Rental yield calculator

Gross yield = annual rent (after vacancy) ÷ purchase price. It's the headline real-estate-agent number. Net yield deducts your cash holding costs (rates, water, insurance, management, repairs) before dividing — so it tells you what the property actually yields from operations. Net yield is the honest number for investment decisions; gross is the spruiker number. The calculator shows both side by side.

It depends on the asset class and the city. As a 2026 sanity check: Sydney houses typically sit 2.5–3.5% gross, Melbourne 3–4%, Brisbane / Perth / Adelaide 3.5–5%, regional 4.5–6%. Units run ~1pp higher gross than houses in the same suburb. For NET yield, deduct ~1–1.5pp. A net yield below your loan interest rate means the property is cashflow-negative before tax — you're betting on capital growth.

No — the calculator uses yield on cost (rent ÷ original purchase price), which is the Australian industry convention. Yield on value (rent ÷ current valuation) is more useful for repositioning decisions after years of capital growth — a property bought for $400k now worth $800k has the same rent yield-on-cost but its yield-on-value has halved. If your property has grown significantly, recalculate against current valuation to make a fair comparison vs a fresh purchase.

No — yield (gross or net) is a property-level metric, independent of how it's financed. Two investors buying the same property at the same time get the same yield. The CASHFLOW projection (below the yield tiles in the calculator) is where loan interest comes in — that's the after-financing picture. Keep yield and cashflow as separate lenses; conflating them is a common analytical mistake.

The calculator subtracts vacancy weeks from your effective rent before the yield formula runs. Default is 2 weeks/year (≈ 96% occupancy — typical for AU residential in metro markets). Bump it higher for regional, holiday-let, or specific-tenant property. A 6-week vacancy on a $600/wk property is ~$3,600 — that drops a 4% gross yield to 3.7%. Worth modelling honestly rather than assuming 100% occupancy.

Agents typically quote gross yield (no expense subtraction) and omit vacancy. Two sources of optimism. Plus some agents use rent ÷ deposit rather than rent ÷ purchase price (which gives an inflated "return on equity" number that's really a leverage metric, not a yield). The calculator uses rent ÷ purchase price after vacancy — the industry-honest convention.

Yes — strata, body corp, sinking fund contributions, council rates, water, insurance, management fees, gardening, pest, and the annual budget for repairs / maintenance all go in. For a unit you're typically looking at $4,000–$8,000 in strata alone; for a house, $0 strata but higher repairs/maintenance budget. Be honest about the maintenance number — most owners under-estimate it by 30–50%.

Not in the yield tiles directly — yield is a current-period metric (annual rent ÷ purchase price). The calculator DOES project capital growth in its Equity & LVR section and CGT comparison card. Total return = yield + capital growth, but the two come from different mechanics: yield is rent-driven and visible from day 1; growth is value-driven and only realised at sale. Don't add them naively when comparing properties — model them as separate scenarios.