What is a CapEx Reserve?

A CapEx (Capital Expenditure) Reserve is money set aside for the big-ticket items a property will eventually need — a new roof, a hot water system replacement, appliance replacements, exterior repainting — the kind of costs that don’t happen every year but are inevitable over a long enough hold.

Where you’ll see it

Property → Cashflow tab, in the Operating Expenses card — set a target as a percentage of the property’s current value per year, and Property Insights shows the implied dollar figure.

Suggested Annual Set-Aside = Property Value × CapEx Reserve Target %

Why it’s a planning figure, not a tracked balance

Property Insights doesn’t currently link this target to a real bank account or track actual contributions against it — setting a target simply shows you the implied dollar figure as a reminder of what you said you’d aim for. It’s there to prompt the conversation (“am I actually setting this aside somewhere?”), not to reconcile against real transactions.

If you want to track the money itself, the common approach is to open a separate savings account for CapEx and add it to Property Insights as a tracked bank account — that gives you a real balance to check against the target shown here.

What’s a reasonable target?

There’s no single right answer — it depends on the property’s age, condition, and what’s already been renovated. A commonly cited rule of thumb for established residential property is somewhere in the 1–2% of property value per year range, higher for older properties with ageing major systems, lower for a recently-renovated or new-build property.