Ask any seller, broker, or builder in India what "rental yield" means and you will get the same answer: monthly rent times 12, divided by the property price. By that math, a ₹1.5 crore flat in Whitefield renting at ₹45,000 a month yields 3.6%. A ₹2.5 crore Powai flat at ₹70,000 yields 3.36%. The investor walks away thinking real estate clears Fixed Deposit territory.
It doesn't. The Brickplot dataset puts the median net rental yield on Indian residential apartments at 2.1% in 2026 — well under a tax-free PPF and barely half of a 12-month FD. The reason almost every yield calculation you see online is wrong is that it leaves out four expenses that hit the landlord every year, plus one tax that hits at exit. The Brickplot Rental Yield Calculator bakes them all in.
The gross-yield trap
Gross yield is the broker's number. Net yield is the real one. Here is what gets stripped out between them:
- Society maintenance. ₹2.5-6 per sq ft per month in apartments. On a 1,400 sq ft 3BHK in a luxury Bangalore society at ₹4.5/sqft, that is ₹75,600 per year — money you collect from the tenant in rent and hand straight to the RWA.
- Property tax. BBMP, BMC, MCG, GHMC each have their own slab. Typically ₹8,000-₹40,000 per year for a mid-segment apartment, with luxury units in BMC limits crossing ₹70,000.
- Vacancy. India's median rental vacancy in 2026 is 4-6 weeks per turnover, and tenants turn over every 18-22 months. That is roughly 5% lost rent per year.
- Repairs & depreciation. Painting, plumbing, kitchen fittings, AC servicing. Standard accounting allowance is 1-1.5% of property value per year for apartments under 10 years old, rising to 2-2.5% past 15 years.
Plus one tax most NRI and resident investors forget: 30% TDS on rent above ₹2.4 lakh/year if your tenant is a company, and the rent itself is taxed at your slab rate (less 30% standard deduction under Section 24(a) + interest deduction).
Walkthrough: using the calculator in 2 minutes
Open brickplot.com/rental-yield-calculator. Eight fields, all optional except the first three.
1. Property purchase price
The all-in number — sale value plus stamp duty plus registration plus brokerage plus any pending dues you settled. Not just the agreement value. A ₹1.5 crore Bangalore apartment with stamp duty + registration + brokerage actually cost you about ₹1.6 crore. Use that.
2. Monthly rent
Honest market rent for the unit today. Not what the previous tenant paid two years ago. Cross-check on NoBroker, Magicbricks listings within 500 metres for the same BHK + furnishing level.
3. City
Pre-fills property tax bands (BBMP, BMC, MCG, GHMC, NMMC, CMC) and typical vacancy patterns. Vacancy in Pune Hinjewadi runs higher than Pune Baner; the calculator knows the difference.
4. Society maintenance (₹ / sq ft / month)
Pull this from the RWA bill or the builder's brochure. Defaults: ₹2.5 for budget, ₹3.5 mid-segment, ₹5+ for luxury (Lodha, Oberoi, Embassy Edge, Prestige White Meadows tier).
5. Carpet area (sq ft)
Carpet — not built-up, not super built-up. The RERA-mandated number on your sale deed. The calculator multiplies maintenance/sqft × carpet to get your annual society outflow.
6. Annual property tax
Optional — if you leave it blank, the calculator estimates from city + property value. If you have the BBMP/BMC bill handy, type the exact number.
7. Loan EMI (if any)
If you bought on a home loan, the principal repaid each year is your savings, but the interest paid is a real cost against rental income. The calculator splits them and shows you "yield against equity actually deployed" — which on a 80%-LTV loan is often negative for the first 5-6 years.
8. Expected annual rent escalation
Default 5%. Rents in tier-1 cities have grown 6-9% CAGR since 2022, but most rental agreements cap at 5-7% per renewal. Don't model 10% unless you have data to back it.
What the output shows
| Metric | What it means |
|---|---|
| Gross yield | The broker's number. Annual rent ÷ purchase price. |
| Net yield (pre-tax) | After maintenance, property tax, vacancy, repairs. This is what hits your bank account. |
| Net yield (post-tax) | After 30% standard deduction + your slab rate. This is what you actually keep. |
| Break-even rent | The monthly rent you'd need to charge for net yield to match a 7% FD. Useful when you're deciding whether to raise rent at renewal or accept tenant pushback. |
| Yield vs Nifty / FD / PPF | Side-by-side bar chart. Honest answer to the "real estate vs everything else" question. |
One actionable tip
If your net post-tax yield comes out below 1.5%, you are not earning rental income — you are paying for the privilege of capital appreciation. That is a defensible investment thesis (Mumbai SoBo, Gurgaon Golf Course Road) but a terrible one for tier-2 city apartments where appreciation has trailed inflation for three years. The calculator's "yield vs appreciation breakeven" line tells you how much price growth you need per year just to match an FD. For most Indian apartments in 2026, that number is 5-7% — and the Brickplot dataset shows median 3-year CAGR in non-prime locations at 2-4%.
The bigger picture
Per the Brickplot dataset, only 14% of Indian residential apartments deliver a post-tax net yield above 3% in 2026. The pockets that do: Pune IT corridors (Hinjewadi, Magarpatta), Hyderabad Gachibowli mid-segment, Bangalore Whitefield + Sarjapur 2BHKs in older 8-12 year buildings, and well-located 1BHKs in BMC limits. Almost nothing in luxury (above ₹2 crore), almost nothing in NCR plot-villa formats, almost nothing in tier-2 cities.
Before you buy a "rental income" property, run the numbers honestly. Open the Brickplot Rental Yield Calculator → Pair it with the Fair Price Calculator to check if you're overpaying on entry, and the Brickplot Score for the project itself — a Wait or Avoid verdict almost always correlates with lower realised rent and longer vacancies down the line.
Brickplot is India's independent real estate verdict portal. We score 1,800+ projects across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Noida and Delhi using an 11-axis mechanical formula. No builder commissions, no sponsored listings.