The "10% yield" apartment: what you really get to keep
The ad divides a year of rent by the price and gets 9 to 12%. In the first year the owner keeps 6.0% of the money invested. Over 10 years, 6.3% a year, or 3.3% after dollar inflation. An S&P 500 fund returned 9.9% over its history. Below, stage by stage, where the percentage points go.
Deal Breakdown · part 1 · a 5-minute read
📌 What they promise
"Rental income on property in Batumi averages 8–12% a year." Agency website, 25 September 2025 (translated from Russian)
"Annual returns usually range from 7% to 12%… They can reach 15%." Agency website, 5 June 2026 (translated from Russian)
Here is how that number is made: 12 months of rent divided by the price.
An apartment for $200,000 renting at $1,500 a month. That is $18,000 a year, which is 9% a year and a payback of 11 years.
That is the seller's arithmetic. Below is the owner's. The example: Georgia, 100 m², long-term rental.
1️⃣ Purchase
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Price | $200,000 |
| Furniture and appliances for letting | $10,000 |
| Title registration | $55 (150 GEL) |
| Total invested | $210,055 |
✔️ The buying agent is usually paid by the seller, so there is no agent fee here.
2️⃣ Ownership
| Per year | Amount |
|---|---|
| Building fees (about $0.7 per m² a month) | $840 |
| Property tax | 0 if household income is below 40,000 GEL a year |
🔴 You pay the building fees even when there is no tenant.
3️⃣ Rental
| First year | Amount |
|---|---|
| 12 months of rent, "as advertised" | $18,000 |
| One month without a tenant | −$1,500 |
| Letting fee, one month's rent | −$1,500 |
| 5% tax on rent | −$825 |
| Small repairs, 5% of rent | −$825 |
| Building fees | −$840 |
| Net to you | $12,510 |
| On $210,055 invested | 6.0% |
✔️ The 5% tax applies only if you registered as a landlord in advance (art. 81(2) of the Tax Code of Georgia). Otherwise it is 20% on profit. Tax in your country of residence is a separate matter.
🔴 The agent gets paid for every new tenant. A tenant changes every two years: over 10 years that is five fees, $7,500. More in the column "The agent gets paid for every tenant".
See what your apartment would net you →
4️⃣ Sale and the 10-year result
| After 10 years | % a year | After inflation |
|---|---|---|
| Hold and rent out | 6.3% | 3.3% |
| Rent out and sell | 8.5% | 5.5% |
| Payback from rent (with rent growth) | 13.8 years instead of 11 |
On sale: 5% haggling discount, 3% agent, six months to sell, 5% capital gains tax (exempt after 2 years of ownership). Price growth 4.3% a year, the average in Georgia's official statistics.
🔴 The whole gain from the sale rests on one assumption: that prices keep growing as they did over the last 10 years.
🔴 If you need the money urgently
A deposit is withdrawn in two minutes. An apartment is not.
Sell after one year, urgently, at a 15% discount: $171,700 net, plus $12,510 of rent for the year. The result is −12.3% of the money invested.
The same $210,055 elsewhere
| Where | % a year | After inflation |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment, hold and rent out | 6.3% | 3.3% |
| Apartment, rent out and sell | 8.5% | 5.5% |
| US-dollar deposit in Georgia | 2.0% | −0.9% |
| US government bonds, 10 years | 4.2% | 1.3% |
| S&P 500 fund | 9.9% | 6.8% |
The fund: average over the years 1928 to 2025, after a 0.1% fee. There were bad decades too: from 2000 to 2009 the fund lost 1.0% a year. We do not promise that the fund will beat the apartment. We show what to compare it with.
💡 In short
- "10% a year" is rent divided by price. In the first year the owner keeps about 6%.
- Over 10 years the apartment returns 6.3% a year on rent alone, 8.5% with a sale, if prices keep growing.
- An urgent sale turns the yield negative.
- Check your own apartment before you sign the contract: your price, your rent, your tax.
Run the numbers before you sign.
The calculator with this property's figures
The same calculation as on the home page. Change any figure — the answer recounts.
Free: the calculation on the home page, no sign-up. The full calculation of one apartment against a deposit, bonds and a fund, after signing up with your e-mail.
Subscription, $10 a month or $89 a year: several apartments side by side, an A4 report for negotiating with the developer, the price at which the apartment matches the alternative, "What if…" scenarios.
If you prove us wrong, we will say so.
REAL ESTATE I YIELD I TAXES · Levelvale
Questions and answers
How do you calculate the yield of an apartment?
From everything you invest: price, furniture, repairs, registration. And not from the whole rent, but from what is left after vacancy, the agent, tax, repairs and building fees.
Why is the developer's yield higher than mine?
The developer divides 12 months of rent by the price. Vacancy, fees, taxes and repairs are not in that number.
How many years does an apartment really take to pay back?
In this example 13.8 years instead of 11, with rent growth included. Without rent growth, almost 17 years.
Sources
- Advertising: real-estate agency websites, pages dated 25 September 2025 and 5 June 2026, checked 8 October 2026 (agencies not named) · 2026-10-08
- Rental tax: Tax Code of Georgia, art. 81(2); PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Georgia · 2026
- Title registration, 150 GEL: napr.gov.ge · 2026-10
- Building fees in Georgia: buyhome.ge · 2026-10
- Price growth, inflation, deposit, bonds, fund: sources inside the Levelvale calculator (Geostat, World Bank, National Bank of Georgia, OECD, NYU Stern) · 2026-10-08
- Calculation: Levelvale engine, run on 8 October 2026 · 2026-10-08
This is a calculation, not investment, tax or legal advice.
Read also
Apartment yield in Batumi: the 10% ad against realityThree real apartments in Batumi, stage by stage: purchase, ownership, rental, sale. What reaches you, and what a deposit, bonds and a fund would have paid.
October 8, 2026 · Yield by city
The agent gets paid for every tenantYou do not pay the letting fee once. You pay it with every new tenant, and over 10 years that is five fees. Straight Talk from a Realtor.
October 8, 2026 · Yield by city
We don't buy square metresPeople buy an apartment for the life inside it, not for the bricks. So why calculate at all? To walk into the negotiation with an argument. Straight Talk from a Realtor.
October 8, 2026 · A flat or the alternatives