Multi-Year Property Returns Calculator
The NOI calculator answers what a property earns in year one. This one answers what it earns over the hold — and, more usefully, how much of that return is rent you will actually collect and how much is an assumption about a buyer years from now. The IRR is built up one assumption at a time, so you can see which one is doing the work.
Inputs
Year one is the underwritten NOI. Everything after it is an assumption — which is the point.
The return, built up one assumption at a time
Start with the year-one yield and nothing changing. Add each assumption in turn; the last bar is the headline.
Where the profit comes from
Every rupee or dollar of profit, split exactly. Value from NOI growth is the sale at today’s cap rate; the exit-cap line is what the change in cap rate adds or takes away.
Year by year
NOI, the loan payment, capital spend and what is left for the owner each year, before the sale.
What has to be true to hit the target
The exit cap solver holds everything else fixed and finds the highest cap rate a buyer could pay you at exit while you still earn the target. The price solver keeps the loan at the same share of price.
Equity IRR by exit and rent growth
Green clears the target, amber is within 2 points, red misses. The outlined cell is the current case.
How to read a property return
1. Year one is evidence; everything after it is a forecast
The underwritten NOI is built from leases, bills and a vacancy assumption a lender would accept. Rent growth, cost growth and the exit price are guesses about the future. A multi-year model does not make those guesses better. What it can do is show how much of the answer rests on them, and that is what the step chart is for.
2. The exit cap rate is usually the biggest single assumption
The sale price is next year’s NOI divided by the exit cap rate. On a five- to ten-year hold the sale is most of the money, so a quarter-point on the exit cap can move the IRR more than a point of rent growth. The common discipline is to exit at a cap rate somewhat above today’s, on the logic that the building will be older and nobody knows where rates will be. The solver turns that around: it tells you the highest exit cap at which the deal still works, which is a much easier number to argue about than an IRR.
3. Overpaying shows up at the exit, not on day one
On the US presets the asking price was set on the marketed NOI, so the cap rate on price is well below the market’s. Selling at a market cap rate in year seven gives the overpayment back. The attribution chart shows it as a large negative exit-cap line, and the price solver shows what the property was worth to a buyer who wants the target return — on the apartments, close to the value the NOI calculator gives at the market cap rate.
4. Leverage helps only when the property earns more than the loan costs
When the loan constant is above the cap rate, borrowing lowers the cash yield. Over a hold, growth in NOI and value can still make leverage pay, because the gains accrue to a smaller equity cheque. Whether it does is a race between growth and the cost of debt, and the “+ leverage” step shows who won. In 2026, on these presets, the debt mostly loses.
5. India: escalations, and tax that changes the answer
Indian commercial leases commonly escalate in steps — 15% every three years for offices — rather than a little each year, and the calculator models the steps. For an individual owner, rent is taxed as house-property income: 70% of the rent after municipal tax, less the loan interest. Under the old regime a loss can be set against other income up to ₹2 lakh a year and the rest carried forward for eight years against future rental profit; under the new regime neither is allowed. A gain on a property held more than 24 months is taxed at 12.5% without indexation, plus cess, for property bought after July 2024. The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from April 2026; the section numbers changed but, as reported, these rules carried over. Check with a chartered accountant for any real sale.
On the flat, almost the whole return is price appreciation: the rent never covers the interest, most of the house-property loss goes unused, and the sale carries the investment. That is a legitimate investment. It is just not an income one.
What this deliberately leaves out
Annual periods; one loan at a time; no lease-by-lease rent roll or rollover schedule; no US income tax, depreciation or 1031 exchange; no Indian surcharge, TDS timing, GST input credits or capital-gains exemptions under the reinvestment sections; no capital-loss set-off. The presets are illustrative composites, not real properties, and none of this is investment or tax advice.
Sources: CBRE H1 2026 Cap Rate Survey, via CRE Daily · CBRE Asia Pacific Q1 2026 yields, via IANS · House-property loss set-off and carry-forward · Capital gains on property sale, 2026.