Vacancy and occupancy rates for one let, a block or a portfolio, with the rent lost and every step shown.
Vacancy rate
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Enter a time, units or rent to see the vacancy rate.
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Enter how long a property stood empty, how many units in a block are empty, or the rent you could have collected and the rent you received. You get the vacancy rate, the occupancy rate and, with a rent, the rent lost. Rates are rounded to two decimal places and amounts to the nearest penny. If a home has been empty for a long time, open ‘Empty for a long time?’ to see whether your council can charge a Council Tax premium.
Enter the void period in days, weeks or months, and the period it falls in. Leave the period empty for one year: 365 days, 52 weeks or 12 months. With the monthly rent, the rent lost is worked out counting a week as 12/52 of a month and a day as 12/365.
Enter the total number of units and how many are empty on a given day: flats, houses, offices or shops. With an average monthly rent per unit, you also see the rent lost over a year if nothing changes.
Enter the rent the property would have brought in if let all the time, and the rent actually received over the same period. The shortfall as a share of the full rent is the economic vacancy rate: it also counts arrears and rent-free periods, which a void period does not.
Say how many whole months a home has been empty without a break, and which part of the UK it is in. In England, your council can add a premium once a home has been unoccupied and substantially unfurnished for a year: up to 100%, up to 200% after 5 years and up to 300% after 10 years. In Wales the premium can reach 300% after a year. In Scotland, since 1 April 2026, Council Tax on a home empty for more than 12 months is doubled unless the council sets another rate. Northern Ireland has domestic rates, which are the same for empty and lived-in homes.
Vacancy rate = time empty ÷ period × 100, or empty units ÷ units × 100.
Economic vacancy rate = (rent if fully let − rent received) ÷ rent if fully let × 100.
Occupancy rate = 100% − vacancy rate.
Rent lost = monthly rent × time empty in months.
Between two tenancies, the flat stood empty for 3 weeks of the year. The vacancy rate is 3 ÷ 52 × 100 = 5.77%, an occupancy rate of 94.23%, or the equivalent of 21.1 empty days a year. Of £11,400.00 of rent for the year, £657.69 is lost and £10,742.31 received. In a block of 25 flats with 2 empty, let at £1,100 a month on average, the vacancy rate is 8% and the rent lost comes to £26,400.00 over a year.
Divide the time a property stood empty by the period you are looking at, then multiply by 100. A flat empty for 3 weeks out of 52 has a vacancy rate of 5.77%. For a block, divide the empty units by the total: 2 empty flats out of 25 gives 8%.
It is the time a let property stands empty between tenancies, when no rent comes in but the bills still have to be paid, usually Council Tax included. The vacancy rate gives voids as a share of the year, which makes properties and years easy to compare.
Usually yes, and your council decides whether to give a discount. Once a home has been empty for a year, an empty homes premium can apply: in England it can take the bill to up to 4 times the normal amount after 10 years. Some homes pay nothing while they stay empty, such as homes that have been repossessed or cannot legally be lived in. Ask your council about discounts and exceptions. Northern Ireland has domestic rates instead of Council Tax.
Physical vacancy counts the time or the units without a tenant. Economic vacancy compares the rent received with the rent if fully let, so it also counts arrears, rent-free periods and discounts. It includes physical vacancy and goes beyond it as soon as some rent goes unpaid.
Nothing sets a standard rate: start from the property’s own history or similar lets nearby, and try a few assumptions. One month empty a year is 8.33% of the rent. GOV.UK publishes vacant dwellings in England by local authority district (live table 615), but those figures cover all homes, not only lets, so they do not measure voids between tenancies directly.
This calculator gives general information, not legal, tax, financial or accounting advice. Your council sets any Council Tax discount or premium: check with it before relying on a figure.
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