Customer Satisfaction and Vacancies – Uncovering the Connection

Can great service reduce vacancy rates? Our analysis shows a clear link between tenant satisfaction levels and vacancies.

How Can Vacancies Be Reduced?

Measuring and tracking customer satisfaction is now standard practice for most major real estate companies. But what exactly is the connection between high tenant satisfaction and vacancy rates — the share of empty apartments? Can genuinely excellent service actually help prevent vacancies? To answer this, we conducted an analysis based on data from well-established companies in the real estate sector.*

What Does the Data Show?

Our analysis focused on two key metrics: the Service Index and vacancy rate. The Service Index is AktivBo’s composite measure reflecting how satisfied tenants are with their landlords.

The results reveal a strong negative correlation of -0.61 between service levels and vacancy rates. In other words, real estate companies that provide superior service tend to have fewer vacancies. Simply put: satisfied tenants stay longer.

Conclusion 

High-quality service equals lower vacancy rates. Investing in great service and tenant satisfaction pays off — it positively impacts the bottom line.

*The analysis is based on data from several leading Swedish real estate companies.