Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I find residential square metre prices, rentals, and yields for any one country?
2. What does rental yield mean? Why is it important?
3. Shouldn´t I just buy if property prices are rising?
4. How can I compare prices and yields across countries?
5. What are the sources of the Guide´s price data? Can these sources be trusted?
6. Assumptions: What assumptions are made in presenting the Guide´s price and rents data?.

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How do I find residential square metre prices, rentals, and yields for any one country?

Use the menu to navigate to the Rental Yields section of the country you are interested in.

Or see a list of our individual countries' square metre prices, rentals and yields.

What does rental yield mean? Why is it important?

The gross annual rental income expressed as a percentage of today's property purchase price. This is what a landlord can expect as return to his investment.

The rental yield is one useful yardstick of whether property is over-valued or under-valued. See discussion here.

Shouldn't I just buy if property prices are rising?

Well, that?s not such a bad idea, actually. House prices tend to move in long waves, rising for several years, then falling for several years.

The problem is that if you get stuck at the peak, you?re in serious trouble. Property markets can be very illiquid, and it can be hard to extract yourself from a purchase of an over-valued property without large losses. Especially if you?ve borrowed money to buy, that can be disastrous (see discussion here).

How can I compare prices and yields across countries?

Navigate to a country or continent and select Rental Yields from the Regional Stats menu.

For the Caribbean and the Pacific (except for Australia and New Zealand), we report prices for beachfront properties.

For the rest of the world, we report the price of properties in the centre of the ´premier´ city, i.e., the country´s most important city, either the administrative capital, and/or the commercial capital, and/or the financial capital.

What are the sources of the Guide´s price data? Can these sources be trusted?

We draw our figures from our own, in-house analysis. Our research is based on a simple yet effective method - we systematically scan web advertisements for residential property, looking at offers for sale, and offers for rent, of good (but not new) apartments.

Despite its simplicity, with care and commitment to consistency this method can produce quality results. We begin by defining key upper-end rental districts in the capital city. We take care to keep a database of where the properties are located, so as to ensure consistency in subsequent years. We carefully select appropriate price ranges. We take average prices, rejecting deviant outliers. Buyers of the full data set have access to these comparability specifications.

The data measures up well to data provided by national statistical organizations, where these are available for comparison, and usually performs better than multi-housing organization data.

Assumptions: What assumptions are made in presenting the Guide´s price and rents data?

We are interested in the sort of properties which will be attractive to foreign renters. This is not always the same type of property in all locations.

Foreign renters are usually interested in properties which are in excellent condition, with good facilities, and which have been refurbished or redecorated within the last five years. Our properties are therefore likely to be less expensive than the very newest properties, except where new-builds dominate the market.

In European cities, we lean towards properties in the historic city centres, therefore our ´typical´ property is more likely to be a 90-year old refurbished apartment of character, than a newly built apartment.

Next updates – when will the Global Property Guide yield tables next be updated?