Net vs Gross Rental Yield on Cambodian Condos 2026

Quick answer: Gross yield is rent divided by price. Net yield subtracts vacancy, management at 8% to 12%, service charge, sinking fund, annual property tax at 0.1% and rental income tax at 10% for residents or 14% for non-residents. In Cambodia the gap roughly halves the number.

Every yield figure quoted in the Cambodian market is gross. Every figure that reaches your bank account is net. The distance between them is not a rounding difference, and it is the single most useful thing a foreign buyer can learn before making an offer.

This page owns the deduction stack for the site. District-level bands sit in the district comparison, and the citywide methodology in the Phnom Penh yield guide.

What is the difference between gross and net yield in Cambodia?

Gross yield is annual contracted rent divided by the purchase price, and net yield is what remains after every cost of collecting that rent. For foreign buyers in Cambodia the gap is unusually wide, because rental income tax is charged on gross rent at 10% or 14% with no deduction for expenses.

Measure	Definition	Typical Cambodian figure
Gross yield	Annual contracted rent divided by price	6% to 8% on central stock
Collected yield	Rent actually received after voids	Gross minus 1 to 2 months
Net yield before tax	After management, charges and sinking fund	Roughly 4.5% to 5.5%
Net yield after tax	After rental income tax and property tax	Roughly 3% to 5%

Three definitional traps catch buyers, and all three belong on a modelling checklist:

• Gross yield computed on the sticker price rather than the all-in cost including 4% transfer tax.
• Yield computed on asking rent rather than on a signed lease.
• Net presented before tax, which is not net for anyone who intends to comply.

The full deduction stack, line by line

Seven deduction lines separate gross from net on a Cambodian condo, and six of them recur every year. The stack is best built in this order for foreign buyers, because each line applies to a different base: some to contracted rent, some to collected rent, and one to property value above $24,570.

Deduction	Rate or basis	Applies to
Vacancy	1 to 2 months a year	Contracted rent
Management	8% to 12%	Collected rent
Service charge	About $1.50 per sqm per month	Unit area
Sinking fund	Annual or on demand	Unit area or fixed
Annual property tax	0.1% above about $24,570 of value	Property value
Rental income tax	10% resident, 14% non-resident	Gross rent
Furnishing amortised	$3,500 to $12,000 over the hold	Capital, spread

Two lines are Cambodia-specific and catch experienced investors, so they belong at the top of any modelling checklist:

1. Rental income tax is charged on gross rent, so your costs do not reduce it.
2. Management is charged on collected rent, so a void month cuts the fee and the income together.

Furnishing detail sits in the furnishing and rental guide, management arrangements in the property management guide, and building charges in the sinking fund guide.

Order of operations matters more than most foreign buyers expect, and it is where amateur models diverge from the assessment. Applying the 10% or 14% rent tax after deducting management and service charges produces a flattering figure that does not match what the tax authority assesses, because the charge is computed on gross rent rather than on your margin. On $9,000 of annual rent the difference between the correct method and the convenient one is roughly $500 a year, which on a $137,000 all-in cost is 36 basis points of yield. Small in isolation, and it compounds with the other three shortcuts sellers use. Together they explain most of the gap between a portal’s headline number and an owner’s bank statement at the end of year one, which on this example is the difference between 6.9% and 3.5%.

How rental income tax works: 10% resident, 14% non-resident

Rental income tax is the deduction that surprises foreign buyers most, because it applies to gross rent rather than to profit. Resident individuals pay 10% of the rent received with no expense deduction, and non-residents are taxed at 14% of gross rent, so on $9,000 of annual rent the charge is $900 or $1,260.

Owner status	Rate	Basis	On $9,000 of rent
Resident individual	10%	Gross rent, no deductions	$900
Non-resident	14%	Gross rent	$1,260
Annual property tax, either status	0.1%	Value above about $24,570	About $105 on $130,000

Three practical points:

• Tax residency turns on presence of more than 182 days in a 12 month period, not on owning property.
• No deduction for management, service charge or repairs is available against the 10% or 14% charge.
• Your home country may tax the same income again, subject to its own rules.

Filing mechanics sit in the rental income tax guide, and the home-country side in the home country tax guide.

Insider tip: ask a Cambodian accountant to price the annual filing before you buy, and ask whether your manager files on your behalf or merely withholds. Owners who assume the management company handles the filing are the ones who discover several years of arrears at exit, when a clearance is needed to repatriate proceeds.

Worked example: a $130,000 unit from gross to net

A mid-market Phnom Penh one-bedroom of 50 sqm bought at $130,000 and letting at $750 a month produces $9,000 of contracted rent, which is 6.9% gross. After the full stack, a non-resident owner keeps roughly $4,860, which is about 3.5% net on the all-in cost.

Line	Amount	Running total
Contracted rent, 12 months at $750	$9,000	$9,000
Vacancy, 1 month	minus $750	$8,250
Management at 10% of collected rent	minus $825	$7,425
Service charge, 50 sqm at $1.50 per month	minus $900	$6,525
Sinking fund	minus $300	$6,225
Annual property tax at 0.1% above $24,570	minus $105	$6,120
Rental income tax, non-resident 14% of gross	minus $1,260	$4,860

All-in cost matters as much as the deductions:

• Purchase price $130,000.
• Transfer tax at 4% of assessed value, about $5,200.
• Legal review, $1,500 to $3,000.
• All-in near $137,000, which is the denominator for an honest net yield.

Net yield on that basis is roughly 3.5%, and a resident owner paying 10% rather than 14% keeps about $5,220, or 3.8%. Both figures sit inside the 3% to 5% band our underwriting uses for Phnom Penh, and both are less than half the gross number a portal would print on the same unit. That gap is not evidence of a bad asset. It is the cost of collecting rent in a market with 8% to 12% management fees, a monthly service charge and a tax charged on turnover rather than profit. Buyers who model it once stop being surprised, and buyers who never model it are the ones concluding after 2 years that Cambodian property underperformed, when in fact the asset performed and the forecast did not.

Why brochure yields survive

Brochure yields of 12% to 15% persist because nothing in the market forces a correction, and every input is chosen to flatter. Foreign buyers can dismantle such a claim with four questions, and the answers rarely arrive in writing because each one removes 200 basis points or more.

Brochure assumption	Reality
Full 12 month occupancy	1 to 2 months of vacancy is normal
Asking rent	Signed leases commonly sit lower
No management fee	8% to 12% of collected rent
No service charge or sinking fund	Both payable from handover
No tax	10% or 14% of gross rent
Price excludes acquisition costs	Add 5% to 7%

Ask these four in writing, and treat the response time as part of the buyer scenario:

1. What signed rent supports this yield, and for which unit?
2. What occupancy assumption sits behind it?
3. Which deductions are included, and which are not?
4. Is the denominator the price or the all-in cost?

Guaranteed-return schemes are the sharper version of the same problem, and they are covered in the rent guarantee warning.

Nobody in the chain is incentivised to publish a net figure, which is the structural reason gross survives. An agent is paid on completion, a developer is selling launch stock, and a portal ranks listings by engagement rather than by accuracy, so the number that travels furthest is the largest defensible one. Our underwriting exists partly to close that gap. Every unit is modelled net of the 14% non-resident rent tax before it reaches a client shortlist, and two units that looked comparable at 7% gross frequently separate by 100 basis points or more once the full stack is applied to both. The exercise costs one evening, changes which buildings are worth viewing at all, and remains the cheapest piece of analytical work available to a foreign buyer at this price point.

How to model net yield yourself

Modelling net yield takes about 20 minutes on a single unit, and the discipline is to apply each deduction to the correct base. Foreign buyers who follow the order below end with a figure they can defend, usually 300 to 350 basis points below the gross number they started from.

Step	Input needed	Common error
1. All-in cost	Price plus 4% plus legal	Using the sticker price
2. Contracted rent	Signed lease, not asking rent	Using the agent’s estimate
3. Vacancy	1 to 2 months	Assuming full occupancy
4. Management	8% to 12% of collected	Applying it to contracted rent
5. Building charges	Service charge per sqm, sinking fund	Omitting the sinking fund
6. Taxes	10% or 14% of gross, plus 0.1%	Deducting costs first

Then sanity-check the output against our own methodology:

• Does the net figure sit in the 3% to 5% band for central stock?
• Would one extra void month break your position?
• Does the annual cash cover the annual cost of owning from abroad?

Occupancy evidence for step three sits in the occupancy guide, and the years-to-recover view in the break-even guide.

What moves net yield most, and what can you control?

Three levers move net yield materially, and only two are inside your control. Vacancy is worth roughly 60 to 90 basis points a month on a $130,000 unit, management is worth 60 to 80 basis points, and the 10% or 14% rent tax is fixed by your residency status rather than by any decision you make after purchase.

Lever	Effect on net yield	Under your control?
One extra void month	Minus 60 to 90 basis points	Partly, via tenant quality
Management fee, 8% versus 12%	About 25 basis points	Yes, at selection
Self-managing from abroad	Saves the fee, adds risk	Rarely realistic
Service charge per sqm	40 to 70 basis points	Yes, at purchase, by building
Rent tax 10% versus 14%	About 35 basis points	Only via tax residency
All-in cost discipline	20 to 30 basis points	Yes, by negotiating

Vacancy dominates the list, and it is decided by the building rather than by the spreadsheet. A tower in BKK1 letting to corporate tenants at $750 a month with an average void of 3 weeks produces a materially different net figure from an identical unit in an outer district letting at $520 with a 6 week void between tenancies, even though both would appear in a district table with a similar gross percentage. That is the practical case for choosing the building on tenant evidence and only then negotiating on price, which is the reverse of how most foreign purchases in Phnom Penh actually happen.

Priorities for a foreign owner, in order:

1. Buy in a building where voids are short, because vacancy is the largest single variable.
2. Compare service charges per sqm across shortlisted buildings before choosing.
3. Negotiate the management fee at 8% to 10% rather than accepting 12%.
4. Push the entry price, because the denominator matters as much as the numerator.

Tenant quality is where the biggest lever sits, and it is not a spreadsheet input. A building attracting corporate tenancies that renew on a schedule produces shorter voids than one letting month to month to price-sensitive individuals, and across a 7 year hold that difference is worth more than every fee negotiation combined. On a $130,000 unit, cutting average vacancy from 2 months to 1 adds roughly 70 basis points of net yield, more than moving the management fee from 12% to 8% and more than the entire $105 annual property tax line. Tenant selection is therefore the highest-value decision after the purchase itself. Screening practice is covered in the tenant screening guide, and building selection in the district yield comparison.

Advantages and disadvantages of modelling net first

Modelling net before you shortlist costs an evening and changes which units you look at, which is precisely why sellers prefer gross.

Advantages	Disadvantages
You compare units on the money you receive	Fewer units clear the bar
Vacancy stops being a surprise	Requires signed rent evidence, which takes time
Tax is priced in from day one	The honest number is less exciting
Better questions to agents and managers	Slows a purchase by a week

Buyer scenarios

Three profiles change the arithmetic materially.

1. Non-resident owner, managed unit. Use 14% on gross rent and 8% to 12% management. Expect the low end of 3% to 5% net.
2. Resident owner, self-managing. 10% on gross rent, no management fee, and the highest realistic net in the market.
3. Owner letting short term. A different cost structure entirely, compared in Airbnb versus long-term letting.

Residency status is the one lever most buyers never consider, and it is worth stating plainly rather than as advice. The 4 percentage point gap between the 10% resident rate and the 14% non-resident rate is about 35 basis points of net yield on the worked example, which is real but small against vacancy and management. Nobody should relocate for 35 basis points, and anybody already spending more than 182 days a year in Cambodia should confirm their status with an accountant rather than assume the non-resident rate applies. The point of modelling both rates is simply knowing which number belongs in your own forecast before you commit $137,000.

Red flags in a yield claim

Four signals mean a yield figure has not been modelled honestly, and foreign buyers can spot all four before viewing the unit. Each red flag hides a specific deduction: vacancy, the 10% or 14% rent tax, the 8% to 12% management fee, or the 4% transfer tax missing from the denominator.

Send all four questions in one message and judge the answer by what arrives in writing:

Red flag	What it signals	What to ask for
Yield quoted with no rent figure	Unverifiable claim	Rent, size, all-in cost
”Net” with no tax line	Not net for a compliant owner	Itemised deductions
Occupancy assumed at 100%	Vacancy ignored	Building void history
Management described as optional	Cost pushed off the model	Manager quote in writing

Our underwriting models every Phnom Penh unit net of tax before it reaches a client shortlist, because a gross comparison ranks the wrong units first. District bands sit in the district yield comparison, the citywide picture in the Phnom Penh yield guide, and the wider investor case in the investment buyer guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between gross and net rental yield? +

Gross is rent divided by price. Net subtracts vacancy, management, service charge, sinking fund, property tax and rental income tax, which in Cambodia roughly halves the figure.

What net yield is realistic on a Cambodian condo? +

About 3% to 5% net. A $130,000 unit letting at $750 a month runs 6.9% gross and roughly 3.5% net for a non-resident owner.

How is rental income taxed in Cambodia? +

Residents pay 10% of gross rent with no expense deduction, non-residents 14% of gross rent. The charge applies to rent, not to profit after costs.

Is there an annual property tax? +

Yes, 0.1% of value above KHR 100,000,000, roughly $24,570, so about $105 a year on a $130,000 unit.

What does management cost? +

Typically 8% to 12% of collected rent rather than contracted rent, so a void month reduces both the income and the fee.

Why do brochures quote 12% to 15%? +

Those figures are gross, assume full occupancy, exclude every charge and tax, and often use an asking rent no tenant has signed.

Can you model net yield on a specific unit? +

Send the price, size and quoted rent. We return gross and net with every deduction itemised and the vacancy assumption stated.