Rental yield calculator
Gross yield is the number in the listing. Net yield is the number after the property is actually run. Cash-on-cash is the number that tells you what your money earned. Most calculators stop at the first one — this shows all three, and what the rent means for the mortgage.
The property
Pre-filled with a worked example — type over it. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
The three yields
Indicative arithmetic on your figures — not advice.
- Gross yield
- 6.00%
- Annual rent ÷ price — the estate-agent number.
- Net yield
- 4.80%
- After your running costs — the number that pays the bills.
- Cash-on-cash return
- 5.28%
- Net income after mortgage interest, on the £67,500 actually invested.
Financing it? At the standard 125% coverage and a 5.5% stressed rate (common criteria as at August 2026), this rent supports a loan of roughly £218,182.
Why three yields, not one
Gross yield — annual rent over price — is fine for comparing areas at a glance and useless for deciding a deal, because two properties with identical gross yields can have wildly different costs. Net yield subtracts the running costs: management, maintenance, insurance, voids. Cash-on-cash goes one further and asks the only question that matters to a leveraged investor — after the mortgage interest, what did the cash I actually put in earn? A 6% gross yield can be a 10%+ cash-on-cash return with sensible leverage, or a loss with the wrong loan. The spread between those three numbers IS the appraisal.
What it doesn't do
- It doesn't know your costs — the net figure is only as honest as the running-costs estimate you give it. If in doubt, assume more voids than you hope for.
- It ignores capital growth and tax entirely: yield is the income half of the return, not the whole of it, and your tax position changes the net of everything.
- It is arithmetic, not advice — a strong yield on paper is not a recommendation to buy anything.
Appraising a purchase end to end? The buy-to-let mortgage calculator runs the full lender stress test on the same rent, and the stamp duty calculator prices the purchase costs that feed your cash-on-cash figure. Chasing yield through room-by-room letting? The HMO mortgage calculator models the income stack an HMO actually produces.
Common questions
- How do you calculate rental yield?
- Gross yield is the annual rent divided by the property's price or value: £1,250 a month is £15,000 a year, which on a £250,000 property is a 6.0% gross yield. Net yield subtracts your annual running costs first — the same property with £3,000 of costs nets 4.8%. Both ignore the mortgage entirely, which is why the cash-on-cash figure exists.
- What is a good rental yield in the UK?
- It depends on the strategy, not just the number. As broad context: sub-4% gross is common in prime London and low-yield/high-growth areas, 5–7% is the typical working range across much of the UK, and 8%+ usually means either strong-yield regions or extra operational work such as HMOs. A 'good' yield is one that still covers costs and the stress-tested mortgage with margin — which is a portfolio question, not a postcode league table.
- What's the difference between gross and net yield?
- Gross is rent over price and ignores every cost — it's the estate-agent number. Net subtracts the running of the property: management, maintenance, insurance, voids, ground rent and service charges. The gap between the two is routinely 1–2 percentage points, which is exactly the margin many deals live or die on.
- What is cash-on-cash return?
- The return on the money you actually invested rather than the whole property price: net annual income after mortgage interest, divided by your deposit plus purchase costs. With a mortgage doing most of the buying, cash-on-cash is the honest leveraged return — it can be far higher than the net yield, and with thin margins it can also go negative, which the calculator will show rather than hide.
- Does rental yield affect how much I can borrow?
- Directly — buy-to-let lenders size the loan from the rent, not your salary. They test the annual rent against the mortgage interest at a stressed rate, so the same yield maths that appraises the deal also determines the maximum loan. This calculator shows the bridge figure, and the buy-to-let mortgage calculator runs the full test across every standard rule-set.
Yield on one property is a number. Yield across a portfolio is a picture.
Inside Primehold every property carries its live rent, value and costs — yields across the whole book, with the dated history behind every figure. Built by Scott West, a practising specialist mortgage broker.