Rental yield in Geneva: gross, net, charges and tax

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Rental yield relates a property's annual income to the capital committed to acquiring it. In Geneva, both of its terms are constrained. Rent is capped by tenancy law, and the purchase price is increased by cantonal acquisition costs.

This article covers the calculation, from gross yield to net yield. It details what goes into each term: the Geneva acquisition costs added to the price, the non-recoverable charges deducted from the rent. It then sets out the maximum rent cantonal law allows, the yield expected on the Geneva market, and what is left after tax.

What is rental yield?

Rental yield is the ratio of a property's annual rental income to the outlay required to acquire it, expressed as a percentage.

Yield measures a flow, which repeats every year for as long as the property stays let. Capital appreciation belongs to a different dimension: a capital gain, observed only once, on resale, and dependent on market conditions at that moment.

Several levels of yield exist, from gross through to after-tax yield, depending on which elements are deducted from the rent and added to the outlay.

How do you calculate gross and net rental yield?

Rental yield is calculated first gross, then net, the difference being the charges deducted from the rent.

Gross yield = (net annual rent ÷ total acquisition cost) × 100

Net annual rent is the rent collected excluding charges paid by the tenant. Total cost is the sum of the price paid and the Geneva entry costs.

Net yield = ((net annual rent − non-recoverable charges) ÷ total acquisition cost) × 100

A Geneva example. A four-room apartment of 80 square metres bought at 10,853 francs per square metre, the median price of non-new apartments on the open market recorded by the cantonal statistics office for 2024, costs 868,240 francs. With acquisition costs adding around 32,500 francs, the total cost comes to around 900,800 francs.

According to the 2025 cantonal rent statistics, a four-room apartment at market rent re-let within the last twelve months rents for an average of 2,006 francs a month, or 24,072 francs a year. Gross yield is 2.67%. With assumed non-recoverable charges of 4,800 francs, net yield falls to 2.14%.

The cascade below follows this annual rent of 24,072 francs through to the income that remains after vacancy, charges, the works provision and tax, with the three corresponding yield levels, net additionally factoring in vacancy and the works provision.

This calculation can be redone with your own figures in the calculator below.

Geneva rental yield calculator

The calculator estimates the gross yield, net yield, after-tax yield, return on equity and annual cash flow of a Geneva rental property, Geneva acquisition costs and non-recoverable charges included.

What acquisition costs should you add to the purchase price in Geneva?

The acquisition costs to add to the purchase price in Geneva are the registration duty, the land registry fee and the notary's fees, set by cantonal law, together with the brokerage commission. The denominator of the yield is not the purchase price but the total cost of the transaction.

• Registration duty: 3% of the value of the property, borne by the purchaser.
• Land registry fee: 0.21% of the price for registering ownership, 0.085% of the claim per mortgage lien.
• Notary's fees: a degressive scale in successive brackets, from 7‰ under 200,000 francs to 0.5‰ above 20 million. A deed of 1,200,000 francs bears 5,900 francs, bracket by bracket.
• Brokerage commission: freely agreed, owed by the party that signed the mandate.

The Casatax reduction remains out of reach for an investor: the Geneva law on registration duties reserves it for a property intended to serve as the purchaser's main residence, who occupies the home for 3 continuous years. A property acquired to be let pays the duty in full.

Each item has its own basis of assessment and legal basis.

Item	Basis of calculation	Legal reference
Registration duty	Price of the deed or market value, mortgage debts not deducted	LDE art. 33, 35 et 163, rsGE D 3 30
Land registry fee	Price of the property, maximum 40,000 francs per transaction; amount of the claim, maximum 20,000 francs per lien	REmORFDIT art. 3 and 4, rsGE E 1 50.06
Notary's fees	Value of the deed, in successive brackets	REmNot art. 10, rsGE E 6 05.03
Brokerage commission	Sale price, contractual rate	CO art. 412

Which charges should be deducted from the rent?

The charges to deduct from the rent are the non-recoverable charges, those the lease leaves with the landlord. The numerator retains the net rent, excluding the charges advance.

Tenancy law separates two blocks. Ancillary costs pay for services connected with the use of the property and fall on the tenant only if the lease specifically provides for it (CO art. 257a). For a home, they correspond to the actual expenses of heating, hot water and operation (CO art. 257b para. 1).

OBLF art. 6 excludes the repair and renewal of heating and hot water installations, as well as their depreciation.

Five items remain the landlord's responsibility.

• Management fees, billed by the property manager on the rent roll.
• Routine maintenance and repairs to fittings.
• Works provision, calibrated to the age of the building.
• Landlord insurance, buildings and public liability.
• Non-rechargeable co-ownership charges and contributions to the renovation fund.

According to the cantonal statistics office, 35% of Geneva's 254,829 homes are in a building predating 1961 and 53% in a building predating 1971, as at 31 December 2025. This age profile pushes up the works provision in Geneva. Including charges in the rent at the numerator mechanically inflates the gross yield.

What rent are you entitled to charge in Geneva?

The rent you are entitled to charge in Geneva is not free: it is capped, and the criterion for the cap depends on the age of the building.

For a recent building, the rent is abusive when it procures the landlord an excessive yield on the leased property (CO art. 269). For an older building, thirty years old or more, the Federal Supreme Court sets aside this yield calculation and applies the usual rents in the neighbourhood (ATF 144 III 514, CO art. 269a let. a).

What the law says (art. 269 CO): "Rents are abusive if they allow excessive income to be derived from the rented property or if they result from a manifestly excessive purchase price."

The Federal Supreme Court quantifies the yield cap in ATF 147 III 14 of 26 October 2020; the permissible return on equity reaches 2% above the reference mortgage rate for as long as that rate remains equal to or below 2%, and the effective equity is revalued at 100% of the Swiss consumer price index.

The basis for this calculation is the reference mortgage rate set by the Federal Housing Office. It stands at 1.25% since 2 September 2025, held at that level in the announcement of 1 June 2026, with the next publication due on 1 September 2026. Any fall in the rate opens a right for the tenant to a reduction in rent at the next termination date (CO art. 270a).

The diagram below sets out the calculation of the cap, from the reference rate to the maximum permissible return on equity.

In Geneva, notifying the initial rent on an official form is compulsory for as long as the housing shortage lasts (LaCC art. 207, rsGE E 1 05 ; CO art. 270 para. 2). The incoming tenant disputes this rent before the conciliation authority within 30 days.

The LDTR makes any conversion or renovation of a residential building subject to cantonal authorisation, and the rent set after the works comes under State control for 3 years, a period extended to 5 years for major conversions (LDTR art. 9 and 12, rsGE L 5 20).

What is a good rental yield in Geneva?

A good Geneva rental yield ranges from 2.20% to 2.70% net on prime residential at the end of 2025.

The figure comes from KPMG's Real Estate Geneva study, « Marché de l'investissement immobilier direct genevois 2025 », published in 2026. In early 2024, the same firm recorded 2.50% to 3.00%, the easing of the policy rate having compressed levels since. The 3% to 4% net that investment guides commonly quote exceed these values by 35 to 50%.

The test is not a universal threshold, it is the cost of debt. A net yield above the mortgage rate makes leverage work in the investor's favour; a lower yield turns it against them. As at 30 June 2026, the 10-year fixed rates recorded by the Comparis mortgage barometer range from 1.3% to 2.1% depending on the lender and the file, for a market average of 1.77%.

The same money used to pay down the debt earns the equivalent of the rate paid, a little less after tax since the interest eliminated was deductible, and without rental risk.

Thresholds along the lines of "aim for 5% minimum" circulate widely. No Geneva property produces them: prices there are too high relative to permitted rents.

What is left of the yield after tax?

What is left of the yield after tax varies with the landlord's marginal tax rate: the rent received is added to their taxable income and taxed at that rate. After-tax yield depends on their situation, the same property not yielding as much to two different buyers.

The taxable base of a let property is the actual rent, not the rental value reserved for the home occupied by its owner (LIFD art. 21, LIPP art. 24).

Three items govern the current tax result.

• Mortgage interest, deductible up to the taxable return on wealth increased by 50,000 francs (LIFD art. 33 para. 1 let. a; the same rule applies in Geneva, LIPP art. 34 let. a).
• Maintenance costs, at actual cost or, for direct federal tax, at a flat rate of 10% of gross rental yield, 20% beyond ten years of the building's age (ordonnance sur les frais relatifs aux immeubles, RS 642.116, art. 5). In Geneva, the cantonal flat rate is open only to the taxpayer's own home: a let property is declared at actual cost (LIPP art. 34 let. d).
• Value-adding works and debt amortisation, not deductible (LIFD art. 34 let. c et d), with amortisation weighing on cash flow.

Two annual charges are overlooked by calculators. The property enters taxable wealth at its tax value, net of debt (LIPP art. 47 and 56).

The supplementary property tax, for its part, levies 1‰ of the value of the building with no deduction for any debt (LCP art. 76 para. 1 et 2), every year and regardless of the rental result, against 0.2‰ for a building held by a private individual and used as their main residence (LCP art. 76 para. 5).

The calculator returns the net yield, the after-tax yield and the cash flow separately, since these deductions set them apart from one another.

A property financing plan in Geneva is assessed on the same horizon as the yield calculation; neither can be judged without the other.