ROI and rental yield calculator
What it actually returns, after the costs nobody quotes.
The short answer
Gross yield is the annual rent divided by the price; the number that matters is what is left after the service charge, the management fee and the weeks the property sits empty. That is usually one to two percentage points below the figure a listing quotes. This tool shows both, and lets you set every cost yourself rather than accepting an optimistic default.
Ask Noor to explain this simplyFills price and rent from that community's recorded transactions.
The single biggest swing factor. Use the real figure for your building, ask us and we will get it.
An allowance for repairs and empty months between tenants.
What actually reaches you after costs. That is 1.52 percentage points below the gross figure most listings quote. The gap is service charges and voids.
Gross yield
Rent over price, with nothing taken off. The number usually quoted.
Net annual income
After service charges and the voids allowance.
Service charge
Per year, at the rate you entered.
Maintenance and voids
Years to return the price
On net income alone, ignoring any change in value.
- Service charge
- AED 16/sq ft/year · your figure
- Maintenance and voids
- 8% of rent · your figure
- Not included
- Mortgage costs, income tax in your home country, agency letting fees
Yield says what a property returns, not whether it is a good buy. A high yield in a community with falling prices is a poor investment wearing a good number.
Put a real property behind it.
A calculator works with the numbers you give it. We work with the building, the seller and the service charge schedule, which is where the answer usually changes.
Questions
Asked and answered
Why is your net yield lower than the figure I was quoted?
Because most quoted yields are gross, rent divided by price, with nothing taken off. Service charges alone can take one to two percentage points off a Dubai yield, and that is before a void month or a repair. Net is the number you actually live on.
What service charge should I use?
The real one for the building you are looking at. It varies from single digits per square foot to well over thirty, and it is the single biggest swing factor in the result. The Dubai Land Department publishes them per project, and we will get it for you if you ask.