Cambodia rental yield: from headline percentage to owner cash

A Cambodia property can be marketed at 7% or 8% and still leave the owner with a very different return. The headline number usually assumes twelve months of rent and almost no friction. That makes gross yield useful for screening, but poor as a description of what actually reaches the owner's account.

The latest listing-based dataset available in July 2026 puts Phnom Penh at roughly 6.6% gross on average. Its one-bedroom sample is around US$95,000 to buy and US$550 per month to rent, producing about 7% gross. Those are median asking numbers, not completed transactions or audited landlord accounts, so they are a starting point rather than an investment promise.

The harder part is moving from advertised rent to collected rent. Tenant turnover, a weak leasing month, management, building charges, repairs and tax all sit between the two. A property can be perfectly rentable and still be a mediocre investment if the buyer paid too much for it.

That is why the first underwriting question is not “what does Cambodia yield?” It is “what is the rent engine for this unit?” Define the tenant, the alternatives they can choose, the purchase basis and the owner costs; then calculate the percentage. Doing it in the opposite order is how a brochure number becomes a business plan.

Rental performance starts with tenant fit. A professional choosing BKK1 or another central district may pay for a short commute and walkable services. A family may care more about space, school access and parking. A renter in Chroy Changvar or a peripheral district can accept more travel if the unit offers better value. The “best” location changes with the person expected to pay the rent.

Unit size changes both the tenant pool and the competitive set. Studios require less capital but compete with a large volume of similar small units. A well-designed one-bedroom is often easier to position because it works for a single professional or a couple. A two-bedroom asks for more capital yet can access longer-stay family or corporate demand where the location supports it.

Then comes the acquisition basis. Two apartments collecting US$550 a month do not have the same yield if one costs US$80,000 and the other US$110,000. Cambodia's market also contains very different products side by side: older completed condos, heavily promoted new developments and serviced or branded schemes. Rent should never be compared without the price paid to access it.

Building quality and management affect revenue as well as cost. A clean lobby, functioning lifts, responsive maintenance and transparent billing can help retention. Poor common areas and slow repairs push otherwise good units into price competition. A manager may reduce vacancy, but the fee still belongs in the net model.

Supply is the final pressure point. Knight Frank recorded 63,334 existing condominium units in Phnom Penh in H2 2025 and described the sector as being in a low-activity phase after a market correction. In that environment, a buyer should look at the exact number of comparable units available in the building and micro-market rather than relying on a city-wide demand story.

Gross yield answers a narrow question: what would twelve months of headline rent represent as a percentage of the purchase price? A US$100,000 apartment at US$600 per month shows 7.2%. The calculation is useful precisely because it is simple, but the simplicity assumes away everything that makes a rental business real.

Vacancy is the first adjustment. It can be a full empty month, but it is just as often ten days between tenants, time needed for repairs, or a discount used to secure a replacement quickly. If a completed building has credible leasing history, use it. If it does not, run more than one vacancy case rather than treating zero as the default.

Management is the next layer. An overseas owner still needs leasing, inspections, rent collection, maintenance coordination and someone to respond when a tenant has a problem. Self-management can remove an invoice, but it does not make the work or the cost of longer gaps disappear. The relevant comparison is owner net cash after the full service scope, not the percentage printed on a management quote.

Fixed and irregular property costs belong in the same model. Common-area charges, appliances, air-conditioning, furniture and small repairs do not arrive in a neat monthly pattern. Converting them into an annual reserve prevents a good year from being overstated simply because nothing happened to break before December.

Tax needs owner-specific treatment. Cambodia's General Department of Taxation publishes a 10% tax on gross property rent for the rental-tax regime, while also describing exceptions and withholding or self-assessment treatment in particular cases. That is why the calculator leaves tax as an input instead of hard-coding 10%. The actual treatment should be confirmed for the owner, tenant and contract at the current date.

The table is a screening aid, not a Cambodia price list. It combines current asking evidence with published market benchmarks checked on 20 Aug 2026. Where a robust dataset exists, its method matters: Global Property Guide's current Phnom Penh one-bedroom sample is around US$95,000 to buy and US$550 a month to rent, or 6.95% gross, and is built from listing prices rather than closed sales.

Central Phnom Penh can support stronger nominal rents because tenants pay for proximity to work, food, services and familiar expat infrastructure. That advantage is not free. Acquisition prices are higher and many buildings have a dense pool of similar units. The right question is therefore not whether BKK1 rents well, but whether this unit can hold its rent at the price being paid for it.

A two-bedroom in a more residential location can look less exciting on a gross-yield table and still produce a sensible ownership experience. Family and corporate tenants may stay longer when the unit has usable space, parking and the right daily route. Longer tenure can matter more than squeezing the highest possible monthly asking price from a small unit.

Serviced apartments deserve a separate model. Knight Frank's H2 2025 international-class sample recorded average monthly rents of roughly US$1,000 for one-bedroom and US$1,500 for two-bedroom units, but occupancy in that segment was only about 39%. That is the clearest reminder that a high monthly rate is not the same thing as high annual collected income. An individually sold serviced product also needs its own check on purchase premium, operator charges and owner-use rules.

Coastal property adds another layer of uncertainty. Sihanoukville, an island development and a conventional long-stay apartment near the sea do not share one demand pattern. Seasonality, operator quality and maintenance can have a larger effect on the year than the strongest advertised monthly rate. Model a weak year first; a coastal investment that only works in peak conditions is a fragile one.

A guaranteed return does not eliminate risk; it changes who carries it. Instead of asking whether a tenant will pay, the owner has to ask which legal entity is required to make the guaranteed payment, what conditions trigger it and what remedies exist if that entity stops performing. A percentage with no obligor behind it is marketing, not protection.

Rental pools are different again. Revenue from participating units may be combined and distributed according to a formula. That can smooth unit-level occupancy, but only if the owner understands what enters the pool, which expenses are deducted before distribution and what reporting or verification rights exist.

Purchase price is the cross-check most buyers miss. A programme can look generous when the unit was first sold at a substantial premium to comparable completed property. Part of the apparent yield may then be the buyer receiving some of that premium back over time. Run the asset once under the programme and once at ordinary market rent without special support.

The dedicated condo-hotel and rental-pool guide covers operator structures and contractual promises in detail. For this page, the distinction is enough: a contractual payout is not evidence that the underlying property can earn the same return in the open market. Enforceability, exclusions and the counterparty's ability to pay require document-level review for the actual transaction.

Rent and resale produce returns on different clocks. Rental income is observable throughout the holding period. Resale gain or loss is realised at exit, and neither the sale date nor the discount required to find a buyer can be known in advance. Combining rent and assumed appreciation into one headline percentage makes two very different assumptions look equally certain.

Exit still matters to a yield investor. A unit can rent consistently and remain difficult to sell if the building has large competing inventory or the original purchase price carried a primary-market premium. A few good rental years do not automatically compensate for a forced discount at sale.

The opposite can also be true. A property with only moderate current yield can be easier to explain to the next buyer because it has a sensible layout, established tenants, transparent ownership and a realistic purchase basis. That does not guarantee appreciation, but it reduces dependence on a single marketing story.

Keep the two models separate. Underwrite net rental cash flow for an ordinary year and a weaker year. Then model a sale at your intended horizon without assuming price growth as the base case. The operational letting process and the mechanics of selling a Cambodian property belong in their dedicated guides; this page only needs the numbers to remain distinct.