Most landlords with 2–20 units don't have time for proper accounting. That's fine. You don't need a full P&L every month. You need five numbers that tell you whether things are going well or quietly slipping.
1. Collection rate
What it is: of the rent you were owed this month, how much actually came in.
The formula: total rent collected ÷ total rent owed × 100.
The benchmark: above 95% is healthy. 90–95% is normal. Below 90% means you have a real arrears problem that compounds.
Why it matters: this is the one number that most directly maps to whether you can pay your own bills. A 5-percentage-point drop in collection on a GHS 50,000 monthly portfolio is GHS 2,500 you didn't have last month.
2. Occupancy rate
What it is: of your total units, how many are paying rent right now.
The formula: occupied units ÷ total units × 100.
The benchmark: 90%+ in Greater Accra residential. Lower for new builds in lease-up. Below 80% sustained is a pricing or property problem.
Why it matters: a vacant unit pays you zero. The difference between 95% and 85% occupancy on 20 units is roughly two months of rent every month — vanished.
3. Days to pay
What it is: on average, how many days past the due date does rent actually arrive.
The formula: for each invoice paid this month, count days from due date to payment date. Average them.
The benchmark: under 5 days is excellent. 5–10 is normal. 15+ is a sign you have at least one tenant trending toward arrears, and the next collection-rate drop is coming.
Why it matters: collection rate tells you what happened last month. Days-to-pay tells you what's about to happen next month. It's the early warning.
4. Maintenance spend per unit
What it is: total maintenance and repair spend this month, divided by the number of units.
The formula: all maintenance receipts ÷ total units.
The benchmark: GHS 50–150 per unit per month is normal for routine work. Spikes happen (roof, plumbing). What you're watching is the trend. If your per-unit spend is creeping up quarter over quarter, you're heading into deferred-maintenance debt.
Why it matters: the cheapest landlords run on reactive maintenance and lose tenants. The smart ones budget 5–8% of rent for maintenance and stay ahead of it.
5. Net rental yield
What it is: the cash return your portfolio is generating, after all costs, as a percentage of what your properties are worth.
The formula: (annual rent collected − annual operating costs) ÷ current property value × 100.
The benchmark: 5–8% net is normal for Greater Accra residential. Above 8% is excellent — but check that you're including all costs honestly. Below 4% means you're earning less on the property than a bank fixed-deposit would pay.
Why it matters: this is the one number that tells you whether owning the property is worth it versus selling and investing the cash elsewhere. Most landlords never calculate it. The ones who do tend to make better portfolio decisions.
One quarter of drift is noise. Two quarters is a signal. Three is a problem. If collection rate or days-to-pay moves in the wrong direction for two months in a row, look at which tenant or property is responsible — almost always one or two units are doing all the damage, not a portfolio-wide issue.
Getting these in 5 minutes
If you're keeping records in a notebook or a spreadsheet, you can pull all five numbers manually at month-end. It takes about 30–45 minutes for a 10-unit portfolio if your records are clean.
If you'd rather have them auto-computed, Safoa's monthly summary report shows all five (plus a couple of others) for every property and the portfolio as a whole, in a single view. The point isn't the tool — the point is having the numbers in front of you on the first Saturday of every month.
What to do this month
Pull these five numbers for last month. Write them in a notebook — literally, a small one you keep in the same drawer as your lease files. Do the same next month. By month three, you'll start spotting trends. By month six, you'll know your portfolio better than 90% of landlords your size.