Property Investment Calculator
Buying a flat to rent out feels like a safe bet. This calculator checks it: landlord returns (rent, vacancies, tenant churn, appreciation) against simply investing the same money, rupee for rupee.
Your investment property
A rental flat earns three ways (rent, appreciation, and leverage) and leaks in ways spreadsheets forget: vacant months, brokerage, repaints, taxes, and selling costs. This calculator pits the full landlord ledger against simply investing the same money.
How it works
- Describe the property, the loan and the rent you expect it to earn.
- Every month is simulated: rent flows in while occupied, EMI and upkeep flow out, and each tenant changeover costs vacancy, brokerage, and a repaint.
- At exit the property is sold net of costs and compared with what the same money would have become in investments.
Before you start
- Tenant stay: drives everything: shorter stays mean more vacancies, brokerage, and repaints.
- Appreciation: use an average for your full holding period; new buildings appreciate faster than old ones.
- Hold period: run it past the loan tenure to see the years of EMI-free rental income.
You'll get
- A verdict: rental property or financial investments
- Monthly cash flow, and the year it turns positive
- Whether surplus rent can close the loan early
- Gross and net rental yield, a wealth chart, and a CSV
After years
The rental property leaves you · Investing the same money leaves you
Difference:
What would change this
Each line moves one figure on its own and leaves everything else where you set it.
What it costs you every month
Monthly cash flow
Turns positive
Cash you must add
Worst year
Can the rent close the loan early?
Interest saved
Part-payments
Versus investing it
Wealth paths over time
Gross rental yield
Net rental yield
Return: property path
Return: investing path
Year-by-year comparison
| Year | Property wealth | Investments | Rent/yr | Net cash flow | Lead |
|---|
The rental property, over years
Investing the same money, over years
Both paths put in the same rupees: the initial outlay, plus every month the property runs at a loss. The landlord's side shows where that money went and what came back; the investor's shows the same total left to compound. Tax on rental income and on capital gains is not modelled on either side.
What this comparison actually counts
Rental property maths usually stops at "rent covers part of the EMI, and the flat appreciates". The real ledger is longer: the property sits empty between tenants, every changeover costs a repaint and a broker's fee, maintenance and property tax never stop, and selling costs take a slice at exit. Meanwhile the down payment, stamp duty and every month the property runs at a loss is money that could have compounded elsewhere.
This calculator builds both ledgers month by month with the same rupees on each side; whatever the landlord pays in, the investor invests instead; whenever rent runs a surplus, the landlord invests it too. At the end of your holding period it compares the property sold (net of selling costs and any outstanding loan) plus the reinvested surpluses against the investment portfolio.
Property investment, answered
Is buying a rental property a good investment in India?
Often not on rent alone: gross rental yields in Indian metros run at just 2–4% of the property price, while home loans cost 8–9%. The case for buy-to-let rests on price appreciation and leverage. This calculator plays out both forces against simply investing the same money (down payment, stamp duty, and every monthly shortfall) at your expected return.
What is a good rental yield in India?
Gross yields of 2.5–4% are typical for residential property in large Indian cities. The net yield, after vacancies between tenants, brokerage, repainting, society maintenance, property tax, and insurance, is usually 1–2 percentage points lower. The calculator shows both for your numbers.
Will my rental property be cash-flow positive?
On a typical 80% loan in an Indian metro, no, not for many years. Rent of 2.5–4% of the property price against a loan costing 8–9% leaves a monthly gap you fund from salary, and it closes only as rent escalates while the EMI stays fixed. The calculator shows the year-1 monthly figure, the year cash flow finally turns positive (or that it never does within your holding period), the total you have to put in beyond the down payment, and the worst year of the lot. It also separates the two crossovers: rent covering maintenance, tax, and insurance usually happens immediately, while rent covering the EMI as well can take a decade or never arrive.
Can rental income pay off the home loan faster?
Only once the rent exceeds the EMI plus running costs, which is why the calculator reports it honestly rather than assuming it. When there is a surplus, it pools it and pays down the principal in whole multiples of the EMI every three or six months, then reports how much sooner the loan closes and how much interest that saves. Prepayment terms vary by lender: some accept any amount at any time, others set a minimum of one to three EMIs or limit how often you can pay, so the model takes the conservative reading. Part-payments must be made against the principal; money simply left sitting in the loan account does not count. Floating-rate home loans to individuals carry no prepayment penalty.
Is prepaying the loan better than investing the surplus?
Prepaying earns you a guaranteed return equal to your loan rate, so at 9% borrowing against a 9% expected return the two land in nearly the same place, and the calculator will show that. Investing wins when your expected return comfortably exceeds the loan rate, prepaying wins when it does not, and prepaying always wins on certainty because the saving is contractual while the return is a forecast. The panel compares both with the same rupees at the same times, so the difference you see is the real one.
Does the calculator include income tax on rental income?
No. Like every calculator on this site, it compares pre-tax cash flows. In reality rental income is taxable after a 30% standard deduction under Section 24(a), and home-loan interest on a let-out property is deductible under Section 24(b), while your alternative investments face capital gains tax. Post-tax results will differ; treat this as the clean pre-tax comparison.
Which landlord costs does it count?
Tenant churn is modelled directly: every time a tenant leaves, the property sits vacant for the months you specify, gets repainted, and a broker is paid when the next tenant moves in. On top of that it counts society maintenance with inflation, property tax, insurance, one-time purchase and furnishing costs, and selling costs when you exit. The interest-free float from the tenant’s security deposit is ignored as immaterial.
What property appreciation rate should I use?
The average annual rate you expect over your entire holding period, not the rate a new building manages in its early years. In this model appreciation only affects the sale value at exit (rent is set independently of property value), so a blended average gives the right verdict: a flat that gains 8% a year while new but slows as the building ages might average just 4–5% over a 20-year hold. Older or poorly maintained buildings can end up trading close to land value alone, so long holds deserve conservative numbers.
Why does it show total return instead of IRR?
Both paths receive exactly the same money at exactly the same times: the initial outlay plus every month the property runs at a loss. Because the cash flows are identical, comparing final wealth (and the simple total return on money put in) ranks the two options the same way an IRR would, without the false precision.
Is my financial data private?
Completely. Every calculation runs in your browser; nothing you enter is transmitted or stored.
Deciding where to live rather than what to buy? Use the Rent vs Buy Calculator. Checking what you can afford first? Try the Affordability Calculator.