How Can I Solve This Chemistry Problem?
QUESTION
A new apartment complex has 155,400 square meters of rentable space (Assume 4 Sig Figs). How much income will this building generate in a year at $17.57 per ft2 per month and a 70% occupancy rate?
What is the solution if “70%” is 1 Sig Fig? or two Sig Fig’s?
What if the occupancy rate is 70.2% (i.e. 3 Sig Figs)? What are the significance of Significant Figures?
How Can I Solve This Chemistry Problem?
ANSWER
The percentage of available apartments occupied by rent-paying tenants is referred to as the occupancy rate. This critical metric demonstrates how well you manage your apartment business, or it may indicate an unfavorable local market to which you must adapt. Low occupancy rates could indicate a problem with pricing, building or unit appearance, or marketing. High occupancy rates indicate a strong customer base with the potential for rent increases. Consider year-round rentals when calculating occupancy rates to capture seasonal variations that fully represent your business.
1. Count and total the number of available apartments in your complex for each month. Do not include a vacant apartment that has been removed from the market for renovations or office use in the total. For example, if your apartment complex has 20 units but you use one as your permanent office, you will only have 19 units available each month. Add each of the 19 available units for the next 12 months for a total of 228 availabilities.
2. Count and total the number of rented apartments for each month. To continue with the example, if you rented 19, 19, 17, 17, 14, 15, 12, 18, 19, 19, 12, and 12 units in each of the 12 months of the year, you would have 193 occupancies.
3. To calculate the occupancy rate, divide the total occupancies by the total availabilities. In this case, dividing 193 by 228 yields an occupancy rate of 0.846, or 84.6 percent.