What is gross rental yield?

Twelve months of rent divided by what the property cost, as a percentage. It takes nothing off, which is why it is the figure a listing quotes.

What is net rental yield?

The rent actually collected over a year, less the costs the landlord carries, divided by the same price. It is lower than the gross figure whenever the property sits empty or costs anything to hold.

Does rental yield include the property going up in value?

No. Yield measures the income a property produces against its price. A change in what the property is worth is a separate question and appears in neither figure.

Should yield be worked out on what I paid, or what it is worth now?

Both are used, and they answer different questions. Against the purchase price it says what the original decision returns. Against today's value it says what the capital currently tied up returns. Say which one you mean.

Rental yield calculator

What a property returns against what it cost, before and after the things that come off it. Enter the figures and see both.

What the property cost

Or what it is worth now, if that is the question you are asking. The two give different answers, so be clear which one you mean.

Monthly rent

Monthly running costs

Maintenance or conservancy charges, insurance, repairs, and your property tax spread over the year. This tool works out no tax for you.

Weeks empty per year

The gap between one tenancy ending and the next starting. It changes the net figure and never the gross one.

Net yield

3.4%

Gross 4.0%

Rent for the year: S$48,000
Collected, after empty weeks: S$46,153.85
Running costs: S$5,400
Left over: S$40,753.85

The empty weeks cost S$1,846.15 of rent. That is the difference a renewal makes, and it never shows up in a gross yield.

Gross and net, and the gap between them

Gross yield is twelve months of rent divided by the price. It assumes the property is let every week of the year and costs nothing to hold, which is why it is the figure that appears in a listing and the one that flatters.

Net yield starts from the rent actually collected, takes off what the year costs, and divides by the same price. Two things move it: the weeks between tenancies, and the running costs. Neither appears in the gross figure, and together they are usually the difference between a number that sounded fine and a year that felt tight.

This is why a renewal is worth more than it looks. A tenancy that rolls over with no gap collects the weeks that an empty period would have taken out.

What to count as a running cost

Maintenance or conservancy charges, building insurance, repairs and servicing, and property tax. In an ordinary Singapore tenancy those sit with the landlord rather than the tenant, which is what the utilities and charges clause says: the tenant pays for what they use, the landlord for what they own.

Agent commission belongs here too, in the year it is paid. A new let costs more than a renewal, and spreading it over the years of the tenancy is what makes two properties comparable.

Mortgage interest is deliberately not part of yield. Yield measures the property; financing is a separate question about how it was bought, and mixing the two makes two properties impossible to compare.

This works out no tax

Property tax on a property that is let is progressive, and the rates are IRAS's and change. Income tax on the rent depends on the owner. So neither is calculated here: put your own figure into running costs, and take the rules from IRAS. Read on 2026-09-18.

Where this figure is a floor, not a final answer

It ignores what buying cost. Stamp duties, legal fees and the agent's fee on the purchase are not in the price box, and they change what the property really cost you.
It assumes a flat rent. A stepped rent, a rent-free period or a mid-term increase all change the year.
It says nothing about the property's value. Yield is income against price. Whether the property is worth more than you paid is a different question.
Furnishing and renovation are not costs here unless you put them in. Spread them over the years they last.

This is arithmetic, not investment or tax advice. What a given property is worth doing is a question for you and your own advisers.

Questions

What is gross rental yield?: Twelve months of rent divided by what the property cost, as a percentage. It takes nothing off, which is why it is the figure a listing quotes.
What is net rental yield?: The rent actually collected over a year, less the costs the landlord carries, divided by the same price. It is lower than the gross figure whenever the property sits empty or costs anything to hold.
Does rental yield include the property going up in value?: No. Yield measures the income a property produces against its price. A change in what the property is worth is a separate question and appears in neither figure.
Should yield be worked out on what I paid, or what it is worth now?: Both are used, and they answer different questions. Against the purchase price it says what the original decision returns. Against today's value it says what the capital currently tied up returns. Say which one you mean.

While you are working out the numbers

Stamp duty calculator: what stamping the tenancy costs, and by when.
Rent and payment terms: when rent falls due, and what late interest can and cannot do.

The net figure stops being an estimate

The rent collected, the weeks a property sat empty between tenancies, and what each repair cost are the three inputs this calculator asks you to guess. RentOwl records them as they happen, for every property you manage.

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