Break-even & cash
Occupancy Cost Calculator
Is my rent affordable at the volume I actually do?
Rent is only affordable relative to sales. Occupancy cost bundles everything you pay to be in the building and expresses it against revenue, which is how landlords, lenders, and buyers read it.
Your figures stay here. The calculator runs on this device; the share link stores its numbers after the # in the URL.
Worked answer10.0%See it ↓01
Your numbers
A worked example is already loaded. Replace any field with the figures from the source named beside it.
02
The answer
Occupancy cost
10.0%
$14,800 per month against $148,000 in sales
- Total occupancy cost per month$14,800
- Occupancy cost per year$177,600
- Sales needed for 8% occupancyThe monthly sales figure that would put this rent at 8% of revenue.$185,000
- Sales needed for 10% occupancy$148,000
Occupancy cost, % of sales
Operator survey- Full-service restaurant (median)5.7%
- Limited-service restaurant (median)5.2%
Reported by operators to an industry association and published as a median.
Occupancy cost varies enormously by market. A median across the country says little about what is achievable on a specific street.
Source: National Restaurant Association, 2025 Restaurant Operations Data Abstract (2024 data, 900+ operators) (2025)
03 Show the arithmetic
Total occupancy cost = base rent + CAM, taxes and insurance + other occupancy charges
Occupancy cost % = total occupancy cost ÷ monthly sales × 100
04 What the answer leaves out
- Occupancy cost is a ratio, so it improves with volume as well as with a lower rent. A rent that is affordable in December can be unaffordable in February.
- The 8% and 10% reference lines are arithmetic conversions of your own numbers, not a claim about what your market considers acceptable.
Continue if it helps
The number is the start of the decision.
story
Take the second-location testA first venue can be profitable and still be unable to survive the owner opening a second one.
venue product
See the operating metricsRead the plain-English definitions behind capacity utilization, sales per capacity-hour, RevPASH, prime cost, labor, and break-even.