Vacancy Rate Calculator
Measure physical and economic vacancy across your rental portfolio. See the true dollar cost of empty units, turnover, uncollected rent, and concessions — plus how it drags on income, cap rate, and value.
| Vacancy | Occupancy | Annual Loss | Eff. Gross Income | Value Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calculate to see sensitivity | ||||
How to use the vacancy rate calculator
Four quick steps turn your unit count, rent, and empty time into a full vacancy picture — physical and economic vacancy, the annual cost, the value impact, and a downloadable PDF.
Enter your portfolio
Units, the measurement period, market rent per unit, and any other income.
Add vacancy & turnover
Vacant unit-months, turnovers, cost per turn, and average days to re-lease.
Add economic factors
Uncollected rent, concessions, a cap rate, and your market benchmark.
Read results & save a PDF
See rates, cost, value impact, and sensitivity — then download the report.
How the vacancy rate is calculated
Physical vacancy is one simple ratio: vacant unit-months divided by total available unit-months. Economic vacancy builds on it by adding the rent you never collected and the concessions you gave away. Here is the exact math the calculator runs.
Worked example — a 20-unit building, 14 vacant unit-months, $1,500 rent
Total unit-months: 20 × 12 = 240
Physical vacancy: 14 ÷ 240 = 5.8%
Occupancy: 100% − 5.8% = 94.2%
Vacancy loss: 14 × 1,500 = 21,000 / yr
≈ 5.8% physical vacancy and $21,000 in lost rent — before turnover, uncollected rent, and concessions push the economic cost higher.
Vacancy rate charts
Handy lookups for the questions people ask most — vacancy rate by units empty, what the ranges mean, the annual cost at each rate, and how vacancy translates into a value impact. Ranges are general guidance; local markets vary.
| Avg units empty | 10 units | 20 units | 50 units | 100 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 unit | 10.0% | 5.0% | 2.0% | 1.0% |
| 2 units | 20.0% | 10.0% | 4.0% | 2.0% |
| 3 units | 30.0% | 15.0% | 6.0% | 3.0% |
| 5 units | 50.0% | 25.0% | 10.0% | 5.0% |
Vacancy rate ≈ average units empty ÷ total units. The larger the portfolio, the less each empty unit moves the overall rate.
| Vacancy range | General read | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 3% | Very tight — strong demand | Rents may be below market |
| 3 – 5% | Healthy — well managed | A common target |
| 5 – 8% | Normal — typical range | Market average for many areas |
| 8 – 10% | Elevated — watch closely | Check pricing & turnover |
| 10%+ | High — occupancy problem | Needs a leasing plan |
These are rough, market-dependent bands. High-demand and rent-controlled areas often run lower, while soft or overbuilt markets run higher — always compare within the same market.
| Vacancy rate | Occupancy | Annual loss |
|---|---|---|
| 3% | 97% | $10,800 |
| 5% | 95% | $18,000 |
| 8% | 92% | $28,800 |
| 10% | 90% | $36,000 |
Annual loss = vacancy rate × gross potential rent. Uncollected rent, concessions, and turnover costs sit on top of this to form the total cost of vacancy.
| Cap rate | Annual cost | Est. value impact |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | $20,000 | $400,000 |
| 6% | $20,000 | $333,333 |
| 7% | $20,000 | $285,714 |
| 8% | $20,000 | $250,000 |
Value impact = annual vacancy cost ÷ cap rate. This treats the cost as a permanent drag on net operating income, so a lower cap rate implies a larger value hit.
| Measure | Based on | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Physical vacancy | Empty unit-time | Track occupancy |
| Economic vacancy | Lost + uncollected + concessions | Measure true income loss |
Physical vacancy is the quick occupancy read; economic vacancy is the fuller income measure. A unit can be occupied yet still leak income through delinquency or a move-in special.
unit-months
unit-months
rate
Vacancy is one clean division: take the vacant unit-months, divide by the total available unit-months, and read the rate that shows how much rentable time went unused.
- Vacant unit-months — the sum of months each unit sat empty.
- Total unit-months — units multiplied by the months in the period.
- Vacancy rate — the lower it is, the less rent you lose to empty units.
Everything the calculator works out
A handful of inputs give you the complete vacancy picture — the rates, the dollars lost, and the context to act on them.
Key figures behind vacancy
Built for any rental owner
From a single rental to a large portfolio, the same calculator turns empty time into the numbers you need to price, budget, and act.
Wants to see what each empty week really costs and whether the current rent is helping or hurting occupancy.
- Cost each vacant month in dollars
- Weigh rent vs. days on market
- Budget turnover per unit
Tracks economic vacancy across many units and how it drags on effective gross income and property value.
- Compare physical vs. economic vacancy
- See the cap-rate value impact
- Benchmark against the market
Focuses on cutting downtime between leases and keeping turnover costs from quietly eating into returns.
- Track days to re-lease
- Model turnover cost per year
- Set an occupancy target
7 tips for managing vacancy well
A few habits keep vacancy low and stop hidden losses from creeping into your income.
Vacancy rate calculator FAQ
The definition, calculation, benchmark, and cost questions people ask most about the vacancy rate.
The vacancy rate is the share of a rental property or portfolio that sits empty over a period. Physical vacancy is vacant unit-months divided by total available unit-months, shown as a percentage.
A 20-unit building over 12 months has 240 total unit-months. If units sat empty for 14 of those, the physical vacancy rate is about 5.8%. It is one of the clearest signals of how well a property is leased and how much rent is being lost to empty space.
Divide the vacant unit-months by the total available unit-months and multiply by 100. Total unit-months is the number of units times the number of months in the period.
For example, 3 units empty for 2 months each is 6 vacant unit-months. Across a 10-unit building over 12 months that is 6 ÷ 120 = 5%. Occupancy is just the mirror image: 100 percent minus the vacancy rate.
It depends on the market, but many well-run rentals target a physical vacancy of roughly 5 to 8 percent, with anything under 5 percent considered tight. Lower is generally better because empty units earn no rent.
A very low rate can also mean rents are set below market, leaving money on the table, while a high rate points to pricing, condition, or turnover problems. Compare your vacancy to similar properties in the same local market rather than to a national figure.
Physical vacancy measures empty unit-time — how long units sat without a tenant. Economic vacancy measures lost income, adding uncollected or delinquent rent and concessions on top of the physical vacancy loss.
Economic vacancy is almost always higher, because a unit can be occupied yet still not paying full rent. Physical vacancy tells you about occupancy; economic vacancy tells you about the real dollars missing from gross income.
Start with lost rent — vacant unit-months multiplied by the market rent — then add the costs of filling the units again: turnover such as make-ready, cleaning, marketing, and leasing, plus uncollected rent and concessions.
For a $1,500 unit empty for one month, the lost rent alone is $1,500, and a typical turnover cost pushes the true cost higher. The total cost of vacancy is the full annual sum of lost rent, turnover, uncollected rent, and concessions.
Turnover is a tenant moving out and being replaced. Each turnover creates downtime — the days a unit sits empty between leases — and a direct cost to make it ready and re-lease it.
Turnover rate is turnovers divided by units. High turnover drives vacancy up twice: through empty days and through repeated make-ready and leasing costs. Cutting the average days to re-lease, or reducing turnover itself, is one of the fastest ways to lower vacancy loss.
They are two sides of the same figure. Occupancy is the share of unit-time that is leased; vacancy is the share that is empty. Together they always add to 100 percent.
If a property is 94 percent occupied, it has a 6 percent vacancy rate. Owners often quote occupancy because it sounds positive, but vacancy rate is more useful for pinpointing lost rent and comparing the true income drag between properties.
Vacancy lowers effective gross income and therefore net operating income, and value tends to move with net income. One way to estimate the drag is to divide the annual cost of vacancy by the market cap rate.
If vacancy costs $20,000 a year and the cap rate is 6 percent, the estimated value impact is about $333,000. Because this treats the cost as a lasting income reduction, persistent vacancy can cut value far more than a single year of lost rent suggests.
General Estimating Notice: This calculator computes physical and economic vacancy, the cost of vacancy, and a related value estimate from the figures you enter. Vacancy metrics are screening tools — results depend on the accuracy of your unit counts, rents, turnover, uncollected rent, and concessions, and value impact assumes the annual cost is a permanent drag on net operating income at the stated cap rate. Typical vacancy ranges vary widely by market. Figures are illustrations, not a valuation, appraisal, or financial advice. Verify against your rent roll and run a full analysis with a qualified professional before any decision. For planning purposes only.