Knowing how the amount of equity in property you have is hugely important. As an investor, one of the reasons you will have bought the property is for capital appreciation. It is important to work out not just your current surplus equity position, but also to try to forecast your equity position in the future.
This is because the surplus equity you have in the property is the capital you can use to either reinvest in new assets, or to pay down debt.
If you are able to forecast your position you will be able to plan your strategy better and make better informed investment decisions.
What does having equity in property mean?
The equity in your property is the value of the interest in the the property that you actually own. It’s the amount that you paid via the deposit when you bought the property and the amount of the mortgage you have repaid. If the value of property has increased since you bought the property, then the equity you have in the property will also have increased because of the the difference between the price you paid and its current value.
Calculate equity in your property
To accurately calculate the surplus equity you need to prepare a balance sheet. You are investing in a long-term asset and long term debt, therefore for the purposes of the balance sheet, you will ignore your short term asset (rental income) and short term liabilities (creditors).
Assets
Your property is an appreciating asset, purchased as an investment strategy with the expectation that its value will increase over time.
Your furniture is a depreciating asset, which has a useful life, after which time it will have little or no value (in some countries, this can be depreciated from a taxation perspective).
Most property investors will therefore have two assets – the property and the furniture.
Liabilities
Typically this will be the mortgage.
Assumptions
In order to prepare the balance sheet so that it sets out a position in the future, you’ll need to make certain assumptions as to what will change over time and by how much. The best way explain this is by setting out an example.
Property: The property is bought for £400,000. Based on our research, we are anticipating annual growth of 2.5% in our given area.
Furniture: The furniture cost £10,000. The useful life is 7 years and after that it will have no value.
Mortgage: From the cashflow statement (read our article here as to how to prepare the cash flow statement) you can work out the remaining amount payable on your mortgage. In this example we have assumed you have a mortgage of £300,000. We have set out the balance at the beginning of each year.
| Assets | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment Price | 400,000 | ||||
| Capital Appreciation Rate | 2.50% | 2.50% | 2.50% | 2.50% | |
| Capital Appreciation | 10,000 | 10,250 | 10,506 | 10,769 | |
| Appreciated Value | 400,000 | 410,000 | 420,250 | 430,756 | 441,525 |
| Furniture | 10,000 | ||||
| Depreciation | 1,429 | 1,429 | 1,429 | 1,429 | |
| Depreciated Value of Furniture | 10,000 | 8,571 | 7,142 | 5,713 | 4,284 |
| Total Value of Assets | 410,000 | 418,571 | 427,392 | 436,469 | 445,809 |
| Liabilities | |||||
| Mortgage at Beginning of Year | 300,000 | 295,160 | 290,098 | 284,804 | 279,266 |
| Total Liabilities | 300,000 | 295,160 | 290,098 | 284,804 | 279,266 |
| Investor Equity | 110,000 | 123,411 | 137,294 | 151,665 | 166,543 |
Final Words
The difference in total assets and liabilities is your Investor Equity. As an investor, this is important because it has an impact your ability to raise debt and the equity to you have free for other investment.
Before you make an investment, you should play through different scenarios, by changing your growth assumptions, or changing the mortgage requirements. By comparing different scenarios against each other, you’ll be able to make better informed investment decisions.
We hope you have found this article useful, feel free to comment or ask any questions. For more information on about property investment check out our other articles and request your copy of our Buyers Guides from [email protected].
Important notice: Proptech Pioneer and its associated companies seeks to provide investors with guides, information and tools, but we cannot guarantee this information to be accurate or perfect. You use the information at your own risk and accept no liability if you rely on this information. Proptech Pioneer is not a tax advisor, conveyance, lawyer, financial advisor or mortgage advisor. You should seek independent advice from independent professionals before making any investment decision
