Quick Answer: Net Operating Income (NOI) measures a property's income after operating expenses but before debt service, capital expenditures, and taxes. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) is a corporate-level metric that includes management overhead and entity-level expenses NOI excludes. In multifamily, NOI evaluates individual properties while EBITDA evaluates the operating company or portfolio.
For a deep dive into each metric individually, see our full NOI guide.
What Is NOI?
Net Operating Income is the standard property-level profitability metric in commercial real estate. It tells you how much income a property generates from operations alone, stripping out financing, capital improvements, and tax structure.
Operating expenses include property taxes, insurance, maintenance, management fees, and utilities
Example: A 150-unit property with $2.7M in effective gross income and $1.2M in operating expenses produces an NOI of $1,500,000.
What Is EBITDA?
EBITDA measures total earnings for an entity — whether that is a single property, a portfolio, or an entire operating company — before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization are deducted. In multifamily, EBITDA is most common in portfolio-level analysis and corporate valuations.
Or: NOI − Corporate Overhead − G&A + Non-Cash Charges
Example: A portfolio with $1.5M NOI, $120K in corporate G&A, $180K depreciation, and $40K amortization has EBITDA of ($1,500,000 − $120,000 + $180,000 + $40,000) = $1,600,000.
Key Differences: NOI vs EBITDA
| Factor | NOI | EBITDA |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Single property | Entity or portfolio |
| Corporate overhead | Excluded | Included (then added back) |
| Depreciation | Not a factor | Added back to net income |
| Capital expenditures | Excluded | Excluded |
| Debt service | Excluded | Interest added back |
| Primary use | Property valuation (cap rate) | Corporate valuation, lender analysis |
| Industry standard | Real estate | All industries |
When to Use Each Metric
Use NOI when: Evaluating a single property's operating performance, calculating cap rates for acquisition or disposition pricing, underwriting a new deal, or comparing properties within a portfolio. NOI is the language of property-level real estate.
Use EBITDA when: Assessing corporate or portfolio-level profitability, comparing a real estate operating company to businesses in other sectors, or working with lenders who want entity-level debt coverage. REITs and institutional investors frequently report EBITDA alongside NOI.
How NOI and EBITDA Relate in Practice
For a single asset with no corporate overhead, NOI and EBITDA are nearly identical — the only difference is depreciation and amortization treatment. As portfolio complexity grows, the gap widens. A 50-property portfolio may have $25M in combined NOI but only $22M in EBITDA after accounting for corporate salaries, legal, accounting, and technology costs.
Asset managers tracking both metrics can isolate whether performance changes stem from property operations (reflected in NOI) or from entity-level cost structure (reflected in EBITDA). This distinction is critical during investor reporting periods and refinancing conversations. Use our NOI calculator to model property-level income, and explore how BubbleGum BI's financial dashboards track both metrics across your portfolio automatically.
Track NOI and EBITDA Across Your Portfolio
BubbleGum BI calculates NOI, EBITDA, and 50+ operating metrics across every property in your portfolio — updated automatically from your property management system.
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