Property & Leases
Property & Leases runs a rental portfolio: the buildings and units you own, the tenants and leases against them, the rent you collect each month and the maintenance you keep on top of. It tracks occupancy and the rent roll live, raises next month's rent for every active lease in one click, flags leases about to expire, and keeps a register of repairs. Rent invoices it generates can be billed and chased like any other invoice through Invoicing.
Properties keeps its own records per company and persists them as you work, so it is usable whether or not the ERPNext engine is connected. A Load sample button seeds a demo portfolio (two buildings and five units) so you can see the whole flow at once.
Opening the module
Open Property & Leases from the sidebar, or go to /properties. The breadcrumb reads Run · Properties, the title is Property & Leases and the subtitle is Buildings, units, tenants, rent collection and maintenance. The primary header button changes with the tab you are on (New unit, New building, New lease, Generate rent invoices or Raise ticket).
KPI tiles
| Tile | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Occupancy | The percentage of units let, with {occupied}/{total} units let. |
| Monthly rent roll | The total monthly rent across active leases. |
| Arrears | Overdue rent still to collect; red while any is outstanding. |
| Expiring leases | Active leases ending within 60 days. |
| Open maintenance | Tickets not yet done. |
When any active lease ends within the next 60 days, an Expiring soon card lists each one with a Renew 12 months button.
The five tabs
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Units | Each rentable unit: name, type (Apartment, Villa, Office, Shop or Warehouse), building, location, bedrooms, monthly rent and status (Vacant, Occupied or Maintenance). |
| Buildings | The properties units sit in: name, type (Residential, Commercial or Mixed), location and notes, with a count of units and how many are occupied or vacant. |
| Leases | The tenancy on a unit: the vacant unit, tenant name and phone, start and end dates and monthly rent. Tenant details live on the lease. |
| Rent | The rent invoices raised for leases, each with its unit, tenant, due date, amount and status (Due, Paid or Overdue), plus Collected, Due and Overdue sub-totals. |
| Maintenance | The repair register: a ticket per issue with its unit, priority (Low, Medium, High) and status (Open, In progress, Done). |
Leases and the unit lifecycle
Creating a lease against a vacant unit flips that unit to Occupied and adds its rent to the rent roll. End lease marks the lease Expired and frees the unit back to Vacant, and Renew (or the Renew 12 months button on the expiring list) extends the end date by twelve months and keeps the lease active. A lease needs a vacant unit, so the New lease button is disabled when none are free.
Scheduled rent invoicing
On the Rent tab, Generate rent invoices raises one invoice for every active lease, dated to the first day of next month at that lease's monthly rent, with the status Due. It is idempotent: running it again will not create a second invoice for a lease that already has one for the same month, so you can run it safely each cycle. An unpaid invoice past its due date shows as Overdue; use Mark paid as rent arrives. The Collected, Due and Overdue sub-totals and the Arrears KPI update as you go.
In the UAE, residential rent is generally exempt from VAT while commercial rent is standard rated at 5%, and tenancy contracts in Dubai are registered through Ejari. Keep the building type (Residential or Commercial) accurate so the right treatment is obvious, and record the lease term to match the registered contract. Rent invoices you need to issue formally can be billed through Invoicing, which applies VAT and the FTA tax-invoice layout.
Running the portfolio
- Set up buildings and units
Add your buildings, then the units in them with their type, rent and status, or load the sample portfolio to explore.
- Create leases
Put a tenant on a vacant unit with the term and rent; the unit becomes Occupied and joins the rent roll.
- Generate rent each month
Run Generate rent invoices once a cycle. Mark each one paid as rent comes in and watch arrears.
- Renew and maintain
Renew leases from the Expiring soon card before they lapse, and track repairs on the Maintenance register.