Announcing the release of ARGUS EstateMaster 7.5

We are excited to announce that the ARGUS EstateMaster 7.5 release is now available to download. This update delivers important enhancements to the Development Feasibility (DF) and Development Management (DM) editions provided by ARGUS EstateMaster.

With advanced financing options and extended leasing capabilities for commercial developments and the growing Build-to-Rent market, this new release will help support complex modelling requirements for multi-stage projects or 'develop and hold' strategies in a single solution.

Watch the video of the new features below.

What’s new in this release?

Stage by stage financing 

You can now fund each stage separately and report the related interest and fees directly against each stage. This will allow you to accurately and reliably forecast the performance of each stage of your development projects.

Loan repayment flexibility

Repayments to lenders and investors do not always follow a straightforward sequential process. You are now enabled with new preferences to define the repayment order of loans and repay multiple loans simultaneously. With greater flexibility for loan repayments, you minimise manual calculations and workarounds.

Customisable cost groups for facility limits

Two customisable ‘Cost Groups' within the financing functionality provide more visibility on how your project loans draw down funds. You gain greater control of project loans by defining specific costs that a loan needs to fund or have its loan ratio calculated on.

Interest and fee payments

Enhanced payment options that allow any other funding source to pay the interest expenses and/or fees for a loan.

Annual operational performance metrics

Gain better insight into the performance of a Build-to-Rent asset during its operational phase. Thanks to two new KPIs included on the Build to rent Summary report, you are empowered to identify more precisely asset yield on an annual basis and target optimal timeframes for disposal with an annual capitalised value.

Advanced lease incentives

Appraise commercial developments with more confidence by modelling lease incentive structures that are in line with market best practices: incentives entered as a separate rent-free period and fit-out cost or modelled based on a percentage of rent.

Escalation profile for outgoings

Outgoings don't necessarily escalate at the same rate as rental income. You now have the flexibility to decide if outgoings escalate in line with rental income growth or escalate based on a custom annual profile.

Additional handover value calculation options

Between the Development and Investments phases of a Build-to-Rent project, you are now able to calculate your desired handover value according to your target development margin or target yield, removing the need to calculate it manually.

Enhanced reporting features

Gain additional insights into how your projects are performing, as well as giving you greater control of what is reported. Including a stock summary chart to display what has been sold and settled over time, enhancements to the stage reports to more accurately allocate tax to stages, and settings to control when residual land values need to be calculated and displayed.

Customisable project contingency

You now have full control over how your project contingency is calculated. A new preference allows you to decide which specific project costs are included when a percentage contingency rate is adopted, and if those costs include or exclude tax.

To upgrade your ARGUS EstateMaster software, please follow the automated update prompts when you next run the software or download the latest version by logging into the Client Area. Please be aware that you must be up-to-date with your software maintenance in order to run the latest version of ARGUS EstateMaster.

If you have any questions regarding this release, please contact our support team