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South Carolina · Market Intelligence

South Carolina Feasibility Studies

An independent, lender-grade feasibility practice for South Carolina across SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA Rural Development, EB-5, and conventional capital. This page is our standing, sourced read on where South Carolina markets are oversupplied, how deals actually get funded by region, and where South Carolina feasibility studies fail review.

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#1
Fastest-growing U.S. state by percentage, 2023–20251
3.5×
Property tax on a rental vs. an identical owner-occupied home29
~$16B
BMW invested in Plant Spartanburg, its highest-volume plant worldwide13
2.6M
TEUs through the Port of Charleston, FY2025 — a top-10 U.S. port8
The South Carolina Thesis

A statewide South Carolina number is indefensible.

South Carolina rewards feasibility work and punishes shortcuts. It was the fastest-growing state in the nation by percentage in both 2023–24 and 2024–25, reaching an estimated 5,479,000 residents as of July 1, 2024, a gain of about 91,000 or 1.7 percent.1 But that growth is radically uneven across five divergent economies: the Upstate advanced-manufacturing corridor along I-85, anchored by BMW's Plant Spartanburg and Michelin's North American headquarters; the Lowcountry port-and-aerospace boom around the Port of Charleston, Boeing, and Volvo; the Midlands government-education-healthcare economy in Columbia, now supercharged by the Scout Motors EV plant in Blythewood; the Grand Strand tourism-and-retiree market around Myrtle Beach; and the rural I-95 "Corridor of Shame" persistent-poverty band. The same asset class behaves oppositely across these regions.

The concentration is the decisive fact for underwriting. More than eighty percent of the state's post-2020 population gain came from just ten counties, and only nine of forty-six counties lost population in 2023–24.1 Charleston and Greenville–Spartanburg both absorbed heavy 2022–2025 multifamily and industrial supply waves, and the read differs by submarket and quarter, so underwriting 2021-era rent growth is the classic failure mode. A study built on a statewide average misprices nearly every deal. We underwrite South Carolina metro-by-metro, against the current pipeline, the regional funding channel, and the South Carolina-specific factors most studies miss.

What follows is organized as a working desk: a live oversupply monitor, a funding-routing map, the review failures that sink South Carolina studies, the regulatory edges that decide outcomes — the mid-transition Certificate-of-Need line, the coastal flood and insurance exposure, and the distinctive 4-percent-versus-6-percent property-tax split — and a per-metro demand fingerprint. Every figure is dated and attributed in the sources below.

The Oversupply & Pipeline Monitor

Where South Carolina markets stand, metro by metro.

A supply-pressure read for each metro and asset class, refreshed each quarter from named primary sources. A dash means we hold no current tracked reading, not that the market is balanced. Data current to Q2 2026.

Supply pressure: Oversupplied Balanced Undersupplied Digesting / softening
Metro Multifamily Self-Storage Industrial Office Hotel Pipeline
Charleston–N. Charleston Digesting92.0% occ., improving Oversupplied12.3–12.8 sf/capita Digesting15.3% vac., pipeline thinning Balancedin-migration-backed Strong70.1% occ., $168 ADR
Greenville–Spartanburg Balancedpipeline <1 yr of supply No read Tighteningvac. <10%, shortage risk Balanceddowntown revival Recovering64% occ., post-Helene
Columbia (Midlands) Balanced94.3% downtown occ. No read BalancedScout Motors tailwind Balancedgovt / USC-anchored No read
Myrtle Beach / Grand Strand Balanceddemand-led; Horry +3.2% Monitorretiree / 2nd-home churn No read No read Softening65.5% occ.; tax −10.8%
Hilton Head / Beaufort Undersuppliedretiree-constrained No read No read No read Seasonal-demand risk
Florence / Pee Dee No readmonitor No read BalancedAESC cell plant No read No read

Readings compiled from sources 2–21 below. Vendor vacancy estimates for the same metro can differ; each figure is attributed at its point of use.

Multifamily: digesting a heavy but uneven cycle

Charleston is the signature Lowcountry market and absorbed a heavy 2022–2025 supply wave amid strong in-migration. Over 5,550 units delivered in 2024, the highest annual total this century, driving average occupancy down about 100 basis points to 92.0 percent and producing modest rent declines of roughly 0.6 to 1.5 percent year over year into early 2026.24 But completions were projected to fall about 73 percent in 2025 to the lowest level since 2015, and Colliers reported 2,768 units absorbed in the first half of 2025, the strongest first-half demand since 2021, with quarterly absorption outpacing deliveries for the first time since 2022 amid 2.9 percent job growth.3 Submarket divergence is sharp: North Charleston was projected to lead 2025 rent growth near 2.8 percent, while Johns Island, Daniel Island, West Ashley, and Summerville posted 2024 rent declines of negative 0.7 to negative 3.5 percent.2 A widely syndicated, Census-based read puts Charleston–North Charleston rental vacancy near 12 percent and the statewide rate near 10.6 percent, materially higher than apartment-specific vendor figures; the range and the methodology conflict must both be shown before a pro forma relies on either.5

The Upstate is a strong, growing market working through its own pipeline: Colliers put the Greenville–Spartanburg multifamily pipeline at 2,188 units in Q2 2025, less than one year of supply on recent absorption, so the market could tighten. Columbia is the steadiest, more affordable and government- and USC-anchored, with downtown occupancy reaching 94.3 percent on 1.7 percent employment growth and a Scout Motors demand tailwind; Myrtle Beach is demand-led, with Horry County up 3.2 percent to 427,551.31

Industrial: the signature asset class, port- and auto-driven

The I-85 automotive and advanced-manufacturing corridor is one of the strongest industrial markets in the country, but it is digesting a delivery wave. More than 20 million square feet of big-box delivered in Spartanburg in 2023–24, pushing Spartanburg vacancy above 14 percent while Greenville held near 6.4 percent; by Q4 2025, 11.36 million square feet of net absorption across the year lowered Greenville–Spartanburg vacancy by 276 basis points below 10 percent, and Colliers warned of an inventory shortage through 2026.67 Inland Port Greer set a record 205,523 rail moves in FY2025, up about 10 percent, after a $55 million expansion doubled its capacity.8 In the Lowcountry, port-driven logistics plus aerospace and automotive along the I-26 and Ridgeville corridor pushed Charleston vacancy to 15.3 percent in Q2 2025 from 10.4 percent a year earlier, but net absorption stayed positive at 668,023 square feet and the speculative pipeline dropped sharply, setting up 2026 stabilization; CBRE read the same market nearer 12.9 percent, and the port closed 2025 above 2.3 million TEUs.11 Calendar-year 2025 volume ran about 2.8 million TEUs, up 2.7 percent, ranking the Port of Charleston behind Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, Savannah, Houston, and Virginia, even as SC Ports idled its newest and costliest terminal, the $1.2 billion Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal, effective August 1, 2025, after it handled less than 5 percent of core cargo.910 On the demand side, BMW's $1.7 billion EV investment, Volvo's Ridgeville plant with more than $1.3 billion invested and 2,000-plus employees, and Scout Motors' roughly $2 billion Blythewood plant targeting 4,000 direct jobs and 200,000 vehicles a year with production targeted for 2027 anchor a pipeline that must be sized to realized, not projected, employment.131214 South Carolina recruited more than $8.19 billion of industry investment in 2024 alone.14

Self-storage: a coastal per-capita overhang

South Carolina's fast-growing coastal metros carry elevated per-capita storage. Charleston offered 12.3 to 12.8 net rentable square feet per capita, well above the roughly 7.6 to 7.8 national average, on about 14.2 million square feet of inventory, with a development pipeline near 10.7 percent of existing stock and 14 planned projects totaling 1.3 million square feet. Charleston's annualized asking rate of about $14.42 per square foot sat below the roughly $16.28 national average and fell about 4.5 percent year over year, and a 10-by-10 non-climate unit averaged $126 per month.15 Charleston ranked among the top three metros nationally for under-construction pipeline as a share of stock in mid-2025, and Yardi Matrix moved the metro to secondary-market coverage in late 2025.16 The read is oversupplied in Charleston, with Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand a market to monitor given retiree and second-home churn.

Hotels: a K-shaped tourism split

The state's lodging markets have split. Charleston is top-tier: through Q3 2025 occupancy ran 70.1 percent at an average daily rate of $168.41, bucking the regional downturn on high-end strength, and tourism's economic impact reached $14 billion, with 2026 drivers including Spoleto's 50th anniversary and the new luxury waterfront hotel The Cooper.17 Myrtle Beach softened in a K-shaped way: Q3 2025 occupancy fell to 65.5 percent and the average daily rate to $155.53, economy hotels that make up half the inventory saw performance plummet as middle-income families cut discretionary spending, and 2025 occupancy fell about 3.3 percent while accommodations-tax collections fell about 10.8 percent, even as direct visitor spending reached $13.2 billion in 2024 supporting more than 82,000 jobs.1718 Greenville is recovering, at 64 percent occupancy and a $124.46 average daily rate while still absorbing Hurricane Helene's September 2024 aftereffects, against a $2.5 billion tourism impact.1719 The national backdrop is a CoStar and Tourism Economics forecast of U.S. RevPAR down 0.4 percent in 2025, the first non-pandemic decline since 2009, then up 2.9 percent in 2026.20

Senior housing and the CON distinction

Senior housing is where South Carolina's retiree in-migration meets its Certificate-of-Need transition. National senior-housing occupancy ended 2025 at 89.1 percent, the 18th consecutive quarter of increases, with independent living above 90 percent and assisted living at 87.7 percent, while year-over-year inventory growth hit a record-low 0.4 percent in Q1 2026, signaling a structural supply shortage as the first Baby Boomers turn 80 in 2026.21 Heavy retiree in-migration to Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, and Charleston drives demand, but the supply side splits sharply by license type: skilled-nursing beds remain permanently CON-capped, while assisted living is market-driven and carries the full demand burden of a feasibility study.27

The Funding-Routing Map

How a South Carolina deal actually gets funded.

Feasibility work exists to satisfy a specific reviewer. Knowing which channel funds your asset in your region is half the battle. This is the routing most feasibility pages never publish.

SBA presence in South Carolina
One district office, in Columbia, administers SBA programs statewide, with an Upstate branch.22
OfficeCoverage & detail
South Carolina District Office (Columbia)Statewide; 1835 Assembly St., Suite 1425; District Director Melissa L. Lindler
Spartanburg / Duncan branchUpstate coverage; 1875 E. Main St., Duncan

On the 504 side, South Carolina is served principally by the Business Development Corporation of South Carolina and its affiliated Certified Development Corporation, the dominant statewide 504 and 7(a) CDC, based in Columbia; the BDC was established in 1958 by the state legislature and the CDC was founded in 1994, and together they have cumulatively approved more than 2,826 loans on over $1.7 billion in projects, with the BDC alone reporting more than $2.065 billion across 3,335 loans over 68 years, now authorized in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, and Florida and designated a U.S. Treasury CDFI in 2015.23 The Appalachian Development Corporation has served the Upstate since 1982, and self-reported claims to be the state's largest are unresolved without the SBA data file. On the 7(a) side, calendar-year 2025 South Carolina dollar-volume leaders, from a broker-processed analysis of SBA loan data, ran GBank at $48.6 million across 14 loans, Huntington National Bank at $32.1 million across 76, Live Oak Banking Company at $30.9 million across 34, TD Bank at $25.2 million across 133 loans and leading by count, Newtek Bank at $21.2 million, and First-Citizens at $19.8 million; Live Oak led the entire U.S. FY2025 7(a) ranking at about $2.8 billion across 2,280 loans.24 Notably, South State Bank, headquartered in South Carolina, along with Synovus, Truist, and Wells Fargo, did not appear in that top-15 dataset, which should be verified against raw SBA data. In FY2024 South Carolina booked roughly 843 7(a) loans for about $487.6 million, an average of $578,396, about 31 percent above the national average of $443,097.25 For rural credits, USDA Business and Industry guaranteed loans route through the South Carolina Rural Development state office in Columbia; vast rural South Carolina, the I-95 corridor, the Pee Dee, and the rural Upstate and Lowcountry, is heavily USDA-eligible, and agribusiness is the state's largest industry.26 The decisive new tool is the July 4, 2026 decoupling of the 7(a) and 504 caps to $10 million combined, the highest in agency history.31

  • Upstate industrial or manufacturing (Greenville–Spartanburg–Anderson)Conventional or CMBS, or SBA 504 for owner-occupied; route 504 to the BDC/CDC of S.C. or Appalachian Development Corp.; large deals to Huntington, Live Oak, or First Citizens.
  • Charleston port, aerospace, or logisticsConventional or CMBS for institutional; SBA 504 via the BDC/CDC of S.C.; 7(a) via top-volume lenders, GBank on hospitality and TD by loan count.
  • A rural I-95, Pee Dee, or agricultural projectUSDA Business & Industry, Community Facilities, or REAP through the S.C. Rural Development state office; SBA 504 via the CDC's rural authority.
  • Owner-occupied real estate plus long-life equipment, up to $5M each legAfter July 4, 2026, stack a 7(a) up to $5M and a 504 up to $5M for $10M combined; sequence the 7(a) first.
  • An anchor for a South Carolina-headquartered banking relationshipSouth State Bank (SC-HQ) for conventional capital, despite its low SBA-ranking visibility in the broker dataset.
Common Review Failures

How South Carolina feasibility studies fail review.

Each failure below is tied to a real South Carolina number. These are the recurring reasons a South Carolina study loses credibility with a lender or agency, engineered out of our deliverables before they ship.

  1. Statewide-average error

    Blending the booming Upstate, Charleston, and Grand Strand with the rural I-95 "Corridor of Shame" produces meaningless averages. More than eighty percent of the state's post-2020 population gain came from just ten counties, and only nine of forty-six counties lost population in 2023–24.1

  2. Oversupply blindness

    Underwriting 2021-era rent growth against Charleston's 5,550-unit 2024 delivery wave, which pushed occupancy to 92.0 percent and rents to negative 0.6 to negative 1.5 percent, or Spartanburg's 20-million-square-foot big-box wave that lifted vacancy above 14 percent, is the classic error. The corrective is submarket-and-quarter granularity plus absorption tracking, such as the 2,768 Charleston units absorbed in the first half of 2025.263

  3. Megaproject and EV-timing risk

    BMW's EV and battery build-out, Scout Motors with production slipped toward 2027, and Volvo drive real demand on long timelines amid a national EV-demand slowdown. Savannah's Hyundai analog is instructive: workforce arrived slower than projected, leaving new units unfilled. Do not size to peak projected employment before it materializes.5

  4. Coastal hurricane, flood, and insurance mispricing

    Charleston Harbor hit flood stage 54 times in 2024, the seventh-worst on record across 100 years of records; NOAA projects roughly one foot of sea-level rise by 2050; and the proposed eight-mile seawall carries a roughly $1.3 billion price tag, with Charleston's share about $455 million, still contingent on a 2026 sales-tax referendum and federal appropriation. Rising property-insurance and NFIP costs must be stress-tested; Hurricane Hugo in 1989 is the benchmark.28

  5. Tourism and STR concentration misread

    Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Head are heavily tourism- and short-term-rental-dependent. The 2025 Myrtle Beach downturn, with occupancy down about 3.3 percent and accommodations-tax collections down about 10.8 percent, shows the seasonality and discretionary-spending risk, and Charleston maintains strict short-term-rental limits that constrain the model.17

  6. Rural persistent-poverty error

    The rural I-95 "Corridor of Shame," the Pee Dee, and inland agricultural counties carry persistent poverty and stagnant or declining population; eight South Carolina counties had no hospital as of the 2023 CON debate. Underwriting rural South Carolina on metro assumptions is a failure mode.28

  7. Property-tax and insurance structure

    The 4-percent-versus-6-percent assessment-ratio split means commercial and rental property can pay roughly 3.5 times the tax of an identical owner-occupied home, and manufacturing and business personal property is assessed at 10.5 percent. These must be modeled explicitly, alongside rising coastal insurance, not folded into a national assumption.29

Regulatory Edges

The South Carolina rules that decide feasibility outcomes.

Four regulatory realities separate a South Carolina study that survives review from one that does not. The first is the one competitors most often state wrong — in both directions.

Certificate of Need: a three-tier transition, not a clean repeal

South Carolina is mid-transition on Certificate of Need, and this is the single most common competitor error. 2023 Act 20 (S.164), signed by Governor Henry McMaster on May 16, 2023, renamed the statute the State Health Facility Licensure Act and substantially repealed CON under S.C. Code Section 44-7-110 et seq.; administration moved from DHEC to the new South Carolina Department of Public Health effective July 1, 2024.27 The current status runs in three tiers. Most services were repealed immediately in 2023, including ambulatory surgery centers, imaging and MRI, cath labs, laboratories, hospice, radiation therapy, rehabilitation facilities, psychiatric and substance-abuse hospitals, and most equipment, with the old $600,000 equipment cap gone, so those categories are market-driven now and carry elevated oversupply risk. Hospitals keep CON only until it sunsets January 1, 2027 under S.C. Code Section 44-7-160(C), with exemptions already in effect for intra-county relocation, in-county mergers and acquisitions, and new hospitals up to 50 beds in the eight counties without a hospital, so hospital-bed oversupply risk rises after that date. Nursing homes and skilled nursing keep CON permanently and remain supply-capped. For senior-housing feasibility, the distinction is decisive: skilled nursing is capped and lower-risk, while assisted living is market-driven and carries the full demand burden. Competitors using pre-2023 full-CON language are outdated, and those using blanket no-CON language miss both the hospitals-until-2027 window and the permanent nursing-home cap.27

The coastal flood and insurance regime

Charleston Harbor hit flood stage 54 times in 2024, one of the most active years since record-keeping began 100 years ago and the seventh-worst on record, and NOAA oceanographer William Sweet says the Holy City is set to experience about another foot of sea-level rise by 2050.28 The proposed roughly eight-mile peninsula seawall carries a roughly $1.3 billion price tag, with Charleston's share about $455 million, and remains contingent on a 2026 sales-tax referendum and a federal appropriation. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 is the historic benchmark, and rising property-insurance and NFIP costs must be stress-tested. Underwriting coastal South Carolina without hurricane, flood, and insurance stress-testing is indefensible.28

The 4%-vs-6% property-tax split

Owner-occupied primary residences are assessed at 4 percent, while commercial, rental, and non-owner-occupied residential property is assessed at 6 percent, and manufacturing and business personal property at 10.5 percent, under S.C. Constitution Article X and the Department of Revenue.29 A rental property can pay roughly 3.5 times the property tax of an identical owner-occupied home, a disparity driven by Act 388 of 2006. This materially affects investment and commercial pro formas and must be modeled explicitly, distinct from the state's falling headline income tax.

Tailwinds in the sponsor's favor

Three recent changes cut the other way. South Carolina's top income-tax rate was cut to 6.0 percent effective July 1, 2025, down from 6.2 percent in 2024 and 7 percent in 2021, and H.4216 moves the state to a two-tier structure beginning tax year 2026 with triggers toward eventual elimination;30 large incentive packages, including a $65 million closing grant for BMW's Plant Woodruff and a $1.3 billion package for Scout Motors, plus fee-in-lieu-of-tax arrangements, lower effective occupancy cost;14 and the SBA decoupled its combined 7(a)-plus-504 ceiling to $10 million effective July 4, 2026, materially enlarging bankable deal size.31

Metro Divergence

South Carolina markets, distinct demand fingerprints.

Each metro carries its own economic base and its own supply position. These are the units of analysis for a South Carolina study, and each anchors a dedicated market page.

Advanced manufacturing

Greenville–Anderson (Upstate)

The I-85 corridor anchored by the BMW supplier ecosystem, Michelin's North American headquarters, and Clemson, with roughly a million-plus combined residents. Multifamily reads balanced-to-digesting with a pipeline under a year of supply, and industrial is tightening toward shortage.7

BMW & logistics

Spartanburg

BMW's Plant Spartanburg, logistics, and the Inland Port. Population grew 3 percent to 380,857 in 2024–25, the third-fastest among U.S. metros, supporting absorption as the town digests more than 20 million square feet of recent big-box industrial deliveries.16

Government & EV

Columbia (Midlands)

Government, the University of South Carolina, and healthcare, now supercharged by the Scout Motors EV plant in Blythewood. The steadiest multifamily market in the state, with downtown occupancy at 94.3 percent, and a natural rural-USDA gateway.314

Port, aerospace & tourism

Charleston–North Charleston

The Port of Charleston, Boeing's 787 campus, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz Vans, tourism, and the military; Berkeley County grew 3.3 percent to 274,666. Multifamily is digesting and improving, self-storage is oversupplied, hotels are strong, and coastal flood exposure is a live line item.228

Tourism & retiree

Myrtle Beach–Conway (Grand Strand)

Tourism and retiree in-migration. Horry County grew 3.2 percent to 427,551, the second-fastest U.S. metro, even against a negative birth rate. Multifamily is demand-led and balanced, while hotels softened in 2025, a market to underwrite on monthly, not annual, demand.117

Resort & retirement

Hilton Head–Bluffton–Beaufort

Resort and retirement demand along the southern coast. Beaufort is fast-growing and Jasper was the fastest-growing county in the nation in 2025, up 6 percent to 38,533. Multifamily reads undersupplied and retiree-constrained; metro-level vendor data is thinner and built with primary research.1

Agriculture & healthcare

Florence / Pee Dee

Agriculture, a regional healthcare hub, and the Envision AESC battery-cell plant. Growth is slower here, and the Pee Dee is a natural landing zone for USDA Business and Industry and Community Facilities credits rather than metro-priced conventional capital.

Rural & persistent-poverty

Rural I-95 corridor

The I-95 "Corridor of Shame," the Pee Dee, and inland agricultural counties carry persistent poverty, stagnant or declining population, and, historically, eight counties without a hospital. A distinct rural economy that we underwrite with primary local research, never on metro assumptions.28

By Asset Class

South Carolina feasibility studies by asset class.

Each asset class carries its own South Carolina demand drivers, from the I-85 automotive corridor to coastal flood and insurance to the Grand Strand's tourism seasonality. Explore the analytical approach by property type.

South Carolina Questions

South Carolina feasibility study questions.

Does South Carolina require a feasibility study for an SBA loan?

Under SBA SOP 50 10 8, a feasibility study is discretionary rather than universally mandated, and lenders commonly require one for special-purpose properties and startup or ground-up projects that lack operating history. South Carolina carries a heavy concentration of special-purpose and hospitality collateral, from hotels and self-storage to senior housing and industrial, so feasibility analysis is frequently expected on South Carolina SBA credits.

Does South Carolina have a Certificate of Need law?

South Carolina is mid-transition. 2023 Act 20 (S.164, signed May 16, 2023) repealed CON immediately for most services, including ambulatory surgery centers, imaging, and most equipment; hospital CON is retained until it sunsets January 1, 2027 under S.C. Code Section 44-7-160(C); and nursing-home and skilled-nursing CON is retained permanently. Pre-2023 full-CON language is outdated, while blanket no-CON language misses both the hospital window until 2027 and the permanent nursing-home cap. The distinction is decisive for senior housing: skilled nursing is supply-capped, assisted living is market-driven.

Which South Carolina real estate markets are oversupplied right now?

As of Q2 2026, Charleston multifamily is digesting a record 5,550-unit 2024 delivery wave that pushed occupancy to about 92.0 percent, though absorption turned positive again in the first half of 2025. Charleston self-storage is oversupplied at 12.3 to 12.8 square feet per capita against a roughly 7.6 national average, and Spartanburg industrial digested more than 20 million square feet of big-box, lifting vacancy above 14 percent, even as Greenville–Spartanburg overall fell below 10 percent and Colliers now warns of shortage. Myrtle Beach hotels softened, with 2025 occupancy down about 3.3 percent.

How do South Carolina's coastal flood and insurance risks affect feasibility?

Charleston Harbor reached flood stage 54 times in 2024, one of the most active years in 100 years of records and seventh-worst on record, and NOAA projects roughly one additional foot of sea-level rise by 2050. The proposed eight-mile peninsula seawall carries a roughly $1.3 billion price tag, with Charleston's share about $455 million, still contingent on a 2026 sales-tax referendum and federal appropriation. Underwriting coastal South Carolina without hurricane, flood, and insurance stress-testing is indefensible; Hurricane Hugo in 1989 is the benchmark.

Who funds SBA and USDA loans in South Carolina?

One SBA district office in Columbia, with an Upstate branch in Duncan, administers programs statewide. SBA 504 credits route mainly through the Business Development Corporation of South Carolina and its affiliated Certified Development Corporation, with the Appalachian Development Corporation active in the Upstate. On the 7(a) side, calendar-year 2025 dollar-volume leaders include GBank, Huntington National Bank, and Live Oak Bank, which led the national 7(a) ranking. USDA Business and Industry loans route through the South Carolina Rural Development state office in Columbia, and vast rural South Carolina is USDA-eligible.

How is a South Carolina feasibility study different from a national one?

South Carolina is too internally divergent for statewide assumptions; it was the fastest-growing state in the nation by percentage in 2023–24 and 2024–25, but that growth splits across five divergent economies: the Upstate manufacturing corridor, the Charleston port-and-aerospace boom, the Columbia government-and-Scout-Motors Midlands, the Grand Strand tourism-retiree coast, and the rural I-95 corridor. A defensible study is built metro-by-metro against the current supply pipeline, the regional funding channel, and South Carolina-specific factors: the mid-transition Certificate-of-Need line, the coastal flood and insurance exposure, and the distinctive 4-percent-versus-6-percent property-tax split.

Underwriting a South Carolina project? Start with the market read.

A methodology briefing walks through the analytical framework, the deliverable composition, and the current South Carolina market data for your metro and asset class — including the Certificate-of-Need transition, coastal insurance, and property-tax factors that decide South Carolina outcomes.

Request a methodology briefing
Sources

Data sources and dates.

Every figure on this page traces to a named authority. Real-estate readings are point-in-time and vendor-dependent; where vendors disagree, the range is shown and each is attributed at its point of use.

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (South Carolina 5,479,000 as of July 1, 2024; fastest-growing state by percentage), via S.C. Department of Employment & Workforce (May 2025); county population change via The Post and Courier (March 2026) and the S.C. Association of Counties.
  2. MMG Real Estate Advisors, Charleston multifamily market report (2025).
  3. Colliers, Charleston multifamily (Q2 2025) and Greenville–Spartanburg and Columbia multifamily reports via Catalyst (2025).
  4. Palmetto STR, Charleston apartment rent data (early 2026).
  5. Stacker / iPropertyManagement, South Carolina rental-vacancy analysis citing U.S. Census data and the Savannah–Hyundai workforce-timing comparison (2025).
  6. Avison Young, Upstate (Greenville–Spartanburg) industrial market report (2025).
  7. Colliers, Greenville–Spartanburg industrial market report (Q4 2025).
  8. South Carolina Ports Authority, FY2025 results and Inland Port Greer data (July 2025).
  9. KBC Advisors, H2 2025 Top U.S. Container Report (calendar-year 2025 TEU volumes and rankings).
  10. The Post and Courier (June 2025) and Railway Age (2026), Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal idling effective August 1, 2025.
  11. Lee & Associates (Q2 2025), CBRE (Q4 2025), and Colliers (Q4 2025), Charleston industrial market reports.
  12. Charleston Regional Development Alliance, Lowcountry automotive and aerospace employer profiles (2025).
  13. BMW Group, Plant Spartanburg investment and EV data (bmwgroup-werke.com; October 2022 and 2024); U.S. Department of Commerce vehicle-production data, compiled 2025 (396,117 units in 2025; highest-volume BMW plant worldwide).
  14. South Carolina Department of Commerce and Office of the Governor, Scout Motors announcement (March 2023), incentive packages, and 2024 industry-recruitment totals (January 2025); WLTX / EV Report (2026).
  15. Multi-Housing News / Yardi Matrix, Charleston self-storage report (December 2025) and secondary-market coverage note; StorageCafe (October 2025).
  16. Yardi Matrix, national self-storage under-construction pipeline report (September 2025).
  17. College of Charleston Office of Tourism Analysis (May 2025); Colliers South Carolina hotel data via Greenville Business Magazine (2026).
  18. Myrtle Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Grand Strand accommodations and visitor-spending data (2024–2025).
  19. Visit Greenville SC, tourism-impact report (July 2025).
  20. CoStar / Tourism Economics, U.S. lodging forecast (November 2025); PwC Hospitality Directions (May 2026).
  21. NIC (National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care), citing NIC MAP senior-housing occupancy data (January 15, 2026).
  22. U.S. Small Business Administration, South Carolina District Office directory (accessed July 2026).
  23. Business Development Corporation of S.C. and Certified Development Corporation of S.C. public disclosures (businessdevelopment.org, 2026); Appalachian Development Corporation.
  24. GoSBA Loans analysis of SBA 7(a) FOIA data, South Carolina lender rankings (February and June 2026, broker-processed, medium confidence); CT Acquisitions citing Live Oak Bank fiscal 2025 results (2026).
  25. Nautix Capital citing SBA fiscal 2024 lending statistics and SBA Open Data (South Carolina 7(a) totals); GoSBA / analytics.loan calendar-year 2025 totals.
  26. USDA Rural Development, South Carolina State Office, Columbia (2026).
  27. 2023 Act 20 / S.164, State Health Facility Licensure Act (signed May 16, 2023); S.C. Code §44-7-110 et seq. and §44-7-160(C); S.C. Department of Public Health CON program (updated July 1, 2026); 2023 Act 60 / S.399 (DHEC reorganization); analyses by Nelson Mullins, Maynard Nexsen, and Shumaker (2023–2026).
  28. The Post and Courier "Rising Waters Lab," Charleston tidal-flooding and seawall reporting citing NOAA and oceanographer William Sweet (2025); Live 5 News, 2023 CON debate (eight counties without a hospital).
  29. Palmetto Promise Institute citing the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, property-tax assessment-ratio analysis; S.C. Constitution Article X; S.C. Department of Revenue and Revenue & Fiscal Affairs Office; Act 388 (2006).
  30. WLTX and National Tax Reports (2025); S.C. Department of Revenue guidance and S.C. Statehouse H.4216 (2026), income-tax rate cut and two-tier restructuring.
  31. SBA Policy Notice 5000-879058 (dated May 18, 2026; effective July 4, 2026) and News Release 26-52 (July 7, 2026), combined 7(a)-plus-504 cap of $10 million; NAGGL summary (May 2026).