Occupancy Rate
Definition
Occupancy rate is the percentage of a property's rentable beds or units that are actually occupied over a given period. In coliving it is the primary health metric: revenue scales almost linearly with occupancy, while most operating costs stay fixed.
The formula
Bed-night occupancy = Bed-nights sold ÷ Bed-nights available
- Bed-nights sold
- each bed multiplied by the nights it was actually let in the period
- Bed-nights available
- beds × days in the period
Worked example
A ten-bed house across a 30-day month: 300 bed-nights available.
- 01Eight beds let for the whole month: 8 × 30 = 240 bed-nights sold.
- 02One bed let from the 12th: 19 bed-nights sold.
- 03One bed empty all month: 0.
- 04Total sold = 240 + 19 + 0 = 259.
259 ÷ 300 = 86.3%. Counting nine occupied beds on the last day of the month would have reported 90% — a 3.7 point difference produced entirely by measurement choice.
Benchmark
95.2%
The audited full-year occupancy of the UK's largest purpose-built student accommodation operator for 2025/26 — the closest independently verified comparable coliving has, since no pure-play coliving operator is listed.
Physical occupancy is beds filled divided by beds available on a date. Financial or economic occupancy is rent actually collected divided by rent at full asking rate — it absorbs discounts, incentives, rent-free periods and arrears, which is why it is almost always lower and almost never in the marketing deck. Bed-night occupancy is the one that captures the days a room sat empty between two residents.
The gap between the three in the same building is routinely five to eight points, so a benchmark quoted without a definition is not a benchmark. Report bed-night occupancy with the denominator stated, and report financial occupancy alongside it. If physical is 94% and financial is 86%, you do not have an occupancy business — you have a discounting business with good attendance.
Two rules keep the number honest: count a bed as available from the day it is legally lettable rather than the day the photographs are done, and count arrears as sold. Occupancy measures physical use; collection is a separate line, and hiding a collections problem inside occupancy is how operators lose lenders.
The common mistake
Quoting a snapshot without saying it is one
Physical occupancy measured on a date is the easiest number to produce and the easiest to flatter: pick the right Tuesday in October and a mediocre building looks full. It is defensible in student housing, where a synchronised 51-week cycle means almost nobody moves mid-year. In coliving, where stays end in every month, a snapshot structurally hides the biggest leak in the business.
Frequently asked
What is a good coliving occupancy rate?+
Our planning bands, from our own modelling: 45–70% average through a six-month lease-up, 80–90% in year one after lease-up, and 88–94% once stabilised. Above 94% sustained, check the rent card — you may be underpriced rather than exceptional.
Why is my occupancy different from my property manager's number?+
Almost always because you are using different denominators. Ask which measure they used — snapshot, bed-night or financial — and whether rooms under refurbishment were excluded from beds available. Two people can both be right and eight points apart.
Occupancy benchmarks 2026, with audited comparables
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The coliving occupancy playbook
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