Cash on Cash Return Calculator
Work out what your own money in a rental earns each year, after the mortgage and running costs are paid.
Your numbers
Rent you actually expect to collect. Lower it if you expect empty months.
Parking, storage, pet rent or anything else the property brings in.
Management, insurance, property tax, service charges, utilities and a maintenance allowance.
Principal and interest. Leave empty for a cash purchase.
Cash you put into the deal
Your deposit. For a cash purchase, enter the full price.
Lender, legal and survey fees plus any purchase taxes.
Work and furniture needed before the first tenant moved in.
Cash on cash return
8.00%
$4,800 a year on $60,000 of cash invested
The maths
Bar is full at a 20% cash on cash return
What this means
8.00% cash on cash return
A cash on cash return of 8% to 10% is a healthy result for many financed rentals.
Annual cash flow behind the percentage
$4,800 a year on $60,000 of cash invested, which is $400 a month.
Time to get your cash back
At this cash flow, rent alone would return your upfront cash in about 12.5 years, before any sale or price growth.
Check the return you actually get
Save this property and Propertira follows the real rent, costs and cash flow month by month, so the return stops being an estimate.
Track This PropertyNo card needed. Your calculator numbers carry over to your first property.
Propertira provides estimates based on the information you enter. Results are for informational purposes only and are not financial, tax, legal or investment advice.
How cash on cash return is calculated
The formula is annual pre-tax cash flow divided by total cash invested. Cash flow is rent and other income minus operating costs and the mortgage payment. Cash invested is every pound or dollar that left your account to get the property let: the down payment, closing costs, and any repairs or furniture needed before the first tenant.
A worked example: rent of 2,000 a month with 600 of operating costs and a 1,000 mortgage payment leaves 400 a month, or 4,800 a year. If you put in a 50,000 down payment, 6,000 of closing costs and 4,000 of upfront work, that is 60,000 of cash invested, so the cash on cash return is 4,800 / 60,000 = 8.00%.
Cash on cash return vs cap rate vs ROI
These three get mixed up constantly. A cap rate judges the property and ignores your loan. Cash on cash return judges your deal, including the loan, but only for one year of cash flow. A full return on investment also counts principal paid down and any change in value, which makes it larger and far less certain. Use the cap rate to compare properties, cash on cash to compare where your cash goes, and total return only with explicit assumptions.
Cash on cash return with vacancy
A return built on twelve perfect months is optimistic. Reduce the rent you enter before you calculate — one empty month a year is roughly 8% less rent. On the example above, that turns 4,800 of annual cash flow into about 2,880 and drops the return from 8.00% to around 4.80%, which is a very different deal. The vacancy cost calculator sizes that hit for your own numbers.
Cash on cash return on a cash purchase
Buy without a loan and the mortgage line disappears, so cash flow rises while cash invested rises much more. The result usually lands near the cap rate, because there is no financing between the property and you. That is the trade-off of leverage: borrowing can lift the percentage return on your cash, and it also raises the risk that a vacancy or rate change turns the cash flow negative. Check the floor with the break-even rent calculator.
What this calculator does not do
It does not forecast rent growth, interest-rate changes, capital gains or your personal tax. It turns the figures you enter into a single-year, pre-tax return so you can compare deals on the same basis.
Good to know
Read next
- Work out your break-even rentThe minimum monthly rent that covers every recurring cost on the property.
- Rental property profit margin explainedHow much of each rent payment a landlord typically keeps once costs are paid.
- What is a good ROI on a rental property?The return numbers worth aiming for, and how to calculate your own.
- How much to set aside for maintenanceSimple ways to size a maintenance reserve so repairs never wreck a month.
- Best free tools for landlords in 2026What the free options do well, and where they stop being enough.
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