Property management desk · September 3, 2026
A concession is cheaper than a dark unit until it is not
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Thursday’s operations note is a two-column worksheet. Column one is the cost of a vacant unit: make-ready days plus days on market times daily rent. Column two is the cost of a concession: free weeks or a lower starting rent on a signed lease. Whichever number is smaller is the better Thursday decision — except when the concession trains every other resident to wait. Census HVS will not do this math for you.
How do you compare a free month with 21 vacant days?
Pick the unit’s market daily rent from the last signed comparable in the building, not from a national index. Multiply by vacant days already used and days you still expect. That is the dark-unit cost. A one-month concession on a 12-month lease is roughly one-twelfth of annual contract rent if you actually collect the other eleven. If you will not collect them, the concession is larger than it looks.
Do not drop in CPI rent of primary residence as the daily rent. That series is national average lease inflation when it publishes. It is not Unit 2B. Do not drop in 6.81% as a vacancy rate. That is the last cited purchase-mortgage daily index as of August 28, useful only as tenure color.
When does a concession become a building-wide problem?
If one concession leaks into the next five renewals, you did not buy occupancy. You bought a new asking-rent mark. Track concessions granted this month as a line, not a footnote. The owner packet should show vacant days, concessions, and collected rent in the same table.
This desk does not lease units or set policy. It will not invent a city concession index. Quote the lease file.
FAQ
Should I always offer a month free rather than sit vacant?
Only if vacant-day cost exceeds the concession and the deal will not reset every other lease. Do the two-column math on the rent roll.
Can I use HVS to decide concessions?
No. Census HVS is a quarterly national and regional vacancy survey. Your concession decision is unit-level.
Sources: Census HVS (quarterly vacancy; not unit-level concession math); BLS CPI rent series (national lease inflation when published; not Unit 2B); Mortgage News Daily daily rate index (30-year 6.81% as of August 28, 2026, tenure context only).