EveryCalc

Finance category

Mortgage, loan, investing, tax, and money calculators.

Browse finance

Rent Roll Vacancy Gap Calculator

Gross potential rent is what the building could produce if every unit were at market and every tenant paid on time. Reality is always lower. This calculator drills the gap into six separate leakages — loss-to-lease, physical vacancy, turn downtime, concessions, bad debt, and non-revenue units — so you can see which one is actually hurting.

$
$

Rent roll average

%
%
%
%

Model, employee, offline

Total vacancy & leakage gap

$100,915

Economic occupancy

79.69%

Effective gross income

$395,885

Gross market potential

$496,800

Loss-to-lease (below market)

$41,760

Physical vacancy loss

$27,302

Turn / downtime loss

$11,945

Concession loss

$8,532

Bad debt loss

$9,101

Model / down unit loss

$2,275

Gap % of market

20.31%

How the math works

The rent roll shows scheduled rent, but actual collections are always lower by six distinct leakages: loss-to-lease (below-market rents), physical vacancy, turn downtime, concessions, bad debt, and non-revenue units (model, employee, down). This calculator rolls all six into a single economic-occupancy number. Strong operators run 92-95%, mediocre properties 85-90%, distressed sub-80%.

Underwriters stress-test each leakage separately because mixing them hides problems. A property at 96% physical occupancy with 12% bad debt has the same EGI as one at 88% occupancy with 0% bad debt — but the second is far easier to fix through marketing. Always break the gap apart so your value-add thesis targets the actual weakness.

How to Use

  1. Enter unit count, market rent, and your in-place rent roll average.
  2. Set physical vacancy rate from your operations report.
  3. Estimate downtime (days) between leases and annual turnover rate.
  4. Add average concession (free rent months) given to new tenants.
  5. Estimate bad-debt / collection loss from your A/R aging.
  6. Include model, employee, or permanently down units.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's loss-to-lease?

The difference between market rent and your in-place rent roll. If market is $1,800 and your average tenant pays $1,650, you have $150/month/unit of loss-to-lease. It's the single largest leakage at most stabilized properties and the primary lever in a value-add business plan.

What's a good economic occupancy?

Class-A urban: 93-96%. Class-B garden: 90-93%. Class-C / workforce: 85-90%. Anything below 85% suggests one of the six leakages is broken — usually bad debt, rarely marketing. Top-quartile operators run 95-97% sustained.

How does this differ from physical occupancy?

Physical occupancy only measures 'is the unit rented?' Economic occupancy measures 'is the unit paying market rent in full?' A 98% physical but 85% economic property has a massive hidden problem — usually concession burn-off plus bad debt.

What should I attack first?

Look at the biggest leakage. If loss-to-lease dominates, it's a renewal/turn strategy problem. If bad debt dominates, tighten screening. If concessions dominate, your marketing is weak — raise asking, cut concession. If downtime dominates, fix the make-ready process. Vacancy is rarely the actual problem.

Related Calculators

More Finance Calculators

Browse all finance

Keep exploring

Next steps in Finance

View finance hub →