Investment approach
DNPI Investor Calculator: How to Read the Result
The calculator's result is read in a set order: costs and term, project profit, investor share, comparison with the contractual 10%. I show the order on a worked example and a scenario check.
The real estate investment calculator for Catalonia on the DNPI Capital site models a buy, renovate and sell project for resale property, and the investor's result after DNPI's fee of 50% of profit. Read the result in order: costs and term, project profit, investor share, and only then the comparison with the contractual 10% for the whole project. You make that comparison yourself: the compensation terms are set by the project contract, not by the calculator.
What the real estate investment calculator for Catalonia shows
The calculator is on the /calculator page. It exists so you can quickly see how project assumptions turn into money. The inputs are purchase price, renovation with IVA (VAT), sale price, term in months and additional costs; the ITP (transfer tax) is chosen from the scale (Agència Tributària de Catalunya, rates from 27 June 2025). Field names and the contents of the result may be updated, so go by what the page shows.
Three facts are tied to DNPI's fee. DNPI's fee is 50% of project profit; the other half stays with the investor. If the investor's return over the whole project after the split is below the contractual 10%, DNPI pays compensation out of its own fee. The terms, the calculation base and the limits are set by the contract for the specific project, and the 10% refers to the whole project, not to a year. This is not a guarantee of capital. The calculator page says it shows a calculation model, not the terms of your contract, and the contractual compensation is not included in the calculation.
How to read the result: five checks in order
- Inputs: purchase price, ITP, renovation with IVA, additional costs (notary, registry, financing, upkeep, plusvalía, the municipal tax on land value increase), sale price and term. In the example on the page, selling costs are set at 3% of the price. The result is no better than these numbers. If the sale price is taken with a margin of optimism, the whole rest of the calculation inherits that error.
- Project profit and return. Example: costs of €500,000, profit of €100,000, project return of 20%.
- Investor share. With DNPI's fee of 50% of profit, the investor keeps €50,000: half of the distributable profit, not half of the sale price (/methodology). Look at which capital the percentage is calculated on: in our simplified example the investor put in all the capital, which gives 10%.
- Comparison with the contractual 10%, by hand. Determine whether the result is above or below. Remember that this is 10% per project: over a two-year term, about 4.9% a year.
- Scenarios. Change the sale price, the term and the renovation, and see where the result crosses the 10% threshold.
Scenario check on a worked example
Worked example, not a forecast. Investor capital is €500,000, and the sale price falls relative to the base case.
| Sale price below base by | Project profit, € | Project return | Investor share 50%, € | Investor return | Shortfall to 10%, € |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100,000 | 20% | 50,000 | 10% | 0 |
| €20,000 | 80,000 | 16% | 40,000 | 8% | 10,000 |
| €40,000 | 60,000 | 12% | 30,000 | 6% | 20,000 |
| €60,000 | 40,000 | 8% | 20,000 | 4% | 30,000 |
In the base case the project delivers 20% and the investor receives exactly 10%, that is, sits right at the threshold. So a €20,000 fall in price is already enough to push the result below 10%. The example shows where the boundary lies, not a typical project. The last column is an arithmetic gap, not a promise of payment: compensation, its size and its limits are determined by the contract.
What the calculator does not know
The calculator works from the assumptions you enter. It does not know that the price of the property will turn out lower than expected by the time of sale, that a licence will be delayed by six months, or that the contractor will go over the estimate. For that there is sensitivity analysis.
The investor's taxes depend on status. The page shows an indicative tax for the selected status (Spanish resident, EU/EEA non-resident, non-resident outside the EU/EEA) and notes that the actual rate depends on other income. Check exactly what is taken into account in the result and what is not: notary, registry, financing and municipal taxes are counted only if you enter them yourself. Calculate what is missing separately or ask an asesor fiscal (tax adviser). And do not compare per-project percentages with annual deposit or bond rates until you bring them to one scale: how that is done is described in the article on comparing over one horizon. Typical gaps in the inputs are collected in 12 calculation mistakes, and the difference between project and investor figures is covered in the article on project return and investor return.
Who gets little from the calculator
Those who want a property price forecast: there is none here, and I will not give one. Those looking for regular rental income: the calculator describes a project with an exit, not ownership for rent. Those still choosing a direction and an amount: the full guide is more useful first.
The method on which the calculation is built is described on the /methodology page.
Questions and answers
How do I use the DNPI investor calculator?
Fill in the project inputs, then read the result in this order: project profit, investor share, comparison with the contractual 10%. Then change the sale price and the term and see how the result moves.
What does 20% mean in the example with €500,000 and €100,000?
It is the project return: a profit of €100,000 against costs of €500,000. After DNPI's fee of 50% of profit the investor keeps €50,000, which is 10% on capital of €500,000.
Does the calculator show an annual return?
It shows an indicative annual equivalent: (1 + income / investment)^(12 / months) − 1. The main result remains the return for the whole project, and the contractual 10% also refers to the whole project, not to a year. Over two years, 10% per project gives about 4.9% a year. The conversion is indicative and does not promise that the result will repeat.
Can the calculator's result be treated as a forecast?
No. It is a calculation on your assumptions. If the assumptions change, the result changes too.
