Are rental yields in Jakarta still attractive?

Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Jakarta

Are Jakarta rental yields really around 12% now?

Yes. Jakarta apartment yields currently reach double digits in the freshest listing data, and the citywide average is now about 12% gross.

Global Property Guide’s latest Jakarta dataset, based on asking rents and asking sale prices from local listings, shows roughly 11.1% gross for studios and one-bedroom apartments, 12.3% for two-bedrooms and 10.9% for three-bedrooms. Its overall Jakarta average is 12.0%.

Those are unusually high numbers for a major Asian capital. Take the median two-bedroom in the dataset: about $53,700 to buy and $550 a month to rent. Annual rent of $6,600 divided by the purchase price gives a 12.3% gross yield.

The word “gross” does a lot of work here. These figures come before tax, vacancy, maintenance, service charges, agent fees and repairs. They also combine median asking prices with median asking rents rather than following individual apartments from purchase through an actual lease.

Still, the scale is hard to dismiss. Even if a real investor eventually loses two or three percentage points to costs and imperfect occupancy, starting around 10%-12% leaves much more room than starting around 4%-5%.

Jakarta apartment type	Median asking price	Median monthly rent	Current gross yield	Initial read
Studio / 1-bedroom	~$42,000	~$390	11.1%	Very high
2-bedroom	~$53,700	~$550	12.3%	Strongest mainstream figure
3-bedroom	~$139,800	~$1,270	10.9%	Still double-digit
4+ bedrooms	~$257,900	~$2,940	13.7%	High but more sample-sensitive

Why do some Jakarta property reports still show yields closer to 4%?

Jakarta can show 4% rental yields and 12% rental yields at the same time because the datasets cover very different apartments.

Colliers has tracked rental yields around 4% across the Jakarta apartment market it follows, including roughly 4.3% in the CBD. Global Property Guide’s current 12% city average comes from a much broader pool of online asking prices and asking rents, including inexpensive secondary-market apartments.

Price explains most of the gap. A Rp700 million apartment rented for Rp7 million a month mathematically yields 12% gross. A Rp6 billion apartment rented for Rp20 million a month yields 4%. Both examples fit comfortably inside Jakarta’s fragmented apartment market.

The high-yield portal figures tell us something useful: there are apartments whose rents are large relative to their advertised resale value. Colliers tells us something different about the more professional, higher-quality and often more expensive end of the market.

For an investor, the relevant yield depends heavily on what can actually be bought. Someone looking at inexpensive resale units is working with completely different economics from a buyer targeting a premium apartment in the CBD or South Jakarta.

Are Jakarta rents actually rising fast enough to explain those yields?

No. Jakarta rents are currently firm rather than booming, so most of the unusually high yield comes from cheap or stagnant apartment prices.

Recent professional-market research has shown only modest rental growth. Landlords have generally preferred to protect occupancy instead of forcing through aggressive increases, particularly in a market where tenants can still choose between many buildings.

The purchase side has been much weaker. Bank Indonesia’s latest residential survey showed primary home prices across Indonesia rising just 0.69% year-on-year. That was only slightly faster than the previous quarter’s 0.62%, and still very subdued in nominal terms. Jakarta’s apartment market has also spent years working through old inventory while speculative buying has cooled.

This combination is excellent for the rent-to-price ratio. If an apartment worth Rp1 billion generates Rp70 million of annual rent, it yields 7%. Leave the apartment price flat and raise annual rent to Rp75 million, and the yield reaches 7.5% without anything resembling a rental boom.

Global Property Guide’s national numbers show how quickly this effect has been building. Indonesia’s average gross yield moved from 6.12% in late 2024 to 5.41% in mid-2025, then 7.15% later that year and 8.30% in early 2026. The latest figure is 8.22%. Jakarta now sits well above that national average.

The useful takeaway is pretty sharp: Jakarta’s yield story currently owes at least as much to weak asset pricing as it does to rising rents.

Where in Jakarta are the best rental yields right now?

Central Jakarta currently produces the eye-catching headline yields, while South Jakarta looks more consistent across different apartment sizes.

The latest listing data puts small apartments in Central Jakarta at about 12.9% gross and two-bedrooms at 12.3%. The four-bedroom figure exceeds 16%, although we would treat a number that extreme more cautiously because larger units tend to have thinner samples and less standardized properties.

South Jakarta looks less spectacular but much steadier. Current gross yields run at roughly 8.1% for smaller apartments, 9.4% for two-bedrooms, 8.4% for three-bedrooms and 8.5% for larger units. That consistency helps in an area with deep employment, expatriate and professional tenant demand.

West Jakarta is far more uneven. Small units currently show about 8.3%, while three-bedroom apartments are closer to 4.4%. North Jakarta sits around 7%-8% across the main unit sizes.

So we would be careful with the idea that Jakarta itself “yields 12%.” Central Jakarta helps lift the citywide figure sharply, and individual building economics can diverge even more than district averages.

Jakarta area	Studio / 1BR	2BR	3BR	What we see
Central Jakarta	12.9%	12.3%	7.1%	Highest headline yields
South Jakarta	8.1%	9.4%	8.4%	Most consistent profile
North Jakarta	7.1%	8.3%	7.9%	Solid across sizes
West Jakarta	8.3%	6.4%	4.4%	Much weaker on larger units
Jakarta overall	11.1%	12.3%	10.9%	Useful benchmark, but very broad

Can landlords actually keep a high-yield Jakarta apartment occupied?

Often yes, but Jakarta rental demand today is selective enough that a bad building can destroy a good spreadsheet yield.

There are more than 230,000 completed apartments in Jakarta, and tenants do not treat them as interchangeable. Building age, maintenance, access to offices, public transport, flooding, traffic, furnishings and management can make a large difference to occupancy.

Prime employment corridors have a structural advantage. CBD and South Jakarta apartments can tap professionals, multinational companies and expatriate households. Established expatriate areas such as Kemang, Cilandak, Cipete and Pondok Indah also benefit when good-quality housing is limited relative to the number of tenants who specifically want those locations.

We should be more careful with a cheap apartment whose yield works only if it stays occupied for 12 months every year. One empty month removes 8.3% of annual rent. Two empty months remove 16.7%. That is a quick haircut.

A property advertised at 12% gross therefore produces only 11% before other costs if it loses one month of rent. At two vacant months, the figure falls to 10%. That can still be attractive, but the cushion shrinks quickly once maintenance and tax are added.

We would take a verified 8% yield in a building that rents easily over a theoretical 12% in a project where owners regularly struggle to find tenants.

How much of a Jakarta rental yield disappears after tax and vacancy?

Quite a lot. A Jakarta apartment starting at 10%-12% gross can remain attractive after basic deductions, while a 4%-5% property gets thin very quickly.

Indonesia applies final income tax of 10% to the gross amount received from renting land or buildings. The Directorate General of Taxes explicitly calculates that tax from gross rent rather than the landlord’s profit after expenses.

Take a 10% gross rental yield. The rental tax alone brings it to 9%. Allow one empty month and the effective figure falls to roughly 8.25% before maintenance, service charges, agent commissions or repairs.

Starting at 6% gives much less room. After one month of vacancy and the same rental tax, the yield falls to just under 5%.

This is where the gap between Jakarta’s two yield stories becomes important. A genuine double-digit gross opportunity can absorb normal operating friction. A premium apartment yielding around 4% has almost no income cushion once the same expenses begin to land.

Advertised gross yield	After 10% rental tax	After 1 vacant month	After both
4%	3.6%	3.67%	~3.30%
6%	5.4%	5.50%	~4.95%
8%	7.2%	7.33%	~6.60%
10%	9.0%	9.17%	~8.25%
12%	10.8%	11.00%	~9.90%

Do Jakarta buying costs ruin a good rental yield?

Usually no, but Jakarta’s buying and selling costs punish investors who expect to exit quickly.

DKI Jakarta charges acquisition tax through BPHTB, and buyers also face notarial, registration and other transaction expenses. Those costs increase the amount of capital actually tied up in the property.

A simple example shows the effect. An apartment bought for Rp1 billion and earning Rp100 million a year appears to yield 10%. If the true acquisition cost becomes Rp1.06 billion after taxes and other expenses, the same rent produces 9.4% on the money invested.

That reduction is manageable when the starting yield is high. It becomes much harder to ignore at a 4% or 5% gross yield.

Selling creates another round of costs, and Jakarta apartments can take time to move. The income case works best when we can hold for several years and collect enough rent to spread those entry and exit costs over a long period.

A Jakarta rental yielding 8%-10% with a durable tenant base can handle that friction. A mediocre-yield apartment bought with the hope of selling quickly at a higher price is much harder to defend today.

Does it make sense to borrow money for a Jakarta rental apartment now?

Only at the higher end of Jakarta’s yield range. Financing a 4%-6% apartment currently leaves almost no margin for error.

Bank Indonesia’s policy rate is now 5.75%, after rising sharply from 4.75% earlier this year. That does not translate directly into a mortgage rate, but rupiah financing is clearly no longer sitting in a very cheap-money environment.

Bank Indonesia’s latest residential survey also shows how important mortgages remain for Indonesian buyers: KPR loans accounted for 70.05% of primary-market home purchases.

For a landlord, the arithmetic is unforgiving. If borrowing costs sit around or above the rental yield, leverage weakens the investment before tax, vacancies, service charges and repairs are even considered.

An apartment yielding 10%-12% has enough initial spread to make financing worth investigating. At 8%, the margin becomes much tighter. Around 4%-6%, we would struggle to justify borrowing purely for rental income.

That is another reason the portal-level double-digit opportunities deserve attention. High gross yield is doing real work when capital itself is expensive.

Are Jakarta rental yields actually better than Bangkok, Manila and Kuala Lumpur?

Yes. On comparable current listing data, Jakarta beats Bangkok, Manila and Kuala Lumpur by a very large margin.

The cleanest comparison is two-bedroom apartments because Global Property Guide currently measures the same asking-rent-to-asking-price relationship across the cities. Jakarta sits at about 12.3% gross. Manila is around 6.4%, Bangkok around 6.3% and Kuala Lumpur around 4.8%.

Three-bedroom apartments tell the same story. Jakarta is close to 10.9%, compared with roughly 5.4% in Kuala Lumpur, 4.5% in Manila and 4.2% in Bangkok.

That gap is far too large to write off as a minor methodological quirk. Jakarta’s two-bedroom yield is almost twice Bangkok’s and Manila’s, and more than two and a half times Kuala Lumpur’s.

Cheap purchase prices explain much of it. Jakarta apartments simply cost less relative to the rent tenants are willing to pay.

The comparison also shows where the risk sits. Buyers in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur often accept lower yields partly because those markets can offer different combinations of foreign ownership rules, liquidity, currency exposure and resale demand. Jakarta gives landlords more income upfront, but investors should expect to work harder on legal structure, building selection and eventual exit.

City	2BR gross yield	3BR gross yield	Jakarta advantage on 2BR	Read
Jakarta	12.3%	10.9%	—	Exceptional
Manila	6.4%	4.5%	~5.9 pts	Jakarta nearly doubles it
Bangkok	6.3%	4.2%	~6.0 pts	Similar gap
Kuala Lumpur	4.8%	5.4%	~7.5 pts	Largest 2BR gap

Is weak price growth the hidden cost of Jakarta’s high rental yields?

Yes. Anyone buying Jakarta for income today should assume that strong rent may have to carry most of the investment return.

Bank Indonesia’s latest primary residential index rose only 0.69% year-on-year. Sales were still down 2.36% from a year earlier, although that was a huge improvement from the 25.67% fall recorded in the previous quarter.

Jakarta apartments are showing the same cautious mood more directly. Colliers says developers have been focusing on selling existing units and keeping prices stable while buyers increasingly come from the owner-occupier market. Speculative buying has weakened.

Supply is also slowing. Colliers counted roughly 232,000 completed Jakarta apartments in the second quarter and recorded no new project completion during that period. Developers holding back new stock should eventually help good existing buildings, especially if tenant demand keeps growing.

For now, though, we would not build the investment case around a large capital gain. The latest evidence gives us much more confidence in Jakarta as an income market than as a market where apartment prices are about to surge.

That is also why yields can remain so high. When buyers stop bidding apartment prices upward but tenants keep paying roughly stable or slightly higher rents, landlords receive more income for every rupiah invested.

Can foreigners actually buy the cheap Jakarta apartments showing 10%-12% yields?

In many cases, no. Jakarta’s foreign-ownership price floor blocks foreigners from buying a large part of the ultra-cheap stock behind the highest citywide yields.

Under the current foreign-property framework, the minimum value for a foreigner buying an apartment in DKI Jakarta is Rp3 billion.

Now compare that with the apartments behind the listing-based yield data. The median Jakarta studio or one-bedroom in the latest dataset costs about $42,000, while a two-bedroom is roughly $53,700. At current exchange rates, both are nowhere near Rp3 billion.

That is the catch for an overseas buyer. Jakarta may statistically average around 12% gross, yet a foreign investor cannot simply browse all of the apartments used to create that average and buy the cheapest one.

Once we move into apartments above Rp3 billion, purchase prices become much higher relative to normal rents. Yields can still be decent, especially in selected South and Central Jakarta properties, but the 10%-12% citywide headline becomes a poor assumption for the foreign-buyer segment.

Indonesian investors and eligible local buyers therefore have access to a much broader version of the Jakarta yield opportunity.

Can the rupiah wipe out a foreign investor’s Jakarta rental return?

Yes. Currency risk is large enough right now that foreign investors should demand a meaningfully higher Jakarta yield than local buyers.

Bank Indonesia’s latest published JISDOR reference rate has the rupiah around Rp17,770 per US dollar. The currency has weakened enough this year that Bank Indonesia has repeatedly made exchange-rate stability a central reason for keeping policy tight.

For someone whose wealth is measured in dollars or euros, this can overwhelm a modest property return. A landlord may earn 6% in rupiah while the rupiah loses a similar amount against the investor’s home currency. The apartment still generated income locally, but little of that gain survives once converted back.

A 10% gross yield offers a much better cushion. Even then, we would never assume that the yield automatically becomes a 10% dollar return because tax, vacancy and currency movements all sit between those two numbers.

Jakarta’s weaker apartment pricing is one reason rental yields look so strong. The same macro uncertainty that keeps asset prices cheap can also pressure the currency.

That changes the required return for foreigners. We would find a 4%-5% gross rupiah yield difficult to justify purely as a financial investment. Around 8%-10%, the compensation starts looking much more serious.

What gross yield should a Jakarta investor actually demand today?

For a pure rental investment, we would currently want roughly 8% gross as a sensible minimum and preferably 9%-10% or more when the property carries meaningful vacancy, resale or currency risk.

Below 5%, the income case is weak. Rental tax immediately takes 10% of gross rent, normal vacancy pulls the figure lower, and the investor still has maintenance, service charges and transaction costs to absorb.

Between 6% and 8%, the deal can work for a cash buyer if the building is unusually good. A property with reliable tenants, low vacancy, sensible service charges and strong resale demand can justify accepting less income.

Once gross yield reaches 9%-10%, Jakarta becomes much more interesting. There is enough room for a vacant month, rental tax and ordinary operating costs while still leaving a respectable return.

Above 12%, we would become more suspicious rather than automatically more excited. The apartment may simply be very cheap for a reason. Bad management, deteriorating common areas, difficult access, poor title structure, unrealistic advertised rent or weak resale demand can all create an impressive spreadsheet yield.

The threshold changes with property quality. We would happily accept 8% on an excellent apartment before taking 12% on something tenants avoid.

Are rental yields in Jakarta still attractive?

Yes. Jakarta rental yields are still attractive today, and selected apartments currently offer some of the strongest gross income returns among major Asian cities.

The latest evidence is unusually clear. Listing data puts the Jakarta apartment average near 12% gross, with two-bedroom units around 12.3%. Comparable two-bedroom yields are only about 6.3% in Bangkok, 6.4% in Manila and 4.8% in Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia still shows very weak residential price growth, and Colliers reports developers concentrating on existing inventory while Jakarta’s completed apartment stock sits around 232,000 units.

We should still separate the statistical opportunity from the apartment an investor can actually own. Premium Jakarta apartments can yield closer to 4%. Foreigners face a Rp3 billion minimum apartment value that excludes much of the cheap stock behind the citywide double-digit figures. Indonesia also takes 10% of gross rental income in final tax, while vacancy, service charges and rupiah risk cut further into the return.

For a local cash buyer who can genuinely secure 9%-10% gross in a building with proven tenant demand, Jakarta looks very attractive now. Even 8% can work when the property is easy to rent and easy to resell.

Foreign buyers need a higher bar. The properties they can legally access are more expensive, and currency risk adds another layer. A 4%-5% Jakarta yield offers too little compensation in our view. Around 8% starts to make sense, while a verified 9%-10% or better deserves serious attention.

So the answer is firmly positive, but selective. Jakarta remains one of Asia’s most interesting big-city markets for rental income because apartment prices are unusually low relative to rents. The best opportunities are the ones where that advantage survives tax, vacancy, ownership rules and a realistic resale assumption. If the deal still works with zero capital appreciation, we think the yield is genuinely attractive.

Who is the author of this content?

BAMBOOROUTES

A team specialized in real estate investing in APAC countries (Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, etc.).

We are a team of financial experts, legal professionals, developers, and local real estate specialists dedicated to helping people like you avoid mistakes when investing in real estate in a foreign place, particularly in Jakarta. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can check our presentation page.