What a Malaysian property actually yields
A home in Sabah returns about 6.3% a year in rent against what buyers there actually paid. In Putrajaya the same calculation gives 3.4%. The gap is not that Putrajaya rents badly — it is that buying there costs 78% more while the rent does not follow.
Ask AI about yieldsWhy this number is not the one you have seen elsewhere
A yield is rent over price, and everyone publishing one in Malaysia takes both sides from the same listings — an asking rent divided by an asking price, describing a transaction nobody made. The rents below are asking rents, because that is what a rental market is. The prices are the median of every sale registered with JPPH in that state: what buyers paid, and lodged.
Gross, not net. Gross, not net: before vacancy, maintenance, management, assessment, quit rent and financing. The rent is what landlords are asking today; the price is the median of everything registered, so the two sides are not the same moment.
Gross yield by state
Whole homes only — rooms, shop lots, offices and warehouses are excluded, because a room advertised at RM240 and a warehouse at RM108,000 are not the thing being bought. States with fewer than 15 advertised homes are left out rather than published thin.
What this does not say
- It is not a return. Vacancy, maintenance, management, assessment, quit rent and financing all come out of the rent before anything reaches you.
- A state median mixes every property type and every district in it. A condominium in the state capital and a terrace two hours away are both in this figure.
- Asking rents are what landlords want, not what tenants agreed. Achieved rents are lower, and there is no public register of them.
- The two sides are different moments: rents are advertised today, the price median spans every sale on record.
Run your own numbers in the rental yield calculator, which takes vacancy and operating costs and reports a net figure as well as a gross one.