Buyer's Glossary
Rental Yield
The annual rent a property earns, as a percentage of what it costs to buy.
What it is
Gross rental yield is the annual rent divided by the purchase price, before any expenses.
A $950,000 Adelaide house renting at $700 a week earns $36,400 a year, which is a 3.8% gross yield.
Gross yield, national, all dwellings, April 2026. Houses run about 3.0% and units about 4.3%.
Why it matters
Low yield
growth-reliant
- Rent covers less of the mortgage
- Usually Sydney and Melbourne
- The result = you are buying for capital growth
High yield
cashflow
- Rent does real work against the mortgage
- Usually regional, Darwin or Hobart
- The result = you are buying for income
What counts as high, what counts as low
Shaded from a buyer's point of view: teal is favourable if you are buying, amber is balanced, red is harder. That is why this looks inverted against some other metrics, because a fast-moving market is good for a seller and hard for a buyer.
3.6% gross nationally across all dwellings, April 2026. Houses around 3.0%, units around 4.3%. Yield and growth are a trade-off, not a simple good or bad, so a low yield can still be the right buy if growth is strong.
The trend to watch for
Gross is not net. Subtract roughly 1.5 to 2.0 percentage points for costs and property-management fees to get closer to what you actually keep.
Yield is only meaningful alongside a low vacancy rate. A 6% yield in a suburb where nothing rents is a number on paper.
What it looks like in the real world
Low yield
under 3.5%
- Inner Sydney or Melbourne, where price outran rent
- Negatively geared, relying on the capital gain
- Typically a high-growth suburb
High yield
5% and over
- Regional or mining town with a low entry price
- Less liquid and harder to sell
- Strong cashflow, modest growth