What a DC condo conversion costs, itemized
Every cost in a District conversion, in one calculator: the 5 percent conversion fee, the legal and survey work, the CASD filings, and the carrying-cost tail. Adjust the sliders to your project. No email wall, no callback required, no loan pitch.
Excludes acquisition and construction. Estimates for planning; the conversion fee is statutory and the rest are typical DC ranges. Confirm current fees with DHCD’s CASD before filing.
The line items, explained
| Cost | Typical range | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| DC conversion fee (statutory) | 5% of each unit’s sale price | The Rental Housing Conversion and Sale Act sets it; on $900k of combined sales that is $45,000 |
| Condo documents & legal | $10,000 to $20,000 | Declaration, bylaws, public offering statement, attorney review of plats and filings |
| Survey & condo plats | $3,000 to $6,000 | Boundary survey plus unit plats prepared for recording with the Surveyor |
| Structural engineer letter | $2,500 to $5,000 | Required report on building condition; more if the building needs investigation |
| CASD registration & recording | $500 to $3,000 | DHCD filings, exemption applications, recording costs; verify current fee schedule |
| Processing / expediting (optional) | $5,000 to $9,000 | Turnkey processors charge this to run the filings; DIY spends calendar instead |
| Carrying costs, paperwork tail | $3,000 to $8,000 per month | Loan interest, taxes, insurance, utilities for the months after construction ends |
| Tenant path costs (if occupied) | highly variable | TOPA timelines, election logistics, negotiated resolutions; underwrite before buying |
The 5 percent fee, because it deserves its own section
The District charges a conversion fee of 5 percent of the sale price on units sold out of a conversion, under the Rental Housing Conversion and Sale Act. It is the single biggest conversion line on most projects and the one owners most often learn about at the settlement table. A two-unit split selling for $450,000 a side pays $45,000. It is not negotiable, it does not care about your margin, and the only correct way to treat it is as a hard line in the acquisition math from the first offer. Certain sales carry statutory exemptions, and current fee treatment should be confirmed with DHCD’s Conversion and Sale Division before you count on one.
How the money actually flows, in order
- Due diligence money. Before you buy: rental-history research, a basement and structure read, and the calculator run with conservative comps. Cheapest mistakes are the ones made here.
- Professional retainers. Condo documents attorney and surveyor engaged during construction, not after, so paper and drywall finish together.
- Filings. Engineer letter, plats, CASD registration or vacancy exemption, then document recording. Fees are small; the calendar is the real cost.
- Carrying, the silent line. Every month between substantial completion and first settlement is loan interest, taxes, insurance, and utilities. Sequencing is how you shorten it.
- The fee at settlement. 5 percent per unit as each sells. Cash-flow friendly, pro-forma unforgiving.
Context worth reading before you model
Zoning shapes the product: most DC rowhouses sit in RF-1, the successor to the old R-4, which generally caps a lot at two dwelling units, so the standard project is a two-unit split or a basement carve-off rather than a bigger cut-up; the Office of Zoning publishes the current rules. Tenancy shapes the path: occupied rental housing routes through TOPA and the tenant election, vacant buildings through the CASD vacancy exemption, and the process guide covers both in the depth the lender blogs skip. And the exit shapes everything: the fee scales with sale prices, which is why the same paperwork stack costs more in Bloomingdale than in Trinidad.
Cost questions, answered straight
How much does a condo conversion cost in Washington, DC?
On top of construction, plan $45,000 to $110,000 for a typical two-unit rowhouse conversion: the statutory 5 percent conversion fee on each unit’s sale price (usually the biggest line, $35,000 to $70,000 at current DC condo prices), $10,000 to $20,000 of condo documents and legal, $3,000 to $6,000 of survey and plats, $2,500 to $5,000 for the structural engineer letter, low thousands in CASD and recording fees, and several months of carrying costs while the paperwork completes. The calculator above itemizes all of it against your own numbers.
Why does every other site make me call to learn any of this?
Because the sites that rank are lenders and title companies whose product is the phone call, and the one specialist that does publish pricing lists only its own service fee, $5,000 to $9,000 for processing, without the statutory fee or third-party costs that make up most of the real bill. An owner planning a six-figure project deserves the whole stack in one place, which is why this page exists.
What makes conversion costs run over the ranges?
Three usual suspects: tenant complications (an occupied building routes through TOPA and the tenant election, adding time and often negotiated costs), dirty history (murky rental records or a prior owner’s abandoned filings take work to untangle before CASD accepts yours), and sequencing mistakes (documents started after construction ends add months of carrying that dwarf any professional fee). Each is avoidable with the process run in the right order.
Condo Conversion DC maintains these numbers from live projects. For the compliance mechanics behind them, read the process guide; for the Hill’s favorite project, basement condos; or bring a specific building to the (202) 570-7131 line and talk it through.