Cost per Signed Lease
Definition
Cost per signed lease is total acquisition spend divided by the number of leases actually signed — not leads, not tours. It is the only marketing cost metric that survives contact with a coliving P&L, because clicks and enquiries pay no rent.
The formula
Cost per signed lease = Total acquisition spend in the period ÷ Leases signed in the period
- Total acquisition spend
- paid media, listing platform fees and commissions, referral incentives, and the marketing share of agency or staff cost
- Leases signed
- contracts actually signed, not enquiries, viewings, holding deposits or verbal commitments
Worked example
Our worked example: a month with £3,200 of paid media, £900 of listing platform commission and £500 of referral incentives. Fourteen leases signed.
- 01Total acquisition spend = £3,200 + £900 + £500 = £4,600.
- 02Cost per signed lease = £4,600 ÷ 14 = £328.57.
- 03Same month produced 210 enquiries, so cost per lead = £21.90.
- 04Enquiry-to-signature conversion = 14 ÷ 210 = 6.7%.
The £21.90 is the number that gets reported and the £328.57 is the number that matters. Lifting conversion from 6.7% to 9% with no extra spend would take cost per signed lease to £243 — cheaper than any media buying improvement available at that budget.
Cost per lead is the metric that survives in coliving marketing reports because it is always improving. Enquiry volume responds to spend quickly and conversion does not, so a report built on cost per lead can show progress through a quarter in which no additional rooms were filled. Cost per signed lease is harder to move and is therefore the honest one.
Measure it per channel and per building, not blended. A channel producing cheap enquiries that do not convert and a channel producing expensive enquiries that do will average into a number that recommends the wrong budget. In practice the ranking of channels by cost per lead and by cost per signed lease is frequently inverted, which is the single most useful thing this metric reveals.
Read it against lifetime value rather than against a target. An acquisition cost is affordable or not only in relation to what the resident contributes over their stay, and a building with long average stays can afford to pay considerably more per signed lease than one selling one-month terms. Setting a single cost-per-lease ceiling across a mixed portfolio guarantees overspending on one product and starving the other.
The common mistake
Leaving platform commission out of acquisition spend
Listing platform fees and booking commissions are acquisition costs in every sense that matters: they are paid to obtain a resident and they scale with the residents obtained. Excluding them because they arrive as a deduction from revenue rather than as an invoice makes channels look cheaper than they are, and it systematically biases budget toward the channel whose cost is hidden.
Frequently asked
How is this different from cost per lease?+
The two names are used interchangeably in the market, which is exactly why we specify signed. A cost per lease calculated on applications, holding deposits or reservations counts residents who never move in, and the gap between reserved and signed is large enough in coliving to make the distinction material. If the denominator is not a signed contract, say so when you quote the figure.
Should staff time be in the numerator?+
If the work is acquisition — running listings, answering enquiries, conducting viewings — then yes, at least as an allocated share. Excluding it makes in-house marketing look free next to an agency, which is the comparison the number most often gets used for.
What is a good cost per signed lease for coliving?+
There is no defensible universal figure, and a number quoted without the LTV beside it is not usable. The test is the ratio: acquisition cost against lifetime value. A £400 cost per signed lease is cheap in a building with a nine-month average stay and expensive in one selling monthly terms.
Resident lifetime value
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Tour-to-sign rate explained
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