Finance & property Australia
Capital Growth Calculator
Compound growth is easy to calculate and easy to over-trust. This projects a value forward, then shows the same figure in today's money — because a number thirty years out means very little without that second line.
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Your assumption — nobody publishes this
Improvements, or further investment
Projected value
—In today's money
—
Total gain
—
Doubling time
—
Real growth rate
—
Value at each milestone
A projection, not a forecast. A projection is arithmetic applied to an assumption, not a forecast. Past growth does not continue by default, property and share returns arrive in lumps rather than smooth annual percentages, and the growth rate you choose determines the answer far more than the maths does. General information only.
How do you calculate capital growth?
Multiply the current value by one plus the growth rate, compounded for the number of years: FV = PV × (1 + r)ⁿ. A $750,000 property growing at 5% a year reaches $1,221,678 after 10 years. In today's money, after 2.5% inflation, that is closer to $954,000.
The growth rate is the whole answer
Everything else on this page is arithmetic. The growth rate is a guess, and it determines the result more than any other input.
Over ten years the gap between a 4% assumption and a 7% one on a $750,000 property is around $360,000. Over thirty years it is measured in millions. Choosing a rate because it produces a comfortable number is the most common way these projections mislead the person running them.
A more useful habit is to run it three times — pessimistic, expected, optimistic — and treat the range as the answer rather than the middle figure.
Nobody publishes a growth rate for your specific property, which is why that field has no source link beside it. Long-run averages for a city or a market segment are a starting point, not a prediction for one address.
Why growth is not smooth
Compound growth draws a clean curve. Real markets do not.
Australian property has delivered long flat stretches and short sharp jumps rather than a steady annual percentage, and share markets behave the same way. A projection that averages 5% may involve several years of nothing followed by a year of twenty per cent.
That matters when the timing matters. An average return is a reasonable way to think about a thirty-year hold and a poor way to think about needing the money in three.
This calculator covers capital value only. Rent, holding costs, stamp duty, agent fees and capital gains tax all sit outside it — the investment property calculator handles the cash flow side.
How this is calculated
Standard compound growth, plus the two adjustments that stop the headline number being misleading.
future value = present value × (1 + r)ⁿwith yearly contributions added at the end of each year:FV = PV × (1+r)ⁿ + C × [((1+r)ⁿ − 1) ÷ r]real value in today's money = FV ÷ (1 + i)ⁿreal growth rate = ((1 + r) ÷ (1 + i)) − 1doubling time ≈ ln 2 ÷ ln(1 + r)
The real growth rate is not simply the nominal rate minus inflation, though the difference is small at low rates. At 5% growth and 2.5% inflation the true real rate is 2.44%, not 2.5% — and the gap widens as both numbers get larger.
Doubling time is worth internalising because it makes a growth rate intuitive. At 5% a value doubles in a bit over 14 years; at 7% in about 10; at 3% in 23. The difference between a 5% assumption and a 7% one is not two per cent — over 30 years it is roughly double the final figure.
A worked example: a house held for a decade
A property worth $750,000 today, assumed to grow at 5% a year for 10 years, with inflation at 2.5%.
- Present value$750,000
- Growth factor — 1.05¹⁰1.6289
- Future value$1,221,678
- Nominal gain$471,678
- Inflation factor — 1.025¹⁰1.2801
- Value in today's money$954,363
$1.22 million on paper, or about $954,000 in today's purchasing power.
The real gain is $204,000 rather than $472,000. Both figures are true; only one of them buys anything.
What this calculator does not do
- Assumes a constant growth rate, which no real market delivers
- Ignores buying and selling costs, holding costs and capital gains tax
- Contributions are assumed to be added at the end of each year
- The growth and inflation rates are assumptions you supply, not published figures
Common questions
How do you calculate future property value?
Multiply the current value by one plus the growth rate, raised to the number of years. At 5% for 10 years the multiplier is 1.6289, so $750,000 becomes about $1,221,678.
What growth rate should I use?
That is your assumption, and it drives the answer. Long-run averages for a city or segment are a starting point; run the projection at several rates and treat the range as the result rather than any single figure.
How long does it take for a property to double in value?
Divide 0.693 by the natural log of one plus the growth rate. At 5% that is about 14.2 years, at 7% about 10.2, at 3% about 23.4.
Why show the value in today's money?
Because a large number decades out is mostly inflation. At 2.5%, money loses roughly half its purchasing power over 28 years — so the real figure is what tells you whether you are actually better off.
Does this include rent or costs?
No. It projects capital value only. Rent, interest, rates, insurance, maintenance, agent fees, stamp duty and capital gains tax all sit outside it.
Where these numbers come from
- Compound growth — future value of a present sum Fixed formula; the growth rate is a user assumption
- Australian Bureau of Statistics — residential property price indexes Where to find historical growth for a capital city
Method last reviewed 2026-10-28 This calculator uses fixed rules rather than rates that change, and its method is re-checked against the sources above at least once a year. Out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
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