Real Estate Equity Multiple Calculator

About this calculator

The equity multiple is one of the simplest ways to judge a real estate investment's total return: EM = Total Distributions Received ÷ Total Equity Invested. An equity multiple of 2.0x means the investment returned twice the capital put in — for example, $200,000 in total distributions on a $100,000 investment — combining both income distributions along the way and the final sale or refinance proceeds.

Unlike IRR, the equity multiple ignores the timing of cash flows, so a 2.0x multiple earned over 3 years is a very different investment than the same 2.0x earned over 10 years — which is why real estate syndicators, private equity fund managers, and limited partners typically report equity multiple alongside IRR in offering memoranda, using the two together to judge both the magnitude and the efficiency of a deal's returns.