Flip / BRRR Calculator
Profit and ROI on a buy-refurbish-sell project.
Computed on our server. The method is set out in full below.
A flip looks profitable right up to the point you add everything you paid to own the property while you were working on it. This prices the whole project — purchase, refurbishment, buying costs, the finance and holding costs while it sits, and the cost of selling — against the end value, so the profit on screen is the profit you would actually bank.
What this calculator works out
- Total money in: purchase price, refurbishment, buying costs and everything spent holding the property while the work runs.
- Selling costs as a percentage of the end value — agent and legal fees come out of the sale, not out of thin air.
- Profit in pounds, return on the total invested, and margin as a share of the end value.
- The same arithmetic works for a BRRR: the end value is the refinance valuation rather than a sale price, and the profit is the equity left in.
How the result is worked out
Total money in is the purchase price plus the refurbishment, the buying costs and the holding costs. Selling costs are the end value multiplied by the selling-costs percentage. Profit is the end value less the selling costs less the total money in. ROI is that profit divided by the total money in, and margin is the profit divided by the end value. For a BRRR, enter the refinance valuation as the end value.
A worked example
Buy at £100,000, spend £30,000 on the refurbishment, £8,000 on buying costs and £5,000 holding it while the work runs. That is £143,000 in. Sell at £180,000 with 2% selling costs and the profit is about £33,400 — a 23% return on the money invested and an 18.6% margin. Lose two months to a delayed certificate and the holding cost alone eats several thousand of that.
Common questions
How much profit should a property flip make?
A widely used rule of thumb is 20% of the end value, or around £25,000-£30,000 on a typical project, and the reason the threshold is that high is that it absorbs the things that go wrong. Refurbishments overrun, markets move while you are working, and a sale can fall through twice. A deal that only just works on paper does not work at all.
What is BRRR and does this calculator handle it?
BRRR is Buy, Refurbish, Refinance, Rent: instead of selling, you revalue and refinance to release most of the money you put in, then let the property out. The arithmetic here is the same — enter the expected refinance valuation as the end value, and the profit figure becomes the equity created. Whether the capital comes back out depends entirely on that valuation, which is the part outside your control.
What costs do people forget on a flip?
Holding costs are the usual one: mortgage or bridging interest, council tax, utilities, insurance and security for every month the property is empty. After that, the contingency. Then selling costs, which are real money at the end. And the stamp duty surcharge on the purchase, which applies to an additional property whether you intend to keep it or not.
Do I pay capital gains tax on a flip?
Usually not — a property bought with the intention of selling it on is generally treated as trading rather than investment, so the profit is normally subject to income tax or corporation tax rather than CGT, and possibly National Insurance if you hold it personally. That distinction changes the net figure substantially, and it is worth confirming with an accountant before the first project rather than after it.
Is bridging finance worth it?
It buys speed, which is what wins properties that need work and cannot be mortgaged conventionally. It costs considerably more than a term mortgage, so it belongs in the holding-costs field at its real rate. Bridging is a tool for a project with a firm exit and a realistic timeline; on a project that slips, it is the thing that turns a thin profit into a loss.
Related tools and services
Worth running the same deal through the Buy-to-Let Calculator and the HMO Calculator before you commit to a strategy — the same building can look very different under each, and the gap between them is usually the real decision. The rest are in the calculator library.
If the numbers work and the property is in Liverpool or the Wirral, we run it for a living: see HMO and BTL management for a property you already own, or investment sourcing if you are still looking for the right one.
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