A free real estate financial model template for a single asset
Rent roll, operating cash flow, debt sized on LTV, interest cover and debt yield, unlevered and levered returns, and an exit yield sensitivity: an empty model with the architecture already built.
Most property models fail in the same places: dates typed into formulas, a rent roll that does not tie to the area, an exit value nobody can trace to the income that supports it. This template is the empty version of a model built to avoid those failures. The structure, the formulas and the checks are in place; the property is yours to type in.
Download the template
One Excel file, no macros, nothing locked. No account, no email address.
Eight sheets. Time runs across the columns and line items run down the rows, on every sheet, so a year means the same column everywhere.
Summary
Built last, read first: the checks, the unlevered and levered IRR and equity multiple, and a three-sentence recommendation box.
Assumptions
Every input with a label a non-modeller can read, a unit, a value and a column for the source.
Rent Roll
One row per lease: area, passing rent, rent per square metre against market rent (ERV), years to expiry and the gap to market, with one example row filled in.
Cash Flow
A header block of periods and hold flags first, then contracted rent, occupancy, recoveries, operating and void costs, net operating income and its margin, building capex, tenant improvements and commissions.
Debt
The loan sized on all three tests (loan-to-value, interest cover, debt yield), the binding one named, and both covenants tested every year.
Returns
Unlevered and levered cash flows, IRR and equity multiple side by side, exit on forward income.
Sensitivity
The levered return against the exit yield, and the break-even exit yield.
The defaults it ships with
The money inputs are empty. The ratios carry sensible starting values so the model is usable as soon as a price and a rent are typed in:
Input
Default
Acquisition costs
6.5%
Disposal costs
1.5%
Hold period
5 years
Rental growth
2.0%
Cost inflation
2.5%
Loan-to-value limit
55%
Interest rate
5.0%
Minimum interest cover
1.30x
Minimum debt yield
9.0%
Exit yield
6.0%
Two defaults are there to make a point. Cost inflation starts above rental growth, because a model that lets rents outrun costs for ten years is flattering itself.
And the Summary tests that the net operating income margin sits inside a normal band, so a missing cost line shows up before it reaches the return.
How to fill it in
Assumptions: area, price, market rent, the operating costs, the debt terms and the exit yield. Write the source of each number in the last column.
Rent Roll: one row per lease. The check on Summary confirms occupied plus vacant equals the total area.
Read Cash Flow line by line for the first two years before trusting year five.
Summary last: quote the unlevered and the levered return together, never the levered one alone.
If you want to see the same architecture filled in, the companion files for the book include a complete worked model of an office building, Meridian House, built on these sheets.
Questions people ask about it
Is there a filled-in example?
The template carries one example rent roll row. The full worked example, Meridian House, is in the book's companion files, free.
Why both unlevered and levered returns?
The unlevered return tells you about the building. The levered return adds the financing. A deal that only works levered is a financing trade, and you should know that before you buy it.
Does it handle monthly periods?
It is annual. For a single stabilised asset that is usually the right grain; development and value-add schemes need the monthly models in the same companion set.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. There are no macros and nothing is locked.
The rest of the files
This template is one of the companion files for Real Estate Financial Modeling: the full set adds
the complete Meridian House model, a model-review checklist and the one-page investment summary. Free, like this one.
If this book helped — or didn’t — a few lines on Amazon are worth more than they look: they are what the next reader goes on. Write a review. The template stays free either way.