8/SF while competitors face tenant pressure at $11/SF.

CAM benchmarks serve two distinct purposes in commercial real estate: validating that your expense levels are reasonable (defending against tenant audit challenges about expense amounts), and identifying where your property management may be over-spending or under-recovering relative to industry norms.

Why Benchmarks Matter

Identify outliers. Unexplained deviations from benchmark — up or down — often indicate problems. A property running 40% above benchmark may have uncontrolled expenses, classification errors (including non-recoverable items in the pool), or genuine operational inefficiencies. A property running 30% below benchmark may be under-recovering due to CAM leakage.

Set appropriate estimates. Annual CAM estimates should be based on realistic projections of actual expenses, not arbitrary numbers. Benchmark comparison provides a starting point and a reasonableness check for your budget assumptions.

Spot reconciliation errors. If a single expense category is dramatically above or below what benchmarks suggest, that's a signal to verify the data — either the expenses are genuinely unusual (requiring an explanation), or there's a classification or data entry error.

Office CAM Benchmarks

Office CAM rates vary significantly by building class, age, market, and whether property taxes are included.

Class A Urban/CBD:

Total operating expenses: $10–$18/SF annually
Excluding property taxes: $8–$14/SF
Key cost drivers: vertical transportation (elevators), full-time concierge/security, high-end janitorial

Class A Suburban:

Total operating expenses: $7–$12/SF
Excluding property taxes: $5–$9/SF
Key cost drivers: parking structure maintenance, HVAC (larger floor plates than urban)

Class B:

Total operating expenses: $5–$9/SF
Excluding property taxes: $4–$7/SF
Key cost drivers: deferred maintenance catch-up, older building systems with higher repair frequency

Geographic variation is significant: coastal markets (San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles) run 30–50% above these ranges; Sunbelt markets (Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta) often run 15–25% below.

Retail CAM Benchmarks

Retail CAM structures vary by center type more than any other property category, because the expenses that go into the pool differ substantially.

Neighborhood Centers (grocery-anchored, 75,000–150,000 SF):

CAM (excluding taxes and insurance): $2.50–$5.00/SF
Taxes: $2–$5/SF (highly market-dependent)
Insurance: $0.30–$0.75/SF

Community Centers (100,000–350,000 SF):

CAM: $2.00–$4.50/SF
Larger parking fields drive maintenance costs

Power Centers (big-box anchor, 250,000–600,000 SF):

CAM: $1.75–$3.50/SF
Lower per-SF costs due to simpler, larger-format maintenance

Lifestyle Centers (open-air, high-end tenancy):

CAM: $4–$9/SF
Higher costs driven by landscaping, events, amenity programming, and premium maintenance standards

Regional Malls:

Interior CAM varies significantly based on what's in the pool; comparable rates range from $8–$18/SF including major interior common area costs

Industrial CAM Benchmarks

Industrial CAM rates are substantially lower than office or retail because the common areas are simpler — primarily parking lots, exterior lighting, and landscaping.

Distribution/Logistics (500,000+ SF):

CAM: $0.30–$0.80/SF
Primary costs: parking lot maintenance, exterior lighting, landscaping

Flex/Industrial (50,000–200,000 SF):

CAM: $0.50–$1.50/SF
Higher ratio of common area to total square footage drives slightly higher rates

Business Park/Industrial Campus:

CAM: $0.75–$2.00/SF
Includes more landscaping and common amenities

Industrial CAM benchmarks have shifted meaningfully over the past five years as significant capital has flowed into industrial properties, driving renovation and infrastructure improvements that increase operating costs.

Benchmarking Your Portfolio

A useful portfolio benchmarking process:

Normalize for comparison. Use $/SF of gross leasable area as your unit. Decide whether you're comparing total operating expenses, CAM only (excluding taxes/insurance), or CAM including taxes and insurance. Be consistent.
Segment by property type and class. Don't compare Class A CBD office to suburban flex industrial. Create peer groups that are genuinely comparable.
Apply geographic adjustments. BOMA and IREM publish regional and market-level data. Apply market factors to adjust national benchmarks to your specific markets.
Compare by expense category, not just totals. Total CAM per SF may be at benchmark, but one category (janitorial, utilities, management fees) may be significantly elevated while others are low. Category-level comparison reveals specific operational issues that total-level comparison masks.
Track year-over-year trends. A single year's comparison has limited value. Multi-year trends identify whether you're managing costs effectively or accumulating deferred expenses.

What Outliers Mean

Significantly above benchmark:

Property taxes above market: likely a tax assessment appeal opportunity
Utilities above market: energy efficiency investigation warranted
Janitorial above market: contract review against market rates
Management fees above market: market rate documentation needed for tenant audit defense
Repairs above market: deferred maintenance or aging systems requiring capital planning

Significantly below benchmark:

Total CAM below market: verify you're not missing expenses from the pool (CAM leakage)
Specific categories below market: verify these expenses are actually occurring; below-market utilities may indicate a billing error rather than genuine efficiency
Maintenance below market in an aging building: likely a deferred maintenance issue that will surface as a capital problem

Data Sources for Benchmarks

BOMA Experience Exchange Report: Published annually, covers office buildings by class, market, and building size. The most comprehensive source for office benchmarks.

IREM Income/Expense Analysis: Covers office, retail, and industrial properties. Good geographic breadth and property-type coverage.

NCREIF Property Index: Institutional property data, useful for Class A assets managed by institutional investors.

CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield: Market-specific reports published quarterly; strong on current market data but less granular on expense breakdown.

CoStar: Provides property-specific operating expense data for comparable buildings where tenants have reported.