property calculator

Vacancy Rate & Loss Calculator

Price vacancy in unit-days, add concessions and delinquency, and see economic vacancy against physical.

Physical Vacancy = Vacant Unit-Days ÷ (Units × 365) × 100, while economic vacancy divides every dollar of lost income — vacancy, concessions, and delinquency — by gross potential rent. Example: a four-unit building at $1,450 a unit with 96 vacant unit-days shows 6.58% physical vacancy and $4,576 of lost rent, but 10.16% economic vacancy once $1,450 of concessions and 1.5% delinquency are counted.

Quick actions: Save inputs, view saved runs, print, share, or export results

Saved Runs

Inputs

Number of Units

Average Monthly Rent Per Unit$

Vacant Unit-Days Per Year (all units combined)days

Annual Concessions (free rent, discounts)$

Delinquency Rate%

Turnovers Per Year

Cost Per Turnover$

Results

Economic Vacancy Rate

10.16%

Physical Vacancy Rate6.58%

Occupancy Rate93.42%

Gross Potential Rent$69,600

Daily Rent Per Unit$47.67

Vacancy Loss$4,576

Concessions$1,450

Delinquency Loss$1,044

Total Income Lost$7,070

Effective Gross Income$62,530

Turnover Cost (an expense)$3,600

Total Vacancy Impact$10,670

Average Days Vacant Per Unit24 days

Tip

Run it at year end against what actually happened, not just at underwriting against what you hoped would happen.

Formula

Vacancy and loss formulas

Gross Potential Rent = Units × Monthly Rent × 12
Daily Rent = Annual Rent per Unit ÷ 365

Physical Vacancy % = Vacant Unit-Days ÷ (Units × 365) × 100
Vacancy Loss = Vacant Unit-Days × Daily Rent

Economic Loss = Vacancy Loss + Concessions + Delinquency
Economic Vacancy % = Economic Loss ÷ Gross Potential Rent × 100
Effective Gross Income = Gross Potential Rent − Economic Loss

Physical vacancy counts empty units; economic vacancy counts lost dollars, and it is always the larger of the two because a unit can be occupied and still not producing full rent. Turnover cost is deliberately kept outside both: make-ready work and leasing fees are operating expenses that reduce net operating income, not income losses that reduce effective gross income, and folding them into a vacancy rate double-counts them against cap rate.

Step by step

How the calculation works

1Enter vacant days as unit-days across the whole property, not days per unit. Count from the day the previous tenant's rent stopped, including time spent on make-ready work before the unit was listed — measuring only from the listing date is the most common way vacancy gets understated.
2Pricing vacancy in days rather than as a percentage is the point of this tool. Once you know what one empty day costs, the value of a faster turn becomes concrete rather than theoretical.
3Concessions are free-rent or discount promotions on occupied units, and delinquency is billed rent that never arrives. Neither shows up in an occupancy report, which is why a property can report 95% occupancy while its income runs 10% below gross potential.
4Use the effective gross income figure as the starting point for the [net operating income calculator](/calculators/net-operating-income-calculator) instead of gross rent. That single substitution removes most of the optimism from a rental pro forma, and the [rental property ROI calculator](/calculators/rental-property-roi-calculator) then carries it through to a return.
5Retention is the strongest lever on all of these at once: a renewal avoids the vacant days, the concession, and the turnover cost together. Price the trade-off with the [rent increase calculator](/calculators/rent-increase-calculator) before pushing a renewal rent.

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Start NOI from effective gross income, not gross rent.

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Weigh a renewal increase against the vacancy it might trigger.

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Break-Even Rent Calculator

How many empty days the property can absorb before it stops covering itself.

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Rental Property ROI Calculator

Carry the effective gross income through to a full return picture.

property calculator

Vacancy Rate & Loss Calculator

Price vacancy in unit-days, add concessions and delinquency, and see economic vacancy against physical.

Quick actions: Save inputs, view saved runs, print, share, or export results

Saved Runs

Inputs

Number of Units

Average Monthly Rent Per Unit$

Vacant Unit-Days Per Year (all units combined)days

Annual Concessions (free rent, discounts)$

Delinquency Rate%

Turnovers Per Year

Cost Per Turnover$

Results

Economic Vacancy Rate

10.16%

Physical Vacancy Rate6.58%

Occupancy Rate93.42%

Gross Potential Rent$69,600

Daily Rent Per Unit$47.67

Vacancy Loss$4,576

Concessions$1,450

Delinquency Loss$1,044

Total Income Lost$7,070

Effective Gross Income$62,530

Turnover Cost (an expense)$3,600

Total Vacancy Impact$10,670

Average Days Vacant Per Unit24 days

Tip

Run it at year end against what actually happened, not just at underwriting against what you hoped would happen.

Summary

Key output metrics

Economic Vacancy

10.16%

Against 6.58% physical vacancy

Total Income Lost

$7,070

Effective gross income $62,530

Cost of One Vacant Day

$47.67

24 days empty per unit this year

D3 visualization

Where Gross Potential Rent Goes

Vacancy is rarely the whole story. Concessions and unpaid rent widen the gap between what the rent roll says and what arrives.

Guide

How to understand and use this calculator

Quick Answer — How Do You Calculate a Vacancy Rate?

Physical vacancy divides vacant unit-days by available unit-days: Physical Vacancy = (Vacant Unit-Days)/(Units × 365) × 100. Economic vacancy divides every dollar of lost income by gross potential rent, which is a larger and more useful number.

The chain, in order:

Gross Potential Rent = Units × Monthly Rent × 12
Vacancy Loss = Vacant Unit-Days × (Annual Rent per Unit ÷ 365)
Economic Loss = Vacancy Loss + Concessions + Delinquency
Effective Gross Income = Gross Potential Rent − Economic Loss

Worked example: a four-unit building at $1,450 a unit has $69,600 of gross potential rent and a daily rent of $47.67 per unit. 96 vacant unit-days is 6.58% physical vacancy and $4,576.44 of lost rent. Add $1,450 of concessions and 1.5% delinquency ($1,044) and total income loss is $7,070.44 — an economic vacancy of 10.16%, well above the physical figure. Effective gross income is $62,529.56.

Turnover costs sit outside that calculation because they are expenses, not lost income. Two turnovers at $1,800 each adds $3,600, taking the total hit to $10,670.44 — over 15% of gross potential rent.

How to Use This Calculator: A Four-Unit Building

Start with the unit count and the average monthly rent, which set gross potential rent — the income the property would produce fully occupied at asking rent, with everyone paying. That is the denominator for everything that follows.

Enter vacant days as unit-days across the whole property, not days per unit. Four units with 96 vacant unit-days averages 24 days empty per unit over the year, which is a normal-looking result for a building with two turnovers. Pricing it in days rather than as a percentage is the point: at $47.67 a day, every extra week a unit sits empty costs $333.70, which makes the value of a faster turn concrete.

Concessions are the free-rent and discount promotions used to fill units. A single month free on one lease is $1,450 of income that never arrives even though the unit shows as occupied. This is the classic gap between the occupancy report and the bank statement.

Delinquency is unpaid rent on occupied units. At 1.5% of gross potential rent that is $1,044 here. Together, concessions and delinquency raise the loss from the 6.58% physical figure to a 10.16% economic one — a difference of $2,494 that a physical vacancy rate alone would never show. Feed the resulting effective gross income into the net operating income calculator rather than starting from gross rent, which is the most common way rental underwriting inflates itself.

A Second Example: One Unit, One Slow Turn

Small portfolios feel vacancy far more sharply because there is nothing to average against. Take a single unit renting at $2,200 that sat empty for 45 days between tenants, with no concessions and no delinquency.

Gross potential rent is $26,400 and the daily rent is $72.33. Forty-five vacant days is 12.33% physical vacancy — nearly double the four-unit example — and $3,254.79 of lost rent. Effective gross income falls to $23,145.21.

Add a single turnover at $2,600 for paint, cleaning, a locksmith, and a leasing fee, and the total impact is $5,854.79, or 22.2% of gross potential rent. On a property that might have been underwritten at a 5% vacancy allowance, the real first-year figure is more than four times that.

This is why the standard 5% planning assumption is dangerous for single units. Five percent of a year is 18 days — barely enough to turn a unit at all if anything needs doing. A more honest approach for a single-family rental is to budget the actual expected downtime between tenants and the actual expected tenancy length: a unit that turns every two years with a 45-day gap runs closer to 6% vacancy on average, and one that turns annually runs at 12%. The break-even rent calculator converts that directly into how many empty days the property can absorb before it stops covering itself.

Physical Vacancy, Economic Vacancy, and Turnover Cost

Physical vacancy counts empty units. It is what occupancy reports show and what most underwriting uses, and it systematically understates the problem because a unit can be occupied and still not producing full rent.

Economic vacancy counts lost dollars. It captures the same empty units plus free-rent concessions, below-market renewals, and rent that was billed but never collected. In the four-unit example it is 10.16% against a 6.58% physical rate — the gap is more than half again as large as the headline number. When a property's occupancy is reported at 95% but its income is 10% below gross potential, the difference is concessions and delinquency, and it is worth finding out which.

Turnover cost is a third category and belongs in the expense line, not the vacancy line. Make-ready painting, cleaning, carpet, locks, and the leasing fee for finding a new tenant are real cash out the door, but they reduce net operating income as expenses rather than reducing effective gross income. Mixing them into a vacancy rate double-counts them against cap rate and makes the expense ratio look artificially low.

The practical lever in all three is tenant retention. A renewal at a slightly below-market rent avoids the vacant days, the concession needed to fill the unit, and the turnover cost all at once — which is why the rent increase calculator and this page are best used together. An increase that gains $100 a month but triggers a 45-day vacancy plus a $2,600 turn is a loss of roughly $4,600 in exchange for $1,200 a year.

Limitations

This calculator performs exact arithmetic on the figures you enter, and the output is only as good as your record of vacant days. Most landlords underestimate them, because the count that matters runs from the day the previous tenant's rent stops to the day the new tenant's rent starts — not from the day the unit was listed. Days spent on make-ready work before listing are vacant days.

It uses a single average rent across all units, so a building with a wide spread between unit types will produce an approximate gross potential rent. It also uses a simple 365-day year and does not model seasonality, even though leasing markets are strongly seasonal in most places and a lease that expires in December is materially more expensive to turn than one expiring in June. Nor does it model lease-expiration clustering, where several units come up at once and a soft month hits the whole property.

Delinquency here is entered as a percentage of gross potential rent and treated as permanently lost. In practice some arrears are recovered, some are recovered only after an eviction that costs more than the arrears, and the accounting treatment differs between cash and accrual reporting. Treat the figure as a planning allowance. This is a general educational tool, not investment advice — verify assumptions against your own operating history and consult a qualified professional before making decisions on a specific property.

Related Calculators

Feed the effective gross income from this page into the Net Operating Income Calculator rather than starting from gross rent — that single substitution fixes most of the optimism in a rental pro forma. The Break-Even Rent Calculator converts the same numbers into how many vacant days the property can survive, the Property Cash Flow Calculator carries them through to monthly cash, and the Rental Property ROI Calculator puts them into a full return. Before raising a rent that might trigger a turn, price the risk with the Rent Increase Calculator.

Related concepts

Gross Potential Rent

What the property would collect fully occupied at asking rent with no losses. The denominator every vacancy figure is measured against.

Effective Gross Income

Gross potential rent less vacancy, concessions, and delinquency. The correct starting point for a net operating income calculation.

Economic Vacancy

Every dollar of rent not collected, expressed as a percentage of gross potential rent. Always at least as large as physical vacancy, often much larger.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you calculate a vacancy rate for a rental property?+

Divide vacant unit-days by available unit-days and multiply by 100. A four-unit building with 96 vacant unit-days over a year has 96 ÷ (4 × 365) = 6.58% physical vacancy. Pricing it in days rather than a guessed percentage is what makes the number defensible.

What is the difference between physical and economic vacancy?+

Physical vacancy counts empty units; economic vacancy counts lost dollars. A property can be fully occupied and still lose income to free-rent concessions, below-market leases, and unpaid rent. In the worked example, 6.58% physical vacancy corresponds to 10.16% economic vacancy — a $2,494 difference on a $69,600 rent roll.

What is a good vacancy rate?+

It depends heavily on market and property type, and a single-family rental behaves very differently from a multi-unit building. The 5% planning figure used in most pro formas is 18 days a year, which is barely enough to turn a unit at all — realistic for a stabilised building with long tenancies, optimistic for a single unit that turns often.

How much does one vacant month cost?+

One month at the daily rate, plus whatever it takes to fill the unit. At $1,450 a month the daily rent is $47.67, so 30 empty days is $1,430 — before any concession offered to fill it and before make-ready costs. On a $2,200 unit, a 45-day gap is $3,254.79.

Should turnover costs be included in the vacancy rate?+

No. Turnover costs are operating expenses, not lost income, and they reduce net operating income rather than effective gross income. Folding them into a vacancy rate double-counts them and makes the operating expense ratio look artificially low. Track them separately, as this calculator does.

What counts as a vacant day?+

Every day between the last tenant's rent stopping and the next tenant's rent starting, including time spent on make-ready work before the unit was even listed. Counting only from the listing date is the most common way vacancy gets understated.

How do concessions affect the vacancy rate?+

They do not touch the physical rate at all, which is exactly the problem. One month free on a $1,450 unit is $1,450 of income that never arrives while the unit reports as occupied. Concessions belong in economic vacancy, which is why a property can show 95% occupancy and 10% economic vacancy at the same time.

How do you reduce vacancy loss?+

Retention is the biggest lever, because a renewal avoids the vacant days, the concession, and the turnover cost simultaneously. A $100 monthly increase that triggers a 45-day vacancy plus a $2,600 turnover costs roughly $4,600 to gain $1,200 a year. Beyond that: start marketing before the current tenant leaves, and shorten make-ready time.

Formula

Vacancy and loss formulas

Gross Potential Rent = Units × Monthly Rent × 12
Daily Rent = Annual Rent per Unit ÷ 365

Physical Vacancy % = Vacant Unit-Days ÷ (Units × 365) × 100
Vacancy Loss = Vacant Unit-Days × Daily Rent

Economic Loss = Vacancy Loss + Concessions + Delinquency
Economic Vacancy % = Economic Loss ÷ Gross Potential Rent × 100
Effective Gross Income = Gross Potential Rent − Economic Loss

Step by step

How the calculation works

1Enter vacant days as unit-days across the whole property, not days per unit. Count from the day the previous tenant's rent stopped, including time spent on make-ready work before the unit was listed — measuring only from the listing date is the most common way vacancy gets understated.
2Pricing vacancy in days rather than as a percentage is the point of this tool. Once you know what one empty day costs, the value of a faster turn becomes concrete rather than theoretical.
3Concessions are free-rent or discount promotions on occupied units, and delinquency is billed rent that never arrives. Neither shows up in an occupancy report, which is why a property can report 95% occupancy while its income runs 10% below gross potential.
4Use the effective gross income figure as the starting point for the [net operating income calculator](/calculators/net-operating-income-calculator) instead of gross rent. That single substitution removes most of the optimism from a rental pro forma, and the [rental property ROI calculator](/calculators/rental-property-roi-calculator) then carries it through to a return.
5Retention is the strongest lever on all of these at once: a renewal avoids the vacant days, the concession, and the turnover cost together. Price the trade-off with the [rent increase calculator](/calculators/rent-increase-calculator) before pushing a renewal rent.

Related guides

Learn more about this calculation

Guide

Vacancy Rate & Loss Calculator

Inputs

Results

Vacancy and loss formulas

How the calculation works

Learn more about this calculation

Airbnb ROI Guide: How to Calculate Cap Rate, Cash Flow, and Cash-on-Cash Return

How to Use Do The Calculation Calculators: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide

Net Operating Income Calculator

Rent Increase Calculator

Break-Even Rent Calculator

Rental Property ROI Calculator

Key facts

Vacancy Rate & Loss Calculator

Inputs

Results

Key output metrics

Where Gross Potential Rent Goes

How to understand and use this calculator

Quick Answer — How Do You Calculate a Vacancy Rate?

How to Use This Calculator: A Four-Unit Building

A Second Example: One Unit, One Slow Turn

Physical Vacancy, Economic Vacancy, and Turnover Cost

Limitations

Related Calculators

Related concepts

Frequently Asked Questions

Vacancy and loss formulas

How the calculation works

Learn more about this calculation

Airbnb ROI Guide: How to Calculate Cap Rate, Cash Flow, and Cash-on-Cash Return

How to Use Do The Calculation Calculators: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide

Net Operating Income Calculator

Rent Increase Calculator

Break-Even Rent Calculator

Rental Property ROI Calculator

Key facts

Key output metrics

Where Gross Potential Rent Goes

How to understand and use this calculator

Quick Answer — How Do You Calculate a Vacancy Rate?

How to Use This Calculator: A Four-Unit Building

A Second Example: One Unit, One Slow Turn

Physical Vacancy, Economic Vacancy, and Turnover Cost

Limitations

Related Calculators

Related concepts

Frequently Asked Questions