Housing Project (Built-to-Rent) – Project Finance Model (Excel XLSX)

BENEFITS OF THIS EXCEL DOCUMENT

1. Projects construction costs, lease-up, operating performance, and investor returns for a Build-to-Rent development project

REAL ESTATE EXCEL DESCRIPTION

This product (Housing Project [Built-to-Rent] – Project Finance Model) is an Excel template (XLSX), which you can download immediately upon purchase.

A Build-to-Rent (BTR) development is a purpose-built residential community designed to generate stable, long-term rental income. Unlike traditional for-sale housing, BTR projects—whether single-family homes, townhomes, or multifamily apartments—are held under unified ownership and professionally managed to ensure consistent occupancy, predictable cash flows, and strong tenant retention. These communities often incorporate shared amenities and high-quality design standards, enhancing marketability and supporting premium rental rates. For investors, BTR developments offer a resilient asset class that combines the demand-driven fundamentals of housing with the operational efficiencies of institutional multifamily, delivering both steady income and long-term value growth.

This Financial model presents a development and operations scenario of a Built-to-Rent designed to support project feasibility, financing, and long-term investment analysis. The model includes detailed forecasts for land acquisition, development costs, financing terms, lease-up absorption, occupancy rates, rent growth, and property management expenses. The model helps assess profitability, calculate return on investment (ROI) and internal rate of return (IRR), and guide decisions on financing structure, project phasing, and long-term hold versus exit strategy.

The structure of the template follows Financial Modeling Best Practices principles and is fully customizable.

Model Structure

•  General Setup Inputs
Property and Operations-related inputs, including Project Timing, Home Assumptions (5 different Home Types, Home Sizes, Rent Pace), Operating Assumptions (Rental Revenue, Ancillary Revenue, Operating Expenses, CapEx), Project Financing (Equity and Debt), and Property Sale Assumptions (Cap Rate, Sale Expenses)

•  Development Budget
Property Development Assumptions including Land costs, Soft Costs, Hard Costs (Horizontal & Vertical), Contigencies, Development Timing, and Development Cash Flow distribution (Straight-line, S-Curve)

•  Debt Schedule
Loan amortization Schedule of project's debt including an optional moratorium and interest-only (IO) period.  

•  Monthly & Quarterly Cash Flows
These 2 reports present all the operating cash flows of the project over monthly and quarterly periods. It allows users to control the timing and how the cash flows over that time.

•  Annual Cash Flow
A roll-up of the monthly cash flows into annual periods from Development to Net Cash Flow after taxes. 

•  Performance Reports
The model includes KPIs and Performance dashboard reports assisting users to monitor project's operations and profitability.

•  Project Returns
Report presenting project unlevered and levered returns (Pre-Tax & After-Tax IRR, MOIC, Cash Outflows, Inflows and Profits)

•  Investors' Returns Waterfall
A 3-tier IRR hurdle waterfall model to distribute proceeds between investors. The report provides inputs for up to 4 different LPs with different equity contribution percentages and up to 4 different GPs with different equity contributions and equity share percentages. The first tier distributes cash flow to the partners until the LPs has achieved some defined preferred return and received a full return of capital. Assuming the preferred return hurdle is hit in tier one, cash flow is distributed in tiers two and three based on a defined promote structure and hurdle rates as outlined by the user.

•  Project Executive Summary:
A high-level summary of the project's key data, including:
– Key Project Metrics (Project Timing, Property Metrics, Yield on Cost, Payback Period, Free & Clear Return Ratio, Cash-on-Cash Ratio, DSCR)
– Uses & Sources of Cash
– Operations Summary (Revenue, Net Operating Income, Net Cash Flow)
– Project Level Return Metrics (Unlevered & Levered)
– Partnership (LP's & GP's) Level Returns Summary (IRR, MOIC, Cash Outflows, Cash Inflows, Profit)
– Business Performance Dashboard

Detailed instructions for the use of the model are included in the Excel file.

Help & Support

Committed to high quality and customer satisfaction, all our templates follow best-practice financial modeling principles and are thoughtfully and carefully designed, keeping the user's needs and comfort in mind.
No matter if you have no experience or are well versed in finance, accounting, and the use of Microsoft Excel, our professional financial models are the right tools to boost your business operations!
If you, however, experience any difficulty while using this template and you are not able to find the appropriate guidance in the provided instructions, please feel free to contact us for assistance.
If you need a template customized for your business requirements, please e-mail us and provide a brief explanation of your specific needs.

Source: Best Practices in Real Estate, Integrated Financial Model Excel: Housing Project (Built-to-Rent) – Project Finance Model Excel (XLSX) Spreadsheet, Profit Vision