Rental Yields in Cambodia: Reading the Numbers Honestly

Few numbers are quoted as confidently, or as misleadingly, as the rental yield on a Cambodian condominium. Marketing material routinely advertises gross yields of 6 to 8 percent, and sometimes more, often alongside a guaranteed rental promise. Those figures are not invented, but they describe a best case before costs — and the gap between gross and net is where investor expectations most often come apart.

This article is about reading the yield honestly: what the headline number includes, what it conveniently leaves out, and how to arrive at a figure you could actually bank. Citations are marked [S-NNN]; the source list is at the end.

For the current gross yields we track by city and segment, see our live Cambodia Price & Yield Index.

Gross yield is the marketing number

Gross yield is simply annual rent divided by purchase price. If a unit costs 120,000 dollars and rents for 700 dollars a month — 8,400 a year — the gross yield is 7 percent. It is the number on the brochure because it is the largest number that can be honestly attached to the property.

And at the gross level, the headline range is real: Global Property Guide put Cambodia’s average gross rental yield at 7.68 percent in Q3 2025, with Phnom Penh rents around $9–13 per square metre per month [S-090]. Portals advertise 6.5–8 percent — sometimes labelled “net”, which should be treated as optimistic [S-026]. The dispute is not whether Cambodian gross yields are high. It is what survives the deductions.

The problem is that gross yield assumes you are rented every month of the year, pay nothing to run the property, and lose nothing to tax. None of those hold.

The deductions the brochure omits

To get from gross to net, subtract the costs of actually being a landlord in Cambodia:

• Service charge and sinking fund. Phnom Penh condo management fees run $1.00 to $2.00 per square metre per month [S-091]. On a 60 sqm unit renting for $700, that is $60–120 a month — 9 to 17 percent of the rent — before the sinking fund. Watch the billing basis too: fees charged on gross area rather than liveable area can add 20 percent or more to the bill [S-091].
• Vacancy. In an oversupplied market, units do not re-let instantly: rental vacancy averaged around 15 percent per project across Phnom Penh in 2025 [S-026], with citywide occupancy reported at 78–82 percent and only the best-managed prime buildings exceeding 85 percent [S-027]. Assuming one to two months vacant per year is realism, not pessimism.
• Rental income tax. Letting income is taxable — 10 percent of gross rent for residents, 14 percent withholding for non-resident owners [S-089].
• Letting and management fees. An agent finding and managing a tenant typically takes a fee, often equivalent to a month or more of rent per year — and a remote owner should budget around 10 percent of rent for ongoing professional management [S-091].
• Furnishing and wear. The expat and corporate tenants who pay the best rents expect furnished, well-kept units, which means upfront furnishing and periodic replacement.

Run a realistic example. Take that 7 percent gross unit, assume one month vacant, a 10 percent service-and-management drag, 10 percent rental tax on collected rent, and modest furnishing amortisation, and the net yield commonly lands somewhere around 3.5 to 5 percent. That arithmetic matches what completed buildings actually report: Bodaiju Residences — one of Phnom Penh’s larger delivered condo projects — carries an expected rental return of about 5 percent at roughly 70 percent occupancy [S-067], and even Global Property Guide’s general rule puts net yields 1.5 to 2 points below gross [S-090]. Still a return — but a markedly different proposition from 7 percent, and one that has to compete with a US-dollar bank deposit that carries far less risk.

The guaranteed-rental trap

A common sweetener on off-plan and new units is a guaranteed rental return — the developer promises, say, 7 percent a year for two or three years. Treat these with care (we take the product apart in our guaranteed-returns analysis). The guarantee is only as good as the developer’s solvency, and the cost of the guarantee is frequently built into an inflated purchase price. In other words, you may be paying upfront, in the price, for the income you are being “promised” later. When the guarantee period ends, the unit often re-rents at the genuine market rate, which can be well below the guaranteed figure — and the resale value adjusts to match.

Why yields look high in the first place

Cambodian gross yields look high relative to mature markets for a reason: the risk is higher. Oversupply in the Phnom Penh condo segment has pressured both rents and capital values, the tenant pool is concentrated among expatriates and corporates and is sensitive to economic cycles, and resale liquidity is thinner than buyers expect. A high gross yield is, in part, the market’s compensation for those risks. It is not a free lunch.

How to assess a yield properly

Step	What to do
Start	Annual rent divided by all-in purchase cost, not just price
Subtract	Service charge, sinking fund, vacancy allowance
Subtract	Rental income tax and letting/management fees
Subtract	Annualised furnishing and maintenance
Result	A net yield you can compare to lower-risk alternatives

The discipline is simple: never accept a gross number, always build the net, and always ask what a guaranteed return is really costing you in the purchase price. A Cambodian condo can still produce a respectable, dollar-denominated income — but only once you have stripped the optimism out of the headline and looked at what genuinely reaches your account.

Sources

• [S-026] IPS Cambodia — Phnom Penh Condo Market Trends 2025 — advertised 6.5–8% yields labelled “net” flagged as optimistic; ~15% average per-project rental vacancy (2025).
• [S-027] CambodiaProperty.asia — Phnom Penh Condo Market Trends — citywide occupancy 78–82%; >85% in well-managed prime buildings.
• [S-067] Realestate.com.kh — Bodaiju Residences — ~5% expected rental return at ~70% occupancy in a completed building.
• [S-089] IPS Cambodia — Ultimate Guide on Cambodia Property Tax — rental income tax: 10% residents, 14% non-resident withholding.
• [S-090] Global Property Guide — Cambodia Rental Yields — average gross yield 7.68% (Q3 2025); Phnom Penh rents ~$9–13/sqm/month; net typically 1.5–2pp below gross.
• [S-091] IPS Cambodia — The True Cost of Ownership — management fees $1–2/sqm/month; gross-area billing surcharge; ~10% of rent for remote management.