In 2025 the gross rental yield on a 2 bedroom condo was 3.45% in the rest of central region and 3.12% in the core central region

Gross rental yield is the annual rent divided by the sale price. In 2025 a 2 bedroom condominium had a gross rental yield of 3.45% in the rest of central region (RCR), 3.40% in outside central (OCR) and 3.12% in the core central region (CCR). What a 2 bedroom costs, what it rents for, its rental yield and how big it is are covered in the 2 bedroom condo guide.

The CCR has had the lowest rental yield in every one of the 9 years from 2017 to 2025. Its rental yield was below the OCR's and below the RCR's in every one of those years. Against the OCR the cause is two premiums. In 2025 the price premium of the CCR over the OCR was 53% per square foot and the rent premium was smaller. Rent is the income and price is the cost, so a region whose price premium over the OCR is larger than its rent premium has a lower rental yield than the OCR.

Rental yields peaked in 2023 in every region, when rents rose faster than prices, and have eased since as prices caught up. Each region's rental yield is still higher than it was in 2017. The highest regional rental yield was 3.08% in 2017, 3.96% in 2023 and 3.45% in 2025, and the lowest was 2.88%, 3.33% and 3.12%, so the spread between them widened from 2017 to 2023 and has since narrowed.

What is in this note

• What was the gross rental yield of a 2 bedroom in each region?: the gross rental yield of a 2 bedroom condominium in the core central region (CCR), the rest of central region (RCR) and outside central (OCR) from 2017 to 2025, with the spread between the highest and the lowest.
• What does a 2 bedroom cost per square foot in each region?: the median sale price per square foot of a 2 bedroom condominium in the three regions, with the premium of the core central region over outside central.
• Why does the core central region have the lowest rental yield?: the rent premium and the price premium of the core central region over outside central, set side by side.
• How did rental yields change from 2017 to 2025?: how rents, prices and rental yields changed from 2017 to 2025.

What was the gross rental yield of a 2 bedroom in each region?

Median monthly rent per square foot, annualised, divided by median sale price per square foot, computed within each region and year on projects with both a rental and a sale record for a 2 bedroom. The regions are the core central region (CCR), the rest of central region (RCR) and outside central (OCR). The spread is the highest regional rental yield minus the lowest, in percentage points.

• CCR
• RCR
• OCR

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR	Spread
2017	2.88%	3.08%	3.05%	0.21
2018	2.64%	3.09%	2.91%	0.44
2019	2.63%	3.04%	2.95%	0.41
2020	2.73%	2.97%	3.05%	0.31
2021	2.56%	2.96%	2.98%	0.42
2022	2.87%	3.16%	3.47%	0.60
2023	3.33%	3.74%	3.96%	0.64
2024	3.06%	3.51%	3.46%	0.45
2025	3.12%	3.45%	3.40%	0.33

The CCR has the lowest rental yield in all 9 years. The RCR and the OCR take turns at the top: the RCR led from 2017 to 2019 and again in 2024 and 2025, and the OCR from 2020 to 2023. The highest figure in the table is 3.96% in the OCR in 2023, and the lowest is 2.56% in the CCR in 2021.

The spread between the highest and the lowest regional rental yield widened and then narrowed. In 2017 the rental yields were 2.88% in the CCR, 3.08% in the RCR and 3.05% in the OCR. In 2023, as rents rose fastest in the OCR, they were 3.33%, 3.74% and 3.96%. In 2025, as prices caught up, they were 3.12%, 3.45% and 3.40%. The regions are further apart on rental yield than they were in 2017 and closer together than they were in 2023.

What does a 2 bedroom cost per square foot in each region?

Median transacted price per square foot of a 2 bedroom in the core central region (CCR), the rest of central region (RCR) and outside central (OCR), with the premium of the CCR over the OCR. The rent per square foot these prices are set against is in the note on 2 bedroom rent by region in this series.

• CCR
• RCR
• OCR

Year	CCR	RCR	OCR	CCR over OCR
2017	$1,765	$1,258	$982	80%
2018	$1,851	$1,347	$1,058	75%
2019	$1,816	$1,369	$1,041	75%
2020	$1,782	$1,377	$1,050	70%
2021	$1,880	$1,408	$1,139	65%
2022	$2,055	$1,547	$1,239	66%
2023	$2,075	$1,690	$1,354	53%
2024	$2,168	$1,767	$1,455	49%
2025	$2,272	$1,868	$1,489	53%

Prices rose in every region from 2017 to 2025, and rose most where they started lowest: 52% in the OCR, 48% in the RCR and 29% in the CCR. The premium of the CCR over the OCR in price per square foot narrowed from 80% in 2017 to 53% in 2025, and that of the RCR from 28% to 25%. The premium in rent per square foot also narrowed, because rents and prices in the OCR both rose faster than in the CCR: in 2017 it was 46% for the CCR and 19% for the RCR, and by 2025 it was smaller for both. The regions stayed in the same order. In every year from 2017 to 2025 the price premium of the CCR over the OCR was larger than its rent premium, so the CCR's rental yield was below the OCR's in every year. It was also below the RCR's in every year.

Why does the core central region have the lowest rental yield?

Rent is the income and price is the cost. A region whose price premium over outside central (OCR) is larger than its rent premium has a lower rental yield, because the buyer pays a larger premium up front than the tenant pays back each month. In 2025 a core central region (CCR) 2 bedroom rented for $5.33 per square foot a month against $4.21 in the OCR, and sold for $2,272 per square foot against $1,489, 53% more. The rest of central region (RCR) shows the same pattern on a smaller scale: it rented for $4.78 against $4.21 in the OCR, and sold for $1,868 against $1,489, 25% more. In every year from 2017 to 2025 the price premium of the CCR over the OCR was larger than its rent premium, so the CCR's rental yield was below the OCR's in every year. It was also below the RCR's in every year.

How did rental yields change from 2017 to 2025?

From 2017 to 2021 rental yields stayed within a narrow band, 2.6% to 2.9% in the core central region (CCR) and 2.9% to 3.1% in the other two regions, the rest of central region (RCR) and outside central (OCR), as rents and prices rose together or not at all. In 2022 and 2023 rents rose much faster than prices, and rental yields rose to their 2023 peaks. Prices caught up through 2024 and 2025, and rental yields eased from their 2023 peaks, most in the OCR.

Over the full period rents rose faster than prices in every region, which is why each region's rental yield is higher now than in 2017. Rent per square foot rose 35% in the CCR against a 29% rise in prices, 50% against 48% in the RCR, 57% against 52% in the OCR. The rental yield rose in all three regions, most in the RCR and least in the CCR. The narrowing gap between regions did not move rental yields; they rose because in every region rent rose a little faster than price.

What this tells you

In 2025 the gross rental yield of a 2 bedroom condominium was 3.45% in the rest of central region (RCR), 3.40% in outside central (OCR) and 3.12% in the core central region (CCR). The CCR had the lowest rental yield in every year from 2017 to 2025: below the OCR's and below the RCR's in every year. Its price premium over the OCR was larger than its rent premium in every year, which is why its rental yield was below the OCR's. In 2025 the price premium was 53% per square foot, against a smaller rent premium.

Rental yields peaked in 2023 in every region, at 3.96% in the OCR, 3.74% in the RCR and 3.33% in the CCR, and have eased since. The spread between the highest and the lowest regional rental yield was wider in 2023 than in 2017 or 2025.

From 2017 to 2025 rent rose faster than price in every region, so rental yield rose in every region: from 2.88% in 2017 to 3.12% in 2025 in the CCR, from 3.08% to 3.45% in the RCR and from 3.05% to 3.40% in the OCR.

What this does not tell you

• These are gross rental yields, before maintenance, property tax, agent commission and vacancy. Net figures are lower.
• The rental yield of a region is not the rental yield of a unit. Floor, facing, age and the specific project move a unit's rent and price more than region does.
• A higher rental yield does not by itself make a better investment. The core central region (CCR) has the lowest rental yield in every year of this series, and CCR prices rose anyway; total return is a different question.
• These regional figures use no fixed panel of projects across years and are not directly comparable to the market-wide gross rental yield of 3.29% in the market-wide rental yield article, which does.

Method and data notes. Data to July 2026.

Gross rental yields are computed within each region and year. In this note a region is a URA market segment: the core central region (CCR), the rest of central region (RCR) or outside central (OCR). A project is included when it had at least three rental contracts and three sale transactions for a 2 bedroom, a paired construction, without a fixed-panel requirement across years. Rents use the bedroom count URA records on each rental contract; only the floor area is banded, so rent per square foot uses the midpoint of each 10 sqm band. Sale prices are median transacted price per square foot for 2 bedroom units in the same region and year; the rent and price medians shown are computed on their own populations and will not divide exactly into the rental yield. The spread is computed from the unrounded medians and then rounded, so the same arithmetic done on the rounded figures in the table can differ by a hundredth of a point. A premium printed beside its two components is computed from the components as printed, so dividing the printed figures reproduces it. 2026 is excluded: 7 months of rental data exist. Data to July 2026.

30 October 2026. This note placed homes in market segments by postal district. URA places them by planning area, which moves about one in seven private sales between regions. The figures by region here use the earlier segments and differ from what the same records give now. How regions are set: How we measure prices and sales.