I bought an old hangar next to mine mostly to protect my spot. As luck would have it, after I got pallet racks in it and full of crap, someone comes by desperate to rent a hangar. Since using hangars for non aviation use has been one of my soapbox issues, I decided I better rent it to him and I've been moving my junk. Question is does anyone actually make money at it? I did the math on this particular one and it pays me my purchase price in two years or 50% return, conversely, in housing rentals, you're doing good to get 10%. Then I read someone advertising a hangar for $85/month, which sounds like a way to go broke. Is there any money in t hangars? Will people pay for heated? What brings a premium?

Hard to get money off improvements to rental houses and I am sure same for hangars. Slum Lords make more money.

Tim

f you saw this cowshed I'm renting for $200/month, you would think i look up to slumlords, but around here, that's cheap. There's nothing available.

I don't know rev, I talked to a few guys at RXE and rental there is pretty cheap...but you are right about nothing being available. I looked into renting at the three closest airports and what was available was expensive in my mind so my plane still sits outside.

I've thought about building a 50x70ish hangar with two doors and a wall dividing it in half. Then I'd rent one side and keep my plane, sleds and rafts in the other. I just can't decide if I could keep it rented so I haven't pursued it. If you can rent your "cowshed" for $200 then maybe I should look I to this a little more. I know it costs $175/mo to keep a plane in the Red Baron hangar at IDA (unheated and shared with 3 helicopters and 2 other planes.)

Totally depends where you are. Find out whether there's a wait list, and what others are paying/charging.

Where I was before, unheated hangars went for $110 a month, electric included. Long wait list. You could have rented one for $150 I'd bet.

Where I'm at now, min for unheated is $200 a month, and you pay utilities. There may be cheaper out there, but they're not turning over very fast.

So, it depends.

I purchased a hangar, and I'm not looking back.

MTV

mtv wrote:Totally depends where you are.

And it can be crazy. 45 minutes east of my house sits Austin Bergstrom International. I know a Saratoga that is renting there for $750 per month and waited a year to get in.

10 minutes west of my house is Spicewood, a private open to the public 30' wide airport where I keep my planes. For three years I've paid $250 per month per plane for rent. I'm now building my own hangar and if I don't want anyone to have to move any other planes to get theirs out then the rent money won't quit pay for it, I'll have to make my profit when I quit flying or when I sell it some day.

Go 30 minutes further west of Spicewood and there are three grass strip airports that hangar rental can be had for $100 per month and much less. No fuel at any of these three.

So pricing can be all over the place depending on things like convenience, fuel, runway width, length, surface, lighting, instrument approaches, the neighborhood, and probably a dozen other things. Oh, and heated for you northern folks.

And then their is timing. Three years ago Spicewood had as many vacant lots as it had hangars. In the last year all but a couple sold and hangars went up or are going up. From the last few years until today there have been thousands of million dollar homes built west of Austin, and they are still going up at a feverish pace. That has increased our aircraft and pilot population, and there are no more airports being built.

Nosedragger wrote:I bought an old hangar next to mine mostly to protect my spot. As luck would have it, after I got pallet racks in it and full of crap, someone comes by desperate to rent a hangar. Since using hangars for non aviation use has been one of my soapbox issues, I decided I better rent it to him and I've been moving my junk. Question is does anyone actually make money at it? I did the math on this particular one and it pays me my purchase price in two years or 50% return, conversely, in housing rentals, you're doing good to get 10%. Then I read someone advertising a hangar for $85/month, which sounds like a way to go broke. Is there any money in t hangars? Will people pay for heated? What brings a premium?

First off, good for you for sticking with your principals. As well as non aviation use of hangers. Aircraft lounging in hanger space and never flown is another pet peeve. If it's not going to fly. take it apart and store it elsewhere. Airports and hangers should be for active pilots.
To answer the question. In this particular case, your doing extremely well, That purchase was a good choice. Now if you can find similar opportunities, your on your way to being a prosperous hangar lord. I wouldn't get deflated over one ad listing of $85 That is certainly not the norm. Unfortunately.

Good points, It was good to hear some real World rates too. We have cheap heat here at 60 cents/therm for natural gas, that's a plus. I figured 45 by 45 hangars are going to run $50k ish. 10 times what I spent on an old one and worth maybe $400/month because you can get 2 planes in it. Now you're down to mortal returns of about 10% per year. still not bad in this economy but not enough to do it with rented money. There's no waiting list around here but there's always someone nosing around. T hangar building costs are attractive until you put doors on. Buying up old hangars makes more sense but that's hard to do, especially when they're used as storage sheds.

This is a good site for hangar rentals http://www.hangartrader.com/final/search.php Present company excluded, pilots divulging their hangar rent rates can be like discussing takeoff and landing distances.

I just up graded my hangar this year at TWF. I went from a 40x40 converted t hanger which still had all the supports for the old walls as they were structural, and the hangar had no heat or insulation, to a 38x40 clear span, insulated metal hangar with an enormous heater in it. The difference in the two was approx 3 times the cost of the old one. Very glad I bought it. There are two more just across the ramp from the new one that will come up in two years or so, will be watching that as well.

While not great investments, I have always made money on them over the term and had free space for my plane. Who knows what will happen as kids are not coming to aviation and the requirement fro hangars may go out the window in the long run.

Who knows what will happen as kids are not coming to aviation and the requirement fro hangars may go out the window in the long run.

I keep wondering that, but in the meantime hangar rentals are in the stratosphere around here. Ditto looking at turntables and lifts that others have.

Hangars to buy here are in the $100-150k range for a 45' span T, plus common fees including land lease of about 5k per year. Rentals 5-6 hundred. No wonder I'm seeing Husky's and Decathlons tied up outside, at only $155/mo.

Admittedly urban, the farther out you go the less it is, but you're not going to fly very much if you're looking at a 2 hr drive first.

Karmutzen wrote:Hangars to buy here are in the $100-150k range for a 45' span T, plus common fees including land lease of about 5k per year. Rentals 5-6 hundred. No wonder I'm seeing Husky's and Decathlons tied up outside, at only $155/mo.

Any idea how the economics of that work? Sounds like the rentals barely cover the cost of the ground lease, much less the hangar.

I'm guessing you're referring to my ad about the $85 per month hangar. It's an open front hangar with little to no amenities and a 2,300 foot grass runway. The norm around these parts are between 125-300 depending on the airport, but for our little private airstrip it's only $85. Good luck to you on your decision.