Price it as a share of a lease plus the vacant days it adds. In Digible’s call data, 60.8% of 170,825 calls to multifamily properties went unanswered, and RentEngine’s data shows a median of 22 leads per leased property. A vacant day costs rent divided by 30.4: $70.07 at Statistics Canada’s Q2 2026 two-bedroom asking rent of $2,130. Statistics Canada published that rent on September 9, 2026 (Statistics Canada), and Digible published its call figure on November 26, 2024 (Digible).
A missed call rarely shows up in a report, because the renter who hung up simply rents somewhere else. You can still put a price on it with a few published figures and your own call log.
How many leasing calls go unanswered, and when?
More than half, in the clearest published figure. Digible reported that its Fiona call product analyzed 170,825 calls in one quarter and found that 60.8% of calls to multifamily properties went unanswered (Digible). The article, dated November 26, 2024, does not say which country or which quarter the calls came from.
Digible also says missed calls spike on weekday mornings and weekends, when renters are most likely to inquire. After-hours inquiries matter too: in RentEngine’s own data for January to March 2025, 58% of leads came in after hours (RentEngine, Q1 2025). RentEngine’s other posts give different shares, so treat that one as a dated guide, not a rule.
If your phone system keeps a call log, your own unanswered share beats any benchmark. Sort it by hour and day to see when you miss the most. For coverage outside office hours, see how to answer rental inquiries after hours.
What is one rental inquiry worth?
About one twenty-second of a lease, at RentEngine’s median. RentEngine counted a median of 22 leads per leased property in the third quarter of 2026, down from 25 in the second quarter (RentEngine, Q3 2026).
The figure moves with the season. It was also 22 in the first quarter of 2026, up from 16 in the last quarter of 2025 (RentEngine, Q1 2026). We found no Canadian study of leads per lease, so if you track leads and signed leases, use your own ratio.
What does a vacant day cost in Canada, and which rent should you use?
Monthly rent divided by 30.4, the average number of days in a month (365 ÷ 12 = 30.42). Use your own asking rent for the unit where you can, because that is the rent the vacancy is costing you.
For a benchmark, the closest match is Statistics Canada’s asking rent, which comes from listings on major rental platforms and covers both purpose-built and secondary-market units (Statistics Canada). In the second quarter of 2026, the average two-bedroom asking rent across all CMAs was $2,130, down 3.6% from a year earlier. Statistics Canada calls these estimates experimental (Statistics Canada, Q1 2026).
CMHC’s average paid rent runs lower, and CMHC found that new tenants, on average, paid more than sitting tenants. Its 2025 average two-bedroom rent paid by all tenants in purpose-built rentals was $1,550 (CMHC). Statistics Canada likewise found asking rent above paid rent in almost all CMAs where it had both figures, with Calgary among the few exceptions.
| Two-bedroom rent | Monthly rent | One vacant day |
|---|---|---|
| Canada, all CMAs, asking rent (StatCan, Q2 2026) | $2,130 | $2,130 ÷ 30.4 = $70.07 |
| Toronto, asking rent (StatCan, Q2 2026) | $2,650 | $2,650 ÷ 30.4 = $87.17 |
| Vancouver, asking rent (StatCan, Q2 2026) | $3,030 | $3,030 ÷ 30.4 = $99.67 |
| Montréal, asking rent (StatCan, Q1 2026) | $1,900 | $1,900 ÷ 30.4 = $62.50 |
| Canada, average paid by all tenants (CMHC, 2025) | $1,550 | $1,550 ÷ 30.4 = $50.99 |
| Toronto, new leases after turnover (CMHC, October 2025) | $2,547 | $2,547 ÷ 30.4 = $83.78 |
| Vancouver, new leases after turnover (CMHC, October 2025) | $2,696 | $2,696 ÷ 30.4 = $88.68 |
| Montréal, new leases after turnover (CMHC, October 2025) | $1,644 | $1,644 ÷ 30.4 = $54.08 |
Statistics Canada’s second-quarter release gives no Montréal dollar figure, so Montréal’s row uses the first quarter of 2026 (Statistics Canada, Q1 2026). Whatever your management fee structure, the owner loses the rent for every vacant day.
Are renters harder to win now?
Yes, they have more choice. The national vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments rose to 3.1% in 2025 from 2.2% in 2024 (CMHC).
CMHC says operators responded with incentives for new tenants, such as one month of free rent, moving allowances and signing bonuses. In Toronto, 75% of structures completed since 2022 offered at least one incentive, most often one to two months of free rent, and Vancouver operators offered one to two rent-free months to offset long lease-ups (CMHC). When a renter has that many options, an unanswered call is easy to replace with the next listing.
How long does a vacancy last?
Weeks, not days. In RentEngine’s data, days on market held at 28 in the third quarter of 2026, the second straight quarter at that level (RentEngine, Q3 2026), after 32 in the first quarter (RentEngine, Q1 2026).
At the Canadian rents above, 28 vacant days cost:
- 28 × $70.07 = $1,962 at Statistics Canada’s Q2 2026 average two-bedroom asking rent
- 28 × $50.99 = $1,428 at CMHC’s 2025 average two-bedroom rent paid by all tenants
Price matters as much as speed. In RentEngine’s second-quarter 2026 data, properties priced at true market rent leased in about 20 days, while overpriced ones took 40 or more (RentEngine, Q2 2026). That gap of about 20 days or more costs at least 20 × $70.07 = $1,401 at the Statistics Canada average.
How do you price your own missed calls?
Multiply your weekly calls by the unanswered share and by the share of those callers who never come back, then divide by the inquiries it takes to sign a lease. The never-come-back share is yours to fill in from your own call log.
Here is the arithmetic for a hypothetical 30-call week:
- Unanswered calls a year: 30 × 52 × 60.8% = 948.
- Callers who never come back: 948 × your share. Count missed numbers that never called, texted or emailed again.
- Leases’ worth of inquiries lost: step 2 ÷ 22, the RentEngine median.
- Rent at risk: step 3 × the extra vacant days each lost lease causes, also your assumption, × the daily rent from the table.
For example, suppose one in four of those missed callers never comes back. That share is only an illustration, so replace it with your own:
- Unanswered calls a year: 948, from step 1.
- Callers who never come back: 948 × 25% = 237.
- Leases’ worth of inquiries lost: 237 ÷ 22 = about 10.8.
- Rent at risk, if each lost lease adds a week of vacancy: 10.8 × 7 × $70.07 = 10.8 × $490 = $5,292 at Statistics Canada’s average asking rent, or 10.8 × 7 × $50.99 = 10.8 × $357 = $3,856 at CMHC’s average paid rent.
Put per lease: for each lease’s worth of inquiries you lose (22 callers who never come back, at the RentEngine median), a week of extra vacancy costs 7 × $70.07 = $490 at Statistics Canada’s average asking rent, or 7 × $50.99 = $357 at CMHC’s average paid rent. A full month costs the whole month’s rent: $2,130 or $1,550.
To run your own numbers, try the missed-call calculator.
Does calling back the next morning fix it?
Sometimes, but delay costs showings. In RentEngine’s data for the last quarter of 2025, anything scheduled more than three days out had a 50% drop-off (RentEngine, Q4 2025).
Forum posts describe the same pattern. In a 2026 BiggerPockets thread, one forum member described a listing where inquiries were strong but showings were low, and traced it to an average reply time of almost a day (BiggerPockets).
A faster first reply is the fix. Nolan sends a text back after a missed call and turns each voicemail into a lead, so the renter gets an answer while you are still busy. For reply scripts, see how to respond to rental inquiries, and for what happens after booking, how to reduce showing no-shows.
What should you track each week?
Five numbers: leasing calls, unanswered calls, missed callers who never came back by any channel, your leads per signed lease, and your asking rent. With them, you can price missed calls with your data instead of benchmarks.
Track them by listing as well as in total. A listing that draws many calls but few showings is the first place to test a faster answer.
| Weekly number | Where it comes from | What it feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Leasing calls | Phone system or call log | Step 1 of the formula |
| Unanswered calls | Call log | Your own unanswered share |
| Missed callers who never came back | Call log, texts and emails | Your never-come-back share |
| Leads per signed lease | Your leads and signed leases | Replaces the median of 22 |
| Asking rent per unit | Your listings | Your daily vacancy cost |