ROI Calculator in Alnair: A Practical Guide with Scenarios & Mortgage Examples
Why you’d use the ROI Calculator
The ROI Calculator is a fast way to turn “a nice apartment” into a clear investment story with numbers. Instead of vague promises, you show a client: how much the unit can earn over a chosen period, what the income is made of (rent + price appreciation), what costs reduce the result (service charge, extra expenses, and in short-term also operating fees), and most importantly — the final ROI.
On top of that, you can model “what if…” scenarios and quickly compare Long-term vs Short-term for the same unit — this speeds up decisions and makes the calculation feel trustworthy.
How to use the ROI Calculator in Alnair
1) Where to create a calculation
Open the project page / unit page (including a secondary unit inside a project).
Find the ROI Calculator block and click “Add calculation”.
You can create multiple calculations for the same unit (for example “Base”, “Optimistic”, “Conservative”) so you can quickly pick the right scenario for a specific client.
2) Choose a strategy: Long-term or Short-term
Long-term rental — when the client thinks in terms of a yearly rental contract: stable income and a clear “per year” rent number.
Here you enter the market annual rent and then use Market Scenario to show “what happens if we rent below market / at market / above market”.
Short-term rental — when the client wants daily rentals.
Here income depends on daily price and occupancy, and you must include operating fees (management + platform). Without them, short-term often looks unrealistically profitable.
3) Fill in unit details + shared inputs (the same for both strategies)
After selecting a strategy, you set the unit basics and the shared calculation settings.
Unit details (where the data comes from)
You can enter values manually (useful for “what-if” modelling), or
You can select a unit from the available listings in this building/project — then area (sqm/ft²) and other unit attributes that exist in the unit card are filled in automatically. After that, you only add the scenario inputs.
Shared calculation inputs
T (years) — the calculation horizon (holding period).
Unit Price — purchase price (as you want to show it in this scenario).
Service charge — either per area (rate × area) or fixed per year.
Extra expenses — any additional costs (furniture, insurance, repairs, reserves, etc.).
Taxes are not a separate input by default — if you need them, add them as a line item in Extra expenses.Growth rate — annual price appreciation (use 0 if you don’t want to include appreciation).
What you need to fill in depending on the strategy
A) Long-term: “contract rent” + market scenarios
Long-term strategy inputs
Market annual rental price — market rent per year
Market Scenario — deviation from market (–15%, –10%, –5%, 0%, +5%, +10%, +15%)
How Market Scenario works (client-friendly explanation)
Market Scenario isn’t a “complex formula” — it’s simply a scenario switch:
0% — rent at market
–10% — rent below market → lower income → lower ROI
+10% — rent above market → higher income → higher ROI
Practically, it multiplies the annual rent:
–10% → × 0.90
0% → × 1.00
+10% → × 1.10
This helps you show 2–3 realistic versions fast: conservative / base / optimistic.
B) Short-term: “daily rent” + operating fees
Short-term strategy inputs
Daily rental price — average daily rate
Occupancy rate — occupancy (share of booked days)
Property management fee % — management fee
Platform fee % — platform/service fee
In short-term, these fees are treated as operating costs and can materially change ROI, so it’s worth calling them out explicitly to the client.
4) Where the client will see the result
Once you save a calculation, the ROI metrics can be used beyond the calculator itself:
On the project/unit page — great for explaining the logic live during a call or meeting.
In the PDF presentation — the ROI block can be included in the exported PDF; when generating materials, you choose which scenario you want to show.
Calculation examples (so you can explain it “on the fingers”)
Example 1 — a simple long-term scenario (quick template)
Assume:
Purchase price: 1,200,000
Service charge over 5 years: 72,630
Extra expenses: 200,000
Market rent: 100,000/year, scenario 80% → 80,000/year, over 5 years 400,000
Appreciation: 5%/year for 5 years → 331,200
Then:
Total income = 400,000 + 331,200 = 731,200
Total cost = 1,200,000 + 72,630 + 200,000 = 1,472,630
ROI ≈ 49.7%
Example 2 — Mortgage (how to reflect it using Extra expenses)
Inputs
Unit price: 1,000,000 AED
Down payment: 200,000 AED
Loan amount: 800,000 AED
Interest rate: 5% per year
Loan term (example): 25 years
Payment type: annuity
Step 1. Calculate the monthly payment
For these terms, the monthly annuity payment is approximately:
≈ 4,676.72 AED / month
Step 2. Add mortgage to the calculator (cash-flow approach)
This is the simplest and most client-friendly approach: “how much do I actually pay the bank each month”.
In Alnair:
Extra expenses → Add expense
Name: Mortgage payment
Type: Fixed
Recurrence: Per month
Amount: 4,676.72 AED
The calculator will automatically scale it by 12 × T:
For T = 5 years: 4,676.72 × 12 × 5 = ≈ 280,603 AED
This amount is included in Total cost.
How to explain it to the client:
“We included the real monthly mortgage burden, so the ROI reflects the cash-flow picture.”
Step 3. Alternative (investment logic): include interest only
Sometimes the client says: “principal repayment isn’t really a cost — it increases my equity.”
In that case you can include interest only as the true cost of financing.
For the same terms over 5 years (reference numbers):
Total payments over 5 years: ≈ 280,603 AED
Interest portion: ≈ 189,245 AED
Principal repaid: ≈ 91,358 AED
Remaining loan balance after 5 years: ≈ 708,642 AED
How to add it:
Extra expenses → Add expense
Name: Mortgage interest (T years)
Type: Fixed
Recurrence: One-time
Amount: 189,245 AED
How to explain it to the client:
“We’re not counting principal repayment as an expense — only the financing cost (interest). This makes ROI closer to classic investment logic.”
Quick cheat sheet: which mortgage approach to use
Client asks “What will I pay each month?” → use monthly payment (cash-flow)
Client asks “What’s my financing cost / investment return?” → use interest-only
5 practical sales scenarios
Compare Long-term vs Short-term for the same unit.
Show 3 long-term rent scenarios via Market Scenario: below market / at market / above market.
Conservative case: appreciation = 0 and add a “reserve” expense in Extra expenses.
Optimistic case: rent +5–10% and appreciation +5%/year (when appropriate).
Mortgage: add mortgage payment (or interest) via Extra expenses and show ROI “with financing included”.