What to take into your next appraisal
- A development appraisal, an acquisition model and a market-data search answer different questions.
- Assess period cash flow, funding needs and the explanation behind a change, as well as profit or IRR.
- Feasly publishes development and office-acquisition examples with inputs, results and explicit method boundaries.
Start with the job the model must do
A development manager deciding whether to buy land needs to understand delivery costs, receipt timing and the money required before completion. An investment analyst acquiring a let building needs to examine income durability, operating costs, works, debt and exit. A research team testing a rent assumption first needs relevant observations. These teams may share information, but they should select software against the particular work they need to complete.
| Decision | What to examine | Where Feasly fits |
|---|---|---|
| Develop a site | Costs and quantities, programme, receipts, funding and monthly cash shortfall. | Development feasibility, saved scenarios and the Feasly Calculation Engine. |
| Acquire an income property | Income, expenses, initial and future works, financing, exit and investor cash. | A defined income-property underwriting workflow. Confirm lease and debt methods for the assignment. |
| Support a price or rent assumption | Location, observation date, property cohort and transaction or rental basis. | Current market research using Dubai Land Department records. Other coverage needs confirmation. |
| Set an early construction allowance | Building type, specification, source year, area basis and included costs. | Source-dated Cost Index ranges, assessed alongside project-specific evidence. |
| Add calculations to another system | Required methods, input mapping, output definitions, versions and access. | Discuss engine access and integrations. Standalone API and private-deployment offers are developing. |
Sources: Feasly: Development feasibility in Feasly; Feasly: Investment underwriting in Feasly; Feasly: Market intelligence and current data scope; Feasly: Construction Cost Index and source basis; Feasly: Engine access and integrations
Compare commercial real estate underwriting software
For an income-property acquisition, start with the rent roll, operating costs, required valuation method and reporting obligations. Consider Feasly for the model, scenarios and supporting work around the acquisition; compare the alternatives below against the methods and deliverables your team requires.
This comparison uses the linked vendor product information and Feasly examples. Use the final column to plan a demonstration for your own assignment; it is not a cross-vendor performance benchmark.
| Product | Published workflow | What to test before choosing |
|---|---|---|
| Feasly | Development feasibility and supported income-property underwriting in a workspace with saved models, scenarios and source documents. The Calculation Engine produces the results. | Use the public office case to inspect returns and cash reconciliation, then test your actual leases, debt, currency and reports in the product. The public case uses aggregate income and excludes tenant-level lease events. |
| ARGUS Enterprise | Altus describes lease-by-lease cash flow, valuation, budgeting and scenario analysis, now offered within ARGUS Intelligence Platform. | If your team or client requires an ARGUS deliverable, confirm the exact edition, file exchange, report format and valuation conventions with the recipient. |
| ARGUS Workbook by Forbury | The North American offering combines an Excel interface with the ARGUS cloud calculation engine, rent-roll import and multiple scenarios in a worksheet. | Evaluate the regional model for your assets. Check the Excel/add-in requirements, supported lease events and mapping of an actual rent roll. |
| ReturnSuite | Its product page describes acquisition underwriting, NOI projections, rent-roll analysis and reporting through a purpose-built modelling application. | Run an acquisition with your required lease, expense, financing and exit assumptions. Reconcile both the detailed cash flows and the exported deliverable. |
Sources: Feasly: Investment underwriting in Feasly; Feasly: Commercial property underwriting: four calculated acquisition cases; Altus Group: ARGUS Enterprise: cash flow, valuation and current platform packaging; Forbury / Altus Group: ARGUS Workbook by Forbury: North American workflow and regional scope; ReturnSuite: ReturnSuite: real estate financial modelling software
For development feasibility, compare a different set of requirements
A development appraisal needs a delivery programme, development costs, staged receipts and funding assumptions. Compare Feasly with EstateMaster, ARGUS Developer and Aprao against those requirements using our separate dated vendor-source comparisons. Do not treat ARGUS Enterprise and ARGUS Developer as interchangeable products.
Use the UK residential example to test a specific question before arranging a demonstration: does a six-month receipt delay increase the cash required even when nominal profit stays the same? Then add the debt, tax, phasing and reporting requirements of your real assignment. An all-equity published example is a starting point for that evaluation.
Sources: Feasly: EstateMaster, ARGUS Developer and Aprao comparisons; Feasly: UK residential development appraisal: five cases and monthly cash flows
Why put Feasly on the shortlist?
The reason to evaluate Feasly is the connection between the calculation and the work around it. Keep the base model, supporting documents and alternative cases together. Change supported assumptions, recalculate and investigate the difference. The Calculation Engine produces the financial results; the workspace gives the team a case it can continue to examine.
That can be valuable when a feasibility or acquisition is repeatedly revised as costs, programme, rents, receipts or financing change. Compare how reliably your team can explain the next decision: what changed, why it changed, when cash is needed and what remains uncertain. Establish that the available financial methods and reporting fit before choosing Feasly over an established system.
Our separate comparisons cover EstateMaster, ARGUS Developer and Aprao using dated vendor sources and Feasly evidence. An alternative is credible when it supports your assignment and improves the workflow you actually use.
Sources: Feasly: Model and scenario workspace; Feasly: Feasly Calculation Engine; Feasly: EstateMaster, ARGUS Developer and Aprao comparisons
Development feasibility: look beyond project profit
A project can keep the same nominal profit while requiring more capital for longer. Our fictional UK residential appraisal illustrates that distinction with five defined cases and downloadable monthly cash flows. Delaying receipts by six months increases the maximum project cash shortfall from £6.77m to £7.80m without changing nominal profit. The example is all-equity and before debt finance and corporation tax.
Use the published inputs and results to examine how timing changes the cash requirement. For your own project, extend the evaluation to the actual borrowing, tax and staged delivery methods it requires. The reproducible example supports the calculations within its stated boundary; it does not prove every financing structure.
Sources: Feasly: UK residential development appraisal: five cases and monthly cash flows
Investment underwriting: follow the cash to the investor
Reconcile the rent schedule and operating costs, then separate operating income, cash after capital needs and cash after debt service. Examine the purchase cost and exit assumptions alongside ownership cash flows. A yield alone cannot explain what the investor will receive or contribute.
Feasly’s underwriting workspace supports a defined income-property workflow with inspectable assumptions and supported sensitivities. In a demonstration, use a known acquisition and check the lease events, recoveries, debt structure, currency and outputs your team needs. Preserve Base and compare a separate alternative.
Our fictional office acquisition was calculated as four saved Feasly cases. The combined vacancy and exit-yield downside reduces equity IRR from 9.63% to negative 7.73%, even while income covers interest. Download the inputs, engine KPIs and independently prepared annual reconciliation. This aggregate case excludes tenant-level lease events, capital works and tax; test the current product against your actual period-by-period requirements.
Sources: Feasly: Investment underwriting in Feasly; Feasly: Commercial property underwriting: four calculated acquisition cases
When to use software instead of building another Excel model
A reviewed Excel workbook can be the right tool for a bespoke structure or a mandated client deliverable. Purpose-built software earns its place when its supported methods reduce the recurring work of maintaining, changing and reviewing the case. Compare those tasks using the same assumptions and expected outputs.
Feasly supports defined assumption exchanges and result exports; file compatibility must be checked on the actual model. The desktop Excel add-in is in testing. Import support does not mean every formula, macro or proprietary workbook can be translated.
AI can help explain a case or propose a supported change, but a fluent answer is not evidence that the financial method or input is correct. In Feasly, the Analyst works with the model and the Calculation Engine calculates accepted assumptions. Review proposed edits and inspect the resulting cash flow.
Sources: Feasly: Excel and supported file workflows; Feasly: Feasly Calculation Engine; Feasly: Feasly Analyst
Working with the saved model in ChatGPT
Bring your Feasly financial work into ChatGPT. Open a saved project, work on a development or investment model, and save scenarios to the same Feasly workspace.
Work with supported Development and Underwriting models in the same Feasly workspace. Confirm that the connection supports the file formats, financial methods and actions your assignment needs.
Available by invitation during private preview. Feasly has been submitted for review in the ChatGPT directory; public installation is not yet available. A Feasly sign-in is required for saved projects.
Property data: check coverage before choosing a platform
A transaction database, a listings feed, a valuation benchmark and a construction-cost range answer different questions. Check the observed period, property type, units and included fields before deciding the evidence is relevant.
Feasly’s currently described market research uses Dubai Land Department records. The Cost Index presents source-dated construction ranges with their own geography and scope. Global product ambition does not establish a worldwide transaction or rent database. For another market, discuss coverage and retain the local sources supporting your assumptions.
Sources: Feasly: Market intelligence and current data scope; Feasly: Construction Cost Index and source basis
Use the same case to test the shortlist
Start with the free public examples; neither requires an account. The office explorer lets you select four recorded Feasly cases and download their results. Its controls switch between approved calculations rather than run a new model. The development example supplies five cases and monthly cash-flow downloads.
For a product evaluation, give each vendor the same agreed input schedule and record any unsupported requirement. Compare method and reconciliation before judging the headline return. Keep a separate record of preparation time, corrections and the work needed to update and explain the case.
| Test | Evidence to ask for |
|---|---|
| Establish Base | A dated input schedule, area and currency basis, included costs, timing conventions and a saved starting model. |
| Reconcile cash | A bridge from income and costs to property cash, then financing and investor cash. Match the period convention before comparing IRR. |
| Change one assumption | A separate scenario with the changed field identified. Confirm that Base and its source assumptions remain available. |
| Inspect the exit | The precise NOI period capitalised, exit yield, selling costs and debt repayment. Equal exit yields do not guarantee equal sale proceeds. |
| Review the deliverable | The actual report or export required by your investment committee, lender or client, with remaining limitations recorded. |
Sources: Feasly: Try the four recorded office cases without an account; Feasly: UK residential development appraisal: five cases and monthly cash flows; Feasly: Feasly Calculation Engine; Feasly: Arrange a demonstration around your assignment
Use a decision-based demonstration
Bring one representative project or acquisition, the source assumptions and the outputs your team relies on. Agree the expected method before judging the interface. A useful demonstration should leave you able to explain the result and the work required to maintain it.
- Reconcile the starting case, including currency, area basis, timing and included costs.
- Inspect the period cash flow and capital requirement behind the headline return.
- Change a material assumption and save a separate scenario. Confirm Base remains available.
- Check the actual import, export and review workflow, including any restricted fields.
- Confirm current access, supported methods, data coverage and commercial terms for the assignment.
Sources: Feasly: Arrange a demonstration around your assignment
Sources and further reading
- ARGUS Enterprise: cash flow, valuation and current platform packaging Altus Group
- ARGUS Workbook by Forbury: North American workflow and regional scope Forbury / Altus Group
- ReturnSuite: real estate financial modelling software ReturnSuite
- Try the four recorded office cases without an account Feasly
- Development feasibility in Feasly Feasly
- Investment underwriting in Feasly Feasly
- Market intelligence and current data scope Feasly
- Construction Cost Index and source basis Feasly
- Engine access and integrations Feasly
- Model and scenario workspace Feasly
- Feasly Calculation Engine Feasly
- EstateMaster, ARGUS Developer and Aprao comparisons Feasly
- UK residential development appraisal: five cases and monthly cash flows Feasly
- Commercial property underwriting: four calculated acquisition cases Feasly
- Excel and supported file workflows Feasly
- Feasly Analyst Feasly
- Feasly in ChatGPT: private preview Feasly
- Arrange a demonstration around your assignment Feasly
Published by Feasly. How we prepare our guides. Suggest a correction.
