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Vacancy Rate Calculator

Enter vacant units and total units to find the vacancy rate.

Result

14.58%
85.42%
41

How it is calculated

The tool counts units on a single date: vacancy % = vacant units / total units × 100 and occupancy % = 100 − vacancy %. It also gives occupied = total − vacant as a whole number. Both fields are unit counts, not rent amounts or square metres. The total must be at least 1, vacant units cannot be negative, and vacant cannot exceed total, otherwise no result is shown. Percentages are given with two decimals. The result is a physical vacancy rate at one moment; it does not weigh units by rent or account for tenants who are in a unit but not paying, so it can differ from an economic vacancy rate.

Worked example

An apartment building has 48 units and 7 are empty today. Vacancy: 7 / 48 × 100 = 14.58%. Occupancy: 100 − 14.58 = 85.42%. Occupied units: 48 − 7 = 41. If one more unit were leased tomorrow, vacant would drop to 6 and the rate to 12.50%. This is the headcount view; if the 7 empty units are the largest and highest-rent ones, the share of potential rent lost is higher than 14.58%.

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Common mistakes

  • Dividing vacant units by occupied units instead of by total units. 7 / 41 gives 17.07%, which overstates the vacancy rate.
  • Counting units that are leased but not yet moved into as vacant, or units under renovation as occupied. Decide a rule and apply it consistently from month to month.
  • Comparing a rate from a single day with an average over a year. A snapshot taken right after a lease expiry date can look worse than the typical level.
  • Treating the result as lost income. Vacancy by headcount ignores rent differences between units, so the share of lost rent can be different.

Sources

About this calculator

The vacancy rate measures the percentage of rentable units in a property or market that are unoccupied and not generating rental income at a given point in time, calculated as the number of vacant units divided by the total number of units, multiplied by 100. A related figure, economic vacancy rate, factors in lost rent from concessions and non-paying tenants rather than just physical occupancy.

Landlords and property managers track vacancy rate to gauge how well a building is performing against the local market average — a rate significantly above the market benchmark signals pricing, condition, or marketing problems — while real estate investors use it to estimate effective gross income by discounting potential rental income for expected vacancy and credit loss when underwriting a purchase.

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