Condo Utilities Cost per Unit, by Size

Updated Oct 12, 2026 · 7 min read

Utilities by Building Size

Your common charge pays the building's own utility bills: water and sewer for every apartment, the lights in the halls and stairs, the elevator, pumps and fans, and in some buildings heat and hot water. A typical new NYC condo budgets $1,470 per unit a year for them, about $120 a month. Most fall between $1,210 and $1,960.

Up to 10 units, building utilities stay near $1,440 per unit a year with 5 units or fewer and $1,350 with 6 to 10, and most of that is water. From there the energy line grows: bigger buildings have more hallway to light, elevators, lobbies, amenity rooms, and more often a central boiler or cooling plant. In buildings of 51 units or more, utilities typically reach $2,700 per unit a year.

Per unit per year: the median, then the middle half of buildings (25th to 75th percentile) and how many budgets. Electricity, gas & heat is the building's own use (hallways, lobby, elevator, pumps and, where it's central, heat and hot water), not the apartments' meters.

Electricity, gas and heat is what changes: $330 per unit a year in a building of 5 units or fewer, against $1,860 in one of 51 units or more, about 6 times as much.

Why Water Barely Changes

Water is the larger share: typically $930 per unit a year. New York City bills the building for water and sewer, and every apartment uses water. So the water line tracks the number of homes, not the size of the lobby: $1,000 per unit a year in buildings of 5 units or fewer, and a little less, $870, in buildings of 51 or more.

Most buildings fall between $790 and $1,100. Who pays water in your building, and how, is covered in who pays utilities in a NYC condo.

Individual Heat Pumps vs. a Shared Plant

In 65% of the budgets whose plan says how the apartments are heated, each apartment heats and cools with its own heat pump: a split or ductless system, or a through-wall PTAC. It runs on the apartment's electric meter, so the owner pays to run it and the building's energy line stays small. Other buildings heat everyone from a shared plant: a boiler feeding radiators, chilled and hot water piped to fan coils, or a water loop that serves heat pumps in each apartment. Then the fuel, and the electricity to run the plant, are building bills.

A third group uses a VRF (variable refrigerant flow) heat pump system. It can serve one apartment or many from shared outdoor units, and the plans don't always say which, so it gets its own row. Of the 635 budgets we read, 483 come with a plan that says how the apartments are heated.

The building's electricity, gas & heat line per unit per year (median, rounded to the nearest $10) and how many budgets. Heating systems are as each offering plan describes them; a dash: fewer than 5 budgets.

• Each apartment with its own heat pump: $360 per unit a year across 306 buildings. 86% of them are buildings of 10 units or fewer. It's $330 at 10 units or fewer and $660 at 11 or more.
• VRF systems: $870 across 136 buildings. That's $630 at 10 units or fewer and $1,390 at 11 or more.
• A shared plant: $720 across 24 buildings. In buildings of 10 units or fewer it's $480. In buildings of 11 units or more it's $2,990, but that rests on only 10 budgets, so treat it as a rough guide.

The catch: the cost doesn't vanish with individual heat pumps. It moves to your own electric bill. A low building energy line next to a heat pump in every apartment means you'll pay for heating and cooling yourself. A big line in a shared-plant building should mean smaller apartment bills. Compare the two together.

What Makes the Energy Line Big

• Heat in the common charges. Where the plan says the building pays for heat, the energy line is typically about 9 times as large as where owners pay their own heat. Your own utility bills should be smaller to match.
• Staffed lobbies. A staffed lobby is lit and conditioned around the clock, and doorman buildings tend to be the large ones with amenity spaces (a median of 39 units, against 6 without a front desk): $2,630 per unit a year, against $450 in buildings without one.
• Elevators. Among buildings of 6 to 25 units, those with an elevator budget $790 per unit a year for building energy, against $340 in walk-ups. See what a condo elevator costs.

What's Not in These Numbers

These figures leave out your apartment's own electricity. Of the 566 budgets whose plan says who pays it, 557 have owners pay the utility directly and 9 bill them through a building submeter; none puts it in the common charges.

Budget for that on top of common charges, and for gas too if your stove or heat runs on it.

What to Check in a Budget

• Is there an engineer's estimate? Many budgets base the electricity line on an engineer's letter with the expected kilowatt-hours. The note under the line says.
• How are the apartments heated? The plan's description of the building says. With a heat pump in each apartment, budget for heating and cooling on your own electric bill. With a shared plant, expect a big energy line in common charges instead, and don't count heat twice when comparing buildings.
• These are first-year estimates. Rates change. Ask the managing agent for the building's actual bills once it's running.

Compare a building with similar ones on our operating expense benchmarks, or see the other running costs per unit in how much a condo should spend on supplies, management and staff.

Related: NYC Condo Insurance Costs Are Rising · Condo Supplies Cost per Unit, by Size