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Estimate a buy-and-hold rental yield from price, rent, and annual operating costs.
Use this buy and hold rental calculator to screen long-term rental acquisitions with a simple yield-first view. The calculator is designed to give a fast answer, but the quality of the answer still depends on accurate inputs and a clear idea of what decision you are trying to support.
- Enter Property Price, Monthly Rent, and Annual Property Costs using the same units you plan to compare or report.
- Read the main net rental yield first, then use the supporting outputs to understand the trade-offs behind that result.
- Compare your numbers with the worked examples below if you want a quick reasonableness check.
Gross yield gives a quick first-pass property screen, while net yield shows a more realistic picture after recurring operating costs. On this page, the primary output is net rental yield.
Scenario 1: $285,000 long-term rental with $1,920 monthly rent and $4,950 annual costs. Inputs used: propertyPrice: 285000, monthlyRent: 1920, annualCosts: 4950. Example result: 6.35%. This buy-and-hold setup works out to 6.35% in net yield. Scenario 2: $455,000 long-term rental with $2,880 monthly rent and $7,400 annual costs. Inputs used: propertyPrice: 455000, monthlyRent: 2880, annualCosts: 7400. Example result: 5.97%. For this acquisition scenario, the estimated buy-and-hold yield is 5.97%.
Core formula: gross yield = annual rent / property price * 100; net yield = (annual rent - annual costs) / property price * 100. The calculator annualizes monthly rent, then compares that income with the property price before and after recurring operating costs.
- Gross yield ignores annual costs, while net yield includes them.
- Financing costs are usually evaluated separately from property operating yield.
Use this calculator when comparing rental properties, screening deals, or checking whether expected rent justifies the purchase price. Related paths for follow-up analysis include rental yield calculator, gross rental yield calculator, investment property calculator, and cap rate calculator.
Most bad outputs come from a few repeated input errors or interpretation mistakes. Use this short checklist before relying on the result.
- Ignoring annual costs and relying only on gross yield.
- Adding financing costs into an operating-yield comparison without a clear reason.
- Using peak or best-case rent instead of a realistic average monthly figure.
