Where the yields actually are: net returns across 42 communities

Gross figures flatter everything

A gross yield divides the annual rent by the purchase price and stops there. It ignores the service charge, which in a serviced tower can be a fifth of the rent, and it assumes the unit is let every day of the year, which nothing is.

What we subtract

Service charges at the building's actual rate, a void allowance based on how long units in that community really sit empty between tenancies, management at the going rate, and an annual maintenance provision. What is left is what arrives in your account.

We do not subtract mortgage interest, because that is a function of your financing rather than of the property, and mixing the two makes communities incomparable.

What the ranking looks like

Net of all that, the order changes considerably. Established mid-market communities with modest service charges and short void periods tend to beat newer towers whose gross figures look stronger, and the spread between the best and worst net performers is wider than the spread between their gross ones.