Investment Property Calculator
Free Google Sheet Tool for Australian Investors
- Published: 3 December 2025
Property investment has historically been a smart way to build wealth. But how do you know if you’ve found the right property?
There are loads of questions to consider:
❓ Will this investment actually make money?
❓ What’s it going to cost me to hold this over time?
❓ What are the hidden expenses and tax implications?
And this is where the numbers come in.
Introducing Our Free Property Cashflow Calculator
We’ve built a user-friendly Google Sheet tool that works for all types of Australian residential property investors.
What the investment property cashflow calculator includes:
- Tip: Use this calculator before you buy — and revisit it every year to keep your portfolio on track.
Instead of stressing over calculations, you can focus on what really matters: Choosing the right property, growing your portfolio, and getting closer to financial freedom.
Let’s break it down and show you exactly how it works.
How to Use the Fresh Start Advisory Investment Property Calculator
- Important: Only edit the cells highlighted in light red. All other fields are auto-calculated.
Our calculator is designed to give you a quarter-by-quarter cashflow projection over 10 years — helping you make confident decisions before you buy.
Here’s a simple guide to using it:
Step 1: Enter the Property Details
Start by filling out the basic purchase info:
Property Information:
- Active Property – Leave this set to Yes to include this property in the calculator.
- Property Type
- Property Address
- Property Strategy – Define your strategy (e.g. Growth Strategy).
- Strategy Type – (Optional) Specify further if you’re targeting value-add, renovation, or long-term buy and hold.
Financial Inputs:
- Purchase Price – Enter the contracted purchase price (e.g. $400,000).
- Property Value – Estimate the current or expected market value (e.g. $420,000).
- Purchase Year – The year you intend to buy.
- Contract Date & Settlement Term – Input key contract dates and the settlement period in days.
- Stamp Duty – Include the estimated or confirmed amount.
- Is LMI Applicable? – Mark No if your deposit is large enough to avoid Lender’s Mortgage Insurance.
- Lender’s Mortgage Insurance (if applicable) – Leave blank or input the expected cost.
Your Contribution:
- Funds Available – Total cash you’ve allocated toward this purchase.
- Deposit Amount – How much you’ll be putting down.
- Rental Income (p.w.) – Enter the weekly rental income (e.g. $390 per week).
- Tip: The calculator will automatically calculate your Loan-to-Value Ratio (LVR) and guide you on whether LMI is needed
Once this information is entered, the property investment calculator starts modelling your:
- Loan amount
- Rental yield
- Upfront costs
- Initial cashflow
This sets the foundation for all future cash flow and equity projections, so take your time to get this right.
Step 2: Set Up Your Loan Details
Next, define the structure of your home loan. This section calculates your repayments and interest costs across the investment period.
Enter or confirm the following:
Select Principal and Interest or Interest Only.
Input your annual loan interest rate (e.g. 6.27%).
Typically 30 years. Adjust if needed.
This will auto-calculate based on your inputs.
Set to No unless you’re using both fixed and variable components.
Choose Yes if you’re using an offset, and enter the amount.
If planning to refinance or switch, indicate the year (e.g. Year 5).
Add updated loan product, rate, and term as needed.
This section ensures your repayment modelling reflects real-world loan scenarios and future refinance strategies.
Step 3: Review the 12-Month Income Statement
This section gives you a snapshot of your property’s performance over the first 12 months — including rental income, operating expenses, and cashflow projections.
You can adjust the following inputs to suit your scenario:
Variable Factors
- Inflation (CPI %) – Default is 3.00%. Adjust if you expect higher or lower inflation.
- Rental Increase Rate (p.a. %) – Default is 5.00%. Change to match local rental growth.
Expenses
- Council Rates
- Property Management Fees (%) – Defaults to 9.90%
- Water Levy
- Insurance
- Land Tax – Leave as 0 if not applicable in your state or under threshold.
- Maintenance – Budget a realistic annual figure.
- Vacancy Allowance (%) – Typically 0.5–2% depending on area and demand.
- Body Corporate – Only applies for strata or unit properties.
Calculated (Non-Editable) Fields
These white cells auto-populate based on your entries:
- Rent income (p.a.) – based on Step 1 inputs.
- Gross annual rental income
- Loan interest cost – based on Step 2 inputs.
- Total annual cash expenses
- Depreciation – non-cash, fixed as $0 unless enabled
- Total deductible expenses
Step 4: Estimate Your Upfront Cash Requirements
This section helps you map out the real cash required to get your property deal over the line, from due diligence to post-settlement costs. It gives you a clear, line-by-line summary of where your money is going — and when.
Stage 1 – Inception
- Buyer’s Advocate Fee (initial): Enter the initial fee charged by your buyer’s agent.
- Set status to “Paid” if already settled.
Stage 2 – Contract Signing (Conditional)
- Deposit: Enter the initial holding deposit (usually $1,000–$5,000).
- Building & Pest Inspection: Enter estimated or quoted cost.
- Valuation of Property: Leave at $0 unless paying for an independent valuation.
- Insurance: Input your building insurance premium amount.
- Set status to Paid/Unpaid accordingly
Stage 3 – Unconditional
- Buyer’s Advocate Fee (remaining): If there’s a split payment, enter the remaining balance here.
- Remainder of Deposit (if applicable): Enter any additional deposit due before settlement.
Stage 4 – Settlement
- Stamp Duty: Enter based on your state’s rate (check Stamp Duty Calculator if unsure).
- Solicitor Fees: Usually $1,500–$2,500.
- Mortgage Fees: Input lender-related costs (e.g. application or settlement fees).
- Remaining Deposit / LMI: Add any remaining contribution or LMI (if applicable).
Stage 5 – After Settlement
- Miscellaneous Costs: Allow for any early repairs, upgrades, or tenant-ready costs. Enter a best estimate (e.g. $500).
Final Summary (Auto-Populated — Do Not Edit):
At the bottom of this section, you’ll see:
- Total Cash Required – Full cost of acquisition (based on your entries)
- Amount Paid to Date – Sum of items marked “Paid”
- Amount Still Due – What you’ll need to fund pre- or at settlement
- Adjusting the deposit
- Negotiating terms with the lender
- Reviewing optional costs (e.g. valuation, renovations)
Auto-Calculated Summary (Do Not Edit)
- Total Cash Required – Sum of all costs
- Already Paid – Tally of marked “Paid” items
- Remaining Due – What you still need to fund before or at settlement
This step ensures you’re not caught off guard with hidden or overlooked costs — one of the biggest mistakes new investors make. Use it to budget accurately and plan your cash flow confidently.
Step 5: Assess Cashflow & Equity Forecast Graphs
This section is fully automated — it pulls from your earlier entries and does the maths for you. Simply use it to:
Let the numbers work behind the scenes so you can focus on making confident property decisions.
Modelling of Cashflows
This section gives you a high-level financial snapshot of your investment over time. There’s no need to enter anything here — the figures and charts are automatically generated based on the details you provided in previous steps.
Use this section to assess your property’s performance at a glance.
- Tip: Even if your property starts as negatively geared, rising rents and loan repayments over time can improve cashflow in future years.
Equity Forecast
This section shows how your wealth builds as the property value increases and your loan reduces.
Watch your equity grow year after year — this is what fuels your ability to refinance or purchase your next property.
Net Yield Forecast & Equity Computation
This final section helps you forecast how your property’s net yield and equity position will evolve over a 10-year period. You don’t need to enter anything here — all figures are automatically calculated based on your inputs in earlier steps.
Use this to assess long-term performance and plan your future investment moves.
Net Yield Forecast
This is your projected net rental yield year by year, accounting for:
Rental income growth
Loan repayments
Property-related expenses
- A rising net yield typically means the property is becoming more profitable over time.
Example:
If Year 1 shows a -2.2% yield and Year 5 shows +1.5%, your property is on track to become positively geared in just a few years.
Equity Computation
Tracks how much equity (ownership value) you hold in the property year-by-year.
Based on:
Annual property value growth (default set at 6.8% per year)
Loan amortisation (principal repayments reducing your loan)
This equity is what you can potentially redraw or use to fund future investments.
Yearly Movement:
Shows the compounded growth of your property’s value over a 10-year horizon.
Step 6: Quarterly Modelling
This section breaks down your property’s performance quarter-by-quarter over a 10-year horizon. It helps you visualise how things like property value, rental income, loan balance, and cashflow evolve in short, manageable chunks — instead of just yearly estimates.
No Input Needed
Everything here is automatically calculated based on your inputs from earlier steps. Just use it to track performance trends and spot inflection points (e.g. when cashflow turns positive or equity becomes useable).
Property Value Growth (Quarterly)
Tracks how your property’s market value increases over time.
Uses the annual capital growth rate you entered earlier, applied quarterly.
Great for seeing when your equity becomes large enough for a potential refinance or redraw.
Additional Uplifts
Use this to model value or rent increases due to:
- Renovations
- Granny flat additions
- Subdivisions
If you apply any of these strategies:
- Enter the cost of works in the respective quarter
- Enter the value uplift and/or rental uplift separately
Example: If you build a granny flat in Q6 that adds $50,000 in value and $50/week in rent, input those values in the correct row and column.
Loan Repayment & Balance
Cashflow Metrics
Your rental income per quarter, including uplifted rents if any.
Includes interest, council rates, management fees, etc.
Shows the actual money you’re left with (or out-of-pocket) each quarter.
Gives you a clearer sense of short-term performance.
Yield & LVR Tracking
Equity Forecast
Why It’s Valuable
How to Use the Split Loan Calculator (Optional Tab)
If your investment property is financed using a split loan structure — part variable and part fixed — this tab helps model the impact of that split over the life of your loan.
Why Use a Split Loan?
Split loans are often used by investors to:
- Hedge against interest rate fluctuations (e.g. lock in part of the rate)
- Manage cashflow and gain some certainty over repayments
- Leverage both flexibility (variable) and stability (fixed)
No Inputs Required Here
All fields in this tab are calculated automatically based on your inputs in Step 2: Loan Setup. However, the split loan calculator will only work if the split loan toggle is set to “Yes” and you’ve correctly entered values for:
- Variable Loan Amount
- Fixed Loan Amount (less offset)
- Variable Interest Rate (per annum)
- Fixed Interest Rate (per annum)
Variable Loan Section
Shows quarterly calculations for:
- Variable rate (converted to monthly %)
- Repayments over time
- Interest costs per quarter
Use this to understand how your variable portion behaves if rates move.
Fixed Loan Section
Includes:
- Fixed rate (converted to monthly %)
- Loan repayments
- Borrowing (interest) costs across the loan term
Ideal for stability comparison with the variable portion.
Total Loan View (Combined)
Automatically adds together the fixed and variable portions, showing:
- Total loan balance over time
- Overall repayments
- Total interest payable
This provides a complete picture of your repayment obligations under a split loan structure.
Troubleshooting
If this tab shows errors like #NUM! or zero values:
- Go back to Step 2 – Loan Setup
- Ensure all split loan fields are completed
- Confirm “Split Loan” is set to Yes
- Avoid entering 0% interest or $0 loan amounts
Still stuck? Talk to Fresh Start Advisory — we’ll help you get it running or customise it to suit your unique strategy.
What Makes a Property Worth Investing In?
The goal of property investment isn’t just to buy a home — it’s to build long-term wealth.
And wealth creation through property generally comes from two powerful forces:
The income you earn from rent, minus the costs of holding the property (loan repayments, council rates, insurance, etc.).
The increase in the value of your property over time — what we call appreciation.
Some properties look affordable, but they come with constant maintenance, bad tenants, or hidden headaches.
Choose properties that are:
- Low-maintenance
- In high-demand areas
- Fit for long-term tenants
The less time you spend stressing about a property, the more time you can spend planning your next one.
FAQs About Our Cashflow Calculator
Our Google Sheet investment property calculator gives you:
- Full visibility over your cashflow and capital growth
- Editable fields for real-world scenarios (interest rate rises, renovations, rent changes, etc.)
- Quarter-by-quarter projections across 10 years
- Split loan modelling (fixed vs variable)
Once you download it — it’s yours to keep, copy, and edit as you grow your portfolio. Unlike website-based tools, it’s not locked in or limited to a single use.
Yes — and we highly recommend it.
You can duplicate the sheet for each property you’re considering or already own. That way, you can model:
- Different strategies (e.g. high yield vs capital growth)
- Changing loan structures
- Portfolio-wide cashflow and equity growth
Some of our clients even create a master dashboard using the individual property sheets — giving them a crystal-clear overview of how their portfolio is performing over time.
Ready to Start Investing with Confidence?
Think property investing is just for millionaires or people with loads of time and industry connections?
Think again.
At Fresh Start Advisory, we believe property investment should be accessible to all Australians — whether you wear a suit to the office or steel caps to site. From accountants and consultants to FIFO workers and tradies, our clients come from every walk of life — and every one of them has one thing in common: they want a better financial future.
Download the free FSA Home Investment Calculator Today and start modelling your next purchase like a pro.
Need help finding the right property to match your goals? Book a Discovery Call with one of our experienced buyer’s agents.