Gross yield: the headline
Gross yield is annual rent divided by purchase price. A 600 sqft JVC studio at roughly AED 672,000 renting for AED 48,000 a year gives 48,000 ÷ 672,000 = 7.1% gross. That is the number most listings and agents quote, and across well-managed JVC buildings it is broadly accurate.
But gross yield ignores the costs of actually owning and renting the unit. It is the ceiling of your return, not the figure you bank.
Net yield: what you actually keep
Net yield subtracts the real costs: service charges (AED 10–15/sqft, so AED 6,000–9,000/year on a 600 sqft unit), occasional vacancy, maintenance, and management or leasing fees. On the studio example, AED 7,000 of service charges alone drops the 7.1% gross to about 6.0% net before any vacancy. Add a few weeks of vacancy on turnover and a typical realistic net is 5.7–6.5% in well-run buildings, lower in weak ones.
Rule of thumb in JVC: subtract roughly 1.0–1.3 percentage points from gross to estimate net, driven mostly by the building's service charge. Always confirm the building's Mollak service-charge figure before buying.
| Building tier | Gross yield | Net yield (est.) |
|---|---|---|
| Premium / well-managed | 7.0–7.5% | 6.0–6.5% |
| Mid-tier average | 6.5–7.0% | 5.4–6.0% |
| Weak / oversupplied | 5.0–6.0% | 4.0–5.0% |
Total ROI: don't forget capital growth (and its variance)
Total ROI = net rental yield + capital appreciation. JVC has seen solid price growth in recent years, but appreciation is far less predictable than rent and varies sharply by building and entry price. Buying well (a quality building at a fair price) is what protects the capital-growth half of ROI; overpaying at peak launch pricing erodes it.
For a realistic 2026 base case, treat net rental yield (5.7–6.5%) as your dependable return and any capital growth as upside — not as a number to bank in advance.