Every deal we publish is described by a small set of numbers, and every number answers one underwriting question: is the price genuinely below the evidence, and does the income or exit justify the cash employed? This page defines each metric, shows how it is calculated, and explains how the figures interact — because most bad purchases are not arithmetic errors but category errors, like comparing one property's gross yield with another's net.
BMV % — Below Market Value
The percentage discount of the asking price against the median sold price for comparable properties in the same postcode sector, sourced from the Land Registry's price-paid data. A BMV of 28% means the asking price is 28% below the local sold median for that kind of property. BMV is the foundation metric: it measures the margin of safety, and a deal with no genuine discount has none. The qualifier "genuine" carries weight — a discount against an inflated asking price, or against comparables of a better specification, is a discount against fiction, which is why packs show the comparables rather than asserting the percentage.
Score
A 0–10 composite of BMV depth, distress-signal strength, best-strategy ROI, and saturation risk. Anything at 9.0 or above is a deal we would ring a friend about; 8.0 is solid; below 7.5 we typically do not publish. The full construction, with weightings, is documented on the scoring page.
Yield — gross and net
Gross yield = annual rent ÷ purchase price. Net yield starts from gross and deducts management, insurance, maintenance, voids, and any ground rent or service charges — typically stripping a 8.5% gross down to 5.5–6.5% net before finance. Packs model both, with each deduction stated, because the gap between them is where optimistic deals hide.
ROI and cash-on-cash
Return on investment in a pack is the return on the cash actually employed — deposit, acquisition costs, and refurbishment — under the most viable exit strategy, reported as one-year cash-on-cash for income strategies (BTL, HMO, SA) and profit-on-cost for flips. A worked single-let example: £1,920 of annual net cash flow on £33,000 of cash invested is a 5.8% cash-on-cash return, regardless of the property's headline yield. ROI is deliberately conservative arithmetic: full cash basis, stated interest assumption, no capital-growth forecast.
GDV — Gross Development Value
The estimated value of the property after refurbishment, supported by sold comparables at the target specification in the pack. GDV drives BRRR refinance assumptions and flip exit values, which makes it the assumption most worth attacking: a 10% GDV error can be the entire profit. Saturation risk (below) exists to police it.
Money Left In
The capital remaining in a deal after a BRRR refinance: total cash deployed minus funds released. The objective is a small number — often £0–£20,000 — because money left in is the denominator of every future return on the deal.
Monthly Cash Flow
Net monthly income after mortgage interest (at our dated rate assumption), management, voids, maintenance, insurance, and service charges. This is the number that pays for patience; packs publish it net, never gross.
Refurb estimate
Our estimated cost to bring the property to the assumed strategy's standard: a regional per-square-foot base rate refined by line items for the visible scope (kitchen, bathroom, heating, windows, compliance works). Quoted with the floor area it was built from, and flagged when the area itself is estimated.
Cap remaining
The number of pack unlocks still available at our chosen cap. A low number is a real signal: it means only a small market of investors will hold the same research.
Reading the metrics together
No single metric clears a deal. The pack's logic runs: BMV says the entry is safe, yield and cash flow say the hold is funded, ROI says the cash works hard, GDV and saturation say the exit is believable, and the sensitivity table says how much of any of it can be wrong before the deal stops working. Research, in other words — the decision built on it belongs to the investor.