Gross potential rent
Also called GPR, Gross scheduled rent.
Gross potential rent is the rent a property would collect if every unit were occupied for all twelve months at full rent, with no vacancy, no concessions and no delinquency. It is the top line of the pro forma, and everything below it is a deduction.
How it works
GPR is a hypothetical by construction. No property collects it. Its job is to be a fixed, checkable ceiling so that every loss below it is stated explicitly rather than buried in a net number. That is why lenders and investment committees insist on seeing it: a rent line presented net of vacancy tells you nothing about whether the vacancy assumption is 4 percent or 11 percent.
The ambiguity that causes most of the trouble is which rent goes into it. Two conventions are both in common use. Stated at MARKET rent, GPR is the unit count multiplied by today's achievable rent, and the gap down to what tenants are actually paying appears below it as loss to lease. Stated at IN-PLACE rent, GPR is the sum of the contract rents on the rent roll, and there is no loss to lease line at all. Neither is wrong. Comparing one to the other without noticing is.
For commercial property the equivalent line is gross potential income and it is built lease by lease from contract rent plus scheduled escalations, with vacant space carried at a market asking rent so that the rent roll and the pro forma reconcile.
Formula
GPR = sum over all units of (monthly rent x 12), vacant units included at asking rent- Every unit is counted, occupied or not
- Down units and model units are included, then deducted below the line
- Monthly rent is either market or in-place depending on the convention in use, and the choice must be stated
Worked example
220 units. In-place rent averages $1,845 a month, market rent is $2,090.
| GPR at market rent2,090 x 220 x 12 | $5,517,600 |
|---|---|
| Loss to leasethe 245 a unit gap | ($646,800) |
| GPR at in-place rent1,845 x 220 x 12 | $4,870,800 |
| Vacancy and credit loss7.0% of in-place GPR | ($341,000) |
| Other income | $198,000 |
| Effective gross income | $4,727,800 |
Both presentations arrive at the same effective gross income. The market-rent version makes the $646,800 of embedded upside visible; the in-place version hides it. A seller marketing a value-add story will almost always choose the first.
The common mistake
Treating a market-rent GPR as though it were collections
The number at the top of a broker's pro forma is frequently GPR at market, which on this property is 13 percent higher than the in-place figure. Applying a vacancy factor to it and calling the result revenue double counts the upside, because the loss to lease has not been taken out. The test takes one line: total the monthly contract rents on the rent roll, multiply by twelve, and compare that to the GPR on the summary page. If the summary is higher, it is stated at market, and the difference is the loss to lease that has not yet been deducted.
Related terms
- Loss to leaseLoss to lease is the difference between what a unit could rent for at today's market rate and what the sitting tenant is contractually paying. It appears as a deduction from gross potential rent when the pro forma is stated at market rent.
- Effective gross incomeEffective gross income is all the revenue a property is expected to collect in a year: gross potential rent, less vacancy, loss to lease, concessions and bad debt, plus other income. It is the revenue figure operating expenses are subtracted from to reach net operating income.
- Rent rollA rent roll is the unit-by-unit or tenant-by-tenant schedule of who occupies a property, what they pay, and when their lease ends. It is the primary evidence behind every revenue assumption in an underwriting model.
- Economic versus physical occupancyPhysical occupancy is the share of units that are occupied. Economic occupancy is the share of potential rent that is actually collected. The gap between them is everything that stops an occupied unit from paying full rent: loss to lease, concessions, bad debt, employee units and down units.
- Other incomeOther income is every dollar a property collects that is not rent for the space itself: utility reimbursements, parking, storage, pet rent, application and administrative fees, late fees, laundry, and amenity or trash charges. It is added to rent revenue on the way to effective gross income.
Every figure, traced to its source
Altyst computes these in exact decimal arithmetic, not with a language model, and clicking any number shows the formula behind it.