Free Tool
The Break-Even Occupancy Calculator
One number tells you how much an apartment deal can take before it stops paying for itself. Enter a property’s basics and see its break-even occupancy — and how much cushion sits below today’s rent roll. No sign-up required.
The property
Break-even occupancy
The share of units that must stay rented to cover operating costs and the loan. Below this line, the property no longer pays for itself.
Healthy cushion — there is real room below today’s occupancy before this deal is in trouble.
A simplified model for education, not a substitute for full underwriting (it assumes a fixed expense ratio and amortizing debt). Not investment advice.
What break-even occupancy tells you
Every apartment deal has a line: the percentage of units that must stay rented to cover its operating costs and its mortgage. Above the line, every occupied unit is cushion. Below it, the owner is feeding the property out of pocket. That line is its break-even occupancy, and the gap between it and today’s real occupancy is the single best measure of how much a deal can absorb before it is in trouble.
Two things move it. The debt — a large or expensive loan raises the bar the property must clear. And the expenses — a property run loosely, or bought at a price that demands aggressive assumptions, breaks even higher. A resilient deal breaks even in the 70s or low 80s against occupancy that normally runs in the 90s. A fragile one breaks even close to full.
We read this number on every deal before the projected return, because it answers the only question that matters in a bad year: can this survive without a capital call? Read the full explainer → · See our whole method →
Free Playbook
Put this discipline in your pocket.
Break-even occupancy is one idea from our free Playbook — the plain-English guide to evaluating an apartment deal, and the sponsor behind it, like an institution.