Rental Property Analyzer
Is that rental actually an investment or a monthly bill? See cap rate, cash-on-cash, and DSCR the way a lender does — plus a 10-year after-tax projection with rent growth, capital gains at sale, and how it stacks up against just buying an index fund.
Where your equity comes from
Your down payment stays put; wealth is built by paying down the mortgage and by the property appreciating. This is the whole return engine on a leveraged rental.
Where each year's rent goes
Year-one gross rent split across the mortgage, operating costs, and the vacancy allowance — with whatever's left (or the shortfall you cover) as cash flow.
Your money out the door
Selling the property at the end of your holding period, netting out costs, the mortgage, and capital gains tax — then adding back the rent you banked along the way.
| Exit waterfall | Amount |
|---|
Year-by-year projection
Rent and expenses grow each year; cash flow is after income tax on net rental income.
| Year | Rent | NOI | Cash flow | Balance | Value | Equity |
|---|
How this is calculated
Three yardsticks, three questions
Cap rate = NOI ÷ purchase price. Net operating income is rent (less a vacancy allowance) minus operating costs — property tax, insurance, maintenance, condo fees, management, landlord utilities — but not the mortgage. Cap rate measures the property itself, independent of how you finance it, so you can compare deals apples-to-apples.
Cash-on-cash = annual cash flow ÷ cash invested, where cash invested is your down payment + closing costs + renovation. This is the return on the actual dollars you put in, after the mortgage — the number that tells you whether leverage is working for you.
DSCR (debt-service coverage ratio) = NOI ÷ annual mortgage payments. It's the lender's test: below 1.0 the rent doesn't cover the mortgage. Canadian lenders generally want DSCR ≥ 1.1 to 1.2 to approve an investment mortgage.
Canadian mortgage math
Fixed rates compound semi-annually, so the effective monthly rate is (1 + rate/2)^(2/12) − 1 — not rate/12. This tool uses the same engine as the mortgage calculator. Note: rentals require at least 20% down — CMHC insurance isn't available on non-owner-occupied property — so a low-down-payment scenario is flagged.
The 10-year (or longer) projection
Each year, rent grows at your rent-growth rate, expenses grow at expense inflation, and the mortgage amortizes month by month. Equity is built two ways: principal paydown (loan minus remaining balance) and appreciation (value minus purchase price). Total profit at exit = net sale proceeds + cumulative after-tax cash flow − cash invested; annualized ROI compounds that over the holding period. We also compute the IRR (the discount rate that zeroes out the cash-flow stream) and the NPV against your required return.
Tax treatment
Net rental income (rent − operating costs − mortgage interest, but not principal) stacks on your other income at your combined federal + provincial marginal rate; a rental loss offsets other income. At sale, 50% of the capital gain is taxable (the inclusion rate confirmed for 2026) — the principal-residence exemption does not apply to a rental. Capital gains tax is estimated at your marginal rate for the province chosen, using the same brackets as the capital gains tax calculator.
The honest benchmark
We compound the same cash you'd invest at a diversified-index return (FP Canada's 2026 assumptions: 5.2% balanced, ~6.3% equity), so you can see whether the effort of being a landlord is beating a hands-off portfolio.
What this doesn't model
Capital cost allowance (CCA) and its recapture, HST on new-build purchases, rent-control caps by province, refinancing or HELOC extraction, unexpected major repairs, and rate changes at renewal. Depreciation and recapture in particular can materially change after-tax results — confirm with an accountant. Rules and rates verified as of July 2026.