ARGUS Developer alternatives

What ARGUS Developer does

Altus Group sells ARGUS Developer as "commercial real estate development software" and "a powerful solution for pro formas and real estate development management". It works out residual land value, runs scenarios and sensitivity analysis, forecasts cash flow, models project funding and produces over 60 reports, and an add-on tracks the budget and imports actuals once construction starts. It runs over the ARGUS Cloud platform through Citrix. Altus says it is "ideal for property developers, appraisers, consultants and financiers", and prices it by subscription through sales.

ARGUS Developer vs ARGUS EstateMaster

Altus answers this one itself on the ARGUS Developer page:

"ARGUS EstateMaster has an spreadsheet user interface that offers a lot of flexibility to customise your models and interact with MS Excel, whereas ARGUS Developer adopts a more rigid approach and is suitable for multi-stage projects with complex funding structures."

EstateMaster comes as three modules, Development Feasibility, Development Management and Corporate Consolidation, which you download and install. It is the one with a free trial, 14 days, after a sign-up form. Altus says more than 20,000 property developers in more than 75 countries use it.

What developers say about it

Opinions in public forums are mixed and mostly old. In a Wall Street Oasis thread from April 2021, a commercial real estate director wrote that "Enterprise is the standard, especially on brokerage side. I frankly don't know anyone that uses developer and I'm in development." A developer in the same thread who had seen a demo and a training said it "is mainly built for homebuilding and lot sales" and that "the commercial modules were weak at best." The software has been updated since, so treat these as questions for a demo rather than verdicts.

The alternatives

ProformaKit, the free pro forma

Our pick when the job is underwriting your own projects. Online and free, with no account: costs, contingency, the construction loan with interest solved exactly, rents to NOI, the sale, IRR and equity multiple, then a budget and draw schedule from the same numbers. It does not calculate residual land value or model several phases or funding tranches, which is exactly where ARGUS Developer is strongest.

ARGUS EstateMaster

Same company, more flexible, and a trial you can start without a sales call. The natural first step if you want to stay with Altus.

Northspyre

Northspyre Deal covers financial modeling and the pipeline, and Northspyre Development carries the project through budgets, invoices and draws. A fit for a development team that wants the pro forma and the project in one system. Prices are not published (what its pricing page shows). See Northspyre alternatives for how it compares.

An Excel model

An Excel model bends to any deal structure. The awkward part is the construction interest loop, and the usual fixes are Excel's iterative calculation or a copy-and-paste macro. The free development pro forma template solves it without a circular reference, and you can build on it.

When ARGUS Developer is the right choice

If you value development sites for others, report to lenders or investors who expect ARGUS output, or run multi-phase projects with layered funding, the rigid structure Altus describes is the point: everyone's model works the same way. For a developer underwriting their own one or two projects, it is a lot of software for the job.