Guide · 9 min
What a Riviera Maya property can actually return
Gross brochure yields are not what you keep. How to read rental income, closing costs, and the difference between a home and a yield.
A house here can be a life, a rental, or both. It is rarely the 12% net you were shown on a slide. The useful number is what remains after the bank trust, the HOA, the manager, the empty weeks, and the tax.
Figures checked 5 October 2026. This is not a forecast and not an offer of investment advice. Yields vary by building, season, rules, and management. Past tourism is not a promise.
Gross is a story. Net is a year.
Gross yield is rent before the building and the business. Net yield is what is left after HOA or maintenance, management, utilities you still pay, insurance, vacancy, lodging tax, and the hours someone spends answering guests.
Pre-sale decks on this coast have long used 8–15% figures. Those are usually occupancy dreams, or gross, or both. Local operators writing in 2025 and 2026 more often describe net condo yields in the mid-single digits when the building is well located and actually rented — and much less when it is not.
Ranges, not promises.
HH Luxury Real Estate, citing AMPI, Tinsa, BBVA Research, and AirDNA as of 2025, described mid-luxury Playa condos around 4–6% net; many standard Tulum condos at 0–3% after oversupply; branded Cancún condo-hotel programs around 5–7% net; and well-managed villas, in the best cases, around 8% net.
A 2026 market note from Mexico Invest put established Playa neighborhoods around 4.3–5.2% net and Cancún around 3.5–4.5% net. Treat every one of those numbers as commentary on a type of product — not as the return on the unit you are being walked through.
Market commentary on net yields, 2025–2026 — not a guarantee
| Product, as described by local notes | Net yield, indicative |
|---|---|
| Playa del Carmen condo, established area | About 4–6% |
| Cancún, more institutional stock | About 3.5–4.5% |
| Branded Cancún condo-hotel program | About 5–7% |
| Standard Tulum condo, oversupplied stock | About 0–3% |
| Well-managed villa, best cases | About 8% |
Sources: HH Luxury Real Estate (2025) and Mexico Invest (2026). Ask for trailing twelve-month statements on the specific unit, not a building average from a brochure.
The only math that matters.
For a short-term rental: average daily rate × booked nights, minus cleaning if you do not pass it through, minus management (often about a fifth to a third of rent), minus HOA, minus the nights that sit empty, minus tax, minus the furniture you will replace.
Then divide what is left by what you actually spent — purchase price plus closing costs, not the list price. Closing costs for a foreign buyer on this coast commonly land in a 4–8% band, sometimes more on a smaller ticket because fixed bank and permit fees do not shrink with the price.
Year one is smaller than you think.
The buyer, not the seller, pays the acquisition tax (ISAI / ISABI). The rate is municipal. Local counsel and notary notes for 2026 commonly cite about 3% in Cancún (Benito Juárez) and 4% in Solidaridad (Playa del Carmen) and Tulum — always confirm on the file, because municipios change their hacienda laws.
On top of that: notary, public registry, appraisal, the SRE permit, and — because this is the restricted coastal zone — a bank fideicomiso. The trust has a setup fee and an annual fee. Those are real costs. They are not in the pretty yield.
Decide which question you are asking.
If the house is for living, a 4% net is a contribution to carrying cost, not a reason to buy. If the house is only a yield, you need a building that already rents, rules that still allow it, and a manager you would trust with the keys.
The honest Riviera Maya purchase for most of our clients is a home they will use, that can rent when they are gone, at a number that does not require the market to stay euphoric.
Questions.
Should I believe an 10% ROI on a pre-construction condo?
Ask for the occupancy and rate assumptions, the HOA, the management fee, and whether the figure is gross or net. Then ask what nearby finished buildings actually collected last year. If the answer is a slide, it is not underwriting.
Is long-term rent safer than short-term?
It is simpler: one tenant, fewer rules, usually a lower headline yield. Short-term can pay more in a walkable tourist street and less in a building that flooded the market. The municipal rules on short-term rentals are part of due diligence, not a footnote.
Does appreciation make up for a low yield?
Sometimes, in the last decade, it did. That is not a law of the coast. Price, peso, and inventory all move. We will not put a made-up appreciation rate on this page.
Sources.
If the numbers still make sense, we can talk about the move.
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