The overall costs that are incidental to real estate property ownership. These costs include maintenance expenses, insurance costs, taxes and levies, etc. Holding costs in real estate are the recurring expenses paid by an investor during the holding period (the period of time during which the property is held). These costs are a function of an array of factors including a property’s age, location, type of financing, etc. Holding costs have to be set against the total acquisition cost of a property for an investor to decide whether it is viable to hold the property or not.

Holding costs are also known as carrying costs or carrying charges.