TERRA
Private beta · Property appraisal software

Real estate investment and development appraisal—without building another spreadsheet.

Investment and development appraisal on one page, on any device. Build transparent monthly cash flows, solve to a target return and export a formula-linked Excel model your colleagues and lenders can follow. Fast enough for initial pricing, rigorous enough for investment committee.

Nearly 30 years appraising property as an adviser, corporate financier, investor and developer, across almost every sub-asset class and on deals from under £1m to over £1bn.

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Terra is currently in private beta — access is invitation-only. Request access above, or sign in if you already have an account. New accounts start with a 7-day free trial of Pro, with every feature; when it ends, choose the plan you want to continue on. Your appraisals are kept either way.

Terra running in a browser on a phone-width screen: profit, profit on cost, IRR and equity across the top banner, and the appraisal below with Areas and Timings and the Costs sections opened, each cost section with its total.
Terra on a phone. The same appraisal, the same numbers, on whatever you have with you.

The rigour of Argus. The auditability of Excel. On any device — even your phone.

See it

One tool, two deliverables.

Terra is not trying to replace Excel. It replaces the work of building the Excel model — and the errors that come with building it by hand.

Work fast in the Terra app; hand over a clean, professional Excel model.

Three iPhone screens of the Terra app: the appraisal as a list of sections under the KPI banner; Areas and Timings open above the Costs sections, each with its total; and Appraisal details with the project name, currency, appraisal date and address. The Terra app on a desktop: the KPI banner with profit, profit on cost, IRR, equity multiple and margins across the top, and the appraisal below as a list of sections with running totals. The Purchase section: the purchase price, the purchase price helper, Transfer tax with its total, and the residual value solver. A construction line item opened: a rate of -250 multiplied by a gross area of 1,000 to give -250,000, spread as an S curve from construction start to construction end. The Leases section: the sale cap rate and purchaser costs for all lease areas, the credit and vacancy loss, and the first lease area. The Finance section: cash management, equity, the development loan and the investment loan with their amounts, and the profit-sharing waterfall with its limbs, hurdles and targets.

The app Fast to work in.

Enter your assumptions and watch the KPIs, IRRs and totals update instantly; calculate the residual land value at the press of a button, and solve to a target return. Built for speed and clarity while you're thinking about the deal.

The exported Excel model, Summary sheet: every cost line with its total, the sale proceeds, and the leveraged and unleveraged performance measures beneath them. The Cash Flow sheet: capital cost, operating cost and income, sale proceeds, finance cash flows and the debt capital account, one column per month. The vertical cash flow sheet: every cost and income category as a column, one row per period, with the unleveraged and leveraged IRRs at the top. The Profit-Share Waterfall sheet: the deal equity cash flow split between investor and sponsor through tiered limbs, with each limb’s hurdle, split and resulting returns. The Sensitivity Analysis sheet: a grid of two assumptions varied against one another, with the chosen KPIs tabulated for every combination.

The Excel export A model you can follow.

Every appraisal exports to a clean Excel model where the KPIs trace through their totals down into the monthly cash flows, and a full record of every assumption is set out on its own sheet tab — exactly what was entered in the Terra web app. A transparent model your colleagues, lenders and investment committees can follow line by line. And the file carries the appraisal itself: anyone with Terra can upload it and carry on working on your appraisal, with nothing to re-key.

Why Terra

Better appraisal.
Better decisions.

Technology should not replace professional judgement. It should make professional judgement easier to apply.

Every appraisal turns on assumptions only experience can set — rental growth, market rent, void periods, tenant quality, capital expenditure, exit yields, and the probability of a lease renewing. Terra will not make those calls for you.

What it does is give them a disciplined framework: one place to enter them, test them, and see instantly what they mean for value and return — so your judgement is applied, not buried in a spreadsheet.

How it works

Less time building the model.
More time thinking about the deal.

AI can help research the inputs. Terra structures the appraisal. You make the judgement.

1

Open the opportunity

Enter your assumptions into sixteen identical sections for cost and income, so every deal is structured the same way and two appraisals can be compared line for line.

2

Review the numbers

Profit, profit on cost, IRRs and equity multiples — leveraged and unleveraged, and you choose which — sit across the top of the appraisal as you work, so you can see what an assumption is worth before you commit to it.

3

Solve to target

Set the return you need and Terra solves back to the purchase price that achieves it — then exports the whole appraisal to Excel.

What you get

The appraisal on one page.
Everything else one click away.

Sixteen identical sections, each with up to 99 identical line items — learn one and you have learned the appraisal. The rest is a click from wherever you are on the page.

One page

The whole appraisal on one screen of collapsible sections — no tabs, modules or wizards between you and the input you want.

KPIs you choose, always in view

Thirty-five to pick from, leveraged and unleveraged side by side, arranged how you like and moving as you type.

The cash flow at a click

Every section, month by month, on screen — without opening Excel or leaving the appraisal.

Solve to one of thirteen targets

The purchase price that hits a target profit on cost, IRR, GDV or NDV margin, or equity multiple — leveraged or unleveraged — or a set amount of equity.

Sensitivity across several KPIs

One or two assumptions varied across a grid, every cell a full re-run, as many KPIs in each cell as you want. Pro

Promote waterfalls

Up to ten limbs with IRR and multiple hurdles, required amounts and catch-ups — investor and sponsor returns reported as KPIs. Pro

Leases built for a hold

Up to 99 lease areas, each with initial lease, second lease (following initial) and recurring successive leases: rent reviews, rent-free, review fees, commissions and voids — not a flat rent.

An appraisal that checks itself

Warnings appear on screen as you work and travel into the workbook on their own tab.

AI

AI on your terms.

Research prompts

Beside every rent, construction cost, sales value and exit yield, Terra writes a research prompt from your appraisal's own details — paste it into the AI assistant you already use, and you decide the figure.

The assumptions template

Give your own AI tool the investment memorandum and Terra's assumptions template: it fills in what the documents say, citing each source, and Terra loads only those inputs — Terra itself sends nothing to any AI service.

  • Download the template from Terra's menu
  • Your AI fills it from the memorandum and other documents, with the page each figure came from
  • Upload it: only what was filled in goes into the appraisal, and you can undo it
The Research indicative construction cost window in Terra: a note that nothing is sent anywhere automatically, the address, postcode, appraisal date and currency taken from the appraisal, the cost description and floor area, and buttons to copy the prompt or open ChatGPT or Claude.
Watch

A residual land valuation in Terra.

A two-minute walkthrough — from opening the opportunity to a residual land value you can defend.

Starting from a blank appraisal: red flags clear as inputs are entered.

Transparency

Every headline number can be followed back.

When someone challenges a figure, you can show them where it came from. In Terra's Excel model the KPIs, totals and balances are live formulas rather than pasted values, so a question about profit on cost is answered by following it down into the monthly cash flows — not by rebuilding the appraisal to check. It's the browser-based Argus alternative for people who like to see the workings, not just the answer.

  • KPIs, totals and balances are live formulas — headline numbers can be followed down to the monthly cash flows behind them
  • Every assumption you entered, set out in full on its own sheet

“AI can process information.
Only you can decide what an opportunity is worth.”

Terra does not remove the professional from the process. It removes the unnecessary work around them.

Where Terra fits

Between the blank spreadsheet and the enterprise platform.

100% of what 95% of property professionals need.

Spreadsheets

Total flexibility — and total responsibility. You build, maintain and debug every model. The errors are not always small ones, and the worst are the ones nobody else can see.

Terra

The disciplined middle

Structured and fast in the browser, with a clean Excel model out the other end — so every appraisal your team produces is built the same way. No one's private spreadsheet, no version that only its author understands, and no spreadsheet to build yourself.

Enterprise platforms

Tools like Argus are the institutional standard — powerful and deep, with the complexity and the learning curve that go with it, highly priced and tied to the desktop. Terra brings the same discipline without the training, on whatever device you have with you.

Who it's for

Different users. Different assumptions.
The same need for better decisions.

Commercial real estate and residential opportunities alike — development schemes and income-producing investments, appraised the same disciplined way. From development and value-add through to institutional and long-income — the same rigour whether you are pricing a site today or underwriting a twenty-year hold.

Price a site while you are standing on it.

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Investment and agency surveyors

Price opportunities and advise with a defensible, consistent method.

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Developers and acquisition teams

Test residual land value and appraise schemes before you commit, and compare sites line for line.

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Investors and fund managers

Underwrite acquisitions and model returns for a multitude of sub-asset classes, from a simple investment through to long-income and development opportunities.

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Valuers and advisers

Produce transparent valuations clients and lenders can interrogate.

Insights

Thinking on appraisal methodology and the market.

Market commentary

Why the Housebuilders Are Leaving London

One London scheme, solved in Terra from 2021 to 2026: build costs, finance, the second staircase and Gateway 2 take its land value from £6m to minus £9m — and what the emergency package buys back.

Read the article →
Market commentary

The Return of Price Discipline

Senior debt now costs more than prime yields, prime property sits at or below the gilt, and the exit yield is not yours to assume — why the appraisal is the decision again.

Read the article →
Methodology

Residual Land Valuation: The Double-Counting Trap

How finance is treated in a residual appraisal — and why it quietly distorts the equity return calculation.

Read the article →
Questions

Frequently asked questions.

Is Terra an Argus alternative?
Yes, providing the key functionality of Argus at a fraction of the cost, usable on any device connected to the internet (unlike Argus). You get monthly cash flows, IRRs and residual valuations, and every appraisal exports to a clean Excel model with formula-linked totals and KPIs. Argus remains the enterprise standard; Terra brings fast, transparent appraisal to anyone who wants to run it from a browser.
Does Terra work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Terra runs on a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop, and the layout adapts to the screen you are on — the KPI banner restacks, the input sections reflow, and the menus are built for touch rather than a mouse. You can add it to your home screen so it opens from its own icon, with nothing to download and no IT ticket. It does need a connection: your appraisals live on Terra's servers rather than on the device, which is what lets you start one at your desk and open it on site.
What is residual land valuation?
Residual land valuation works out what a site is worth by taking the completed development's value and deducting all the costs of getting there — construction, finance, fees and profit. Terra models this month by month, turning your assumptions into a residual land value at the press of a button — and you can solve back to a target return.
Can I export my appraisal to Excel?
Yes. You get a model you can follow, not a flat export of numbers — the totals and KPIs are live formulas you can trace down into the monthly cash flows behind them. It can go straight to a lender, an investment committee or a client without you reformatting anything first, and they open it in a tool they trust.

And it comes back: upload a Terra Excel model into Terra and its assumptions are read straight back in, so you can change them and recalculate without re-entering the appraisal.

Does Terra do investment appraisals as well as development appraisals?
Yes — both, in one product, with one set of inputs. A development scheme and an income-producing investment are appraised on the same page the same way, so a develop-to-hold is one appraisal rather than two, and there is no second platform to buy or learn for the other half of the job.
Which investment strategies does Terra support?
Development and value-add through to institutional and long-income — one disciplined framework across the whole investment horizon, whether you are pricing a site or underwriting a long hold.
Can I run a sensitivity analysis?
Yes. Vary one or two assumptions across a grid — construction cost against sale price, say — and Terra re-runs the whole appraisal for every cell, reporting as many KPIs in each cell as you choose rather than a single output. The grid prints to one page and goes into the Excel model on its own sheet. Sensitivity analysis is a Pro feature.
Can Terra model a profit-sharing or promote waterfall?
Yes. Split the equity returns between investor and sponsor through up to ten tiered limbs, each with an IRR hurdle, an equity-multiple hurdle, a required amount and a sponsor catch-up. Investor and sponsor IRR and multiple are reported as KPIs on screen, and the workbook carries the limb-by-limb breakdown on its own sheet. Profit sharing is a Pro feature.
Is my data private and secure?
Your appraisals are private to your account, and nobody else sees them unless you choose to share them with your organisation. Passwords are never stored in a form anyone can read, not even us. Everything travels over an encrypted connection, and your sign-in is held in a cookie that the pages in your browser cannot read.

Repeated sign-in attempts are blocked automatically, and password reset links work once and expire within the hour.

Can I request a feature?
Yes, please do. Terra is actively developed, and users' suggestions shape what gets built next. In the app, open the menu at the top right and choose Request feature / Technical support request.
How do I get access?
Terra is currently in private beta, open by invitation. New users register and start with a 7-day free trial of Pro, so every feature is there from the first day. When the trial ends, choose the plan you want to continue on. If you choose none, the account moves to the free plan — the appraisal, the cash flows and the KPIs stay, and anything saved to the account is kept until you upgrade. You can — tell us who you are and what you would use Terra for, and we aim to respond within 24 hours. If you already have an account, sign in at the top of the page.

Open the opportunity. Enter the assumptions. Know what it is worth.

Terra is in private beta for property professionals.

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Monthly plans carry a minimum term and can then be cancelled at any time. Annual plans continue until the end of the period paid for.