This is for anyone buying a Johor Bahru home to rent out, Malaysian or Singaporean, and for landlords checking their own numbers. The short answer: published surveys put JB gross yields at roughly 5% to 6.5% for high-rise homes, lower for landed houses, and net yield is often about two percentage points below gross. Below is what dated sources say, area by area.
Gross yield and net yield in one minute
Gross yield is a year’s rent divided by the price you paid. Net yield is what is left after the costs of owning and letting the unit, divided by the same price. Most listings quote gross; what reaches your bank account is net.
Global Property Guide says net yields are typically 1.5 to 2 percentage points below gross. CBRE | WTW gave EdgeProp a JB example in October 2026: 6.5% gross falling to about 4% net after maintenance, utilities, agent fees and empty months. To run your own figures, use my rental yield calculator.
What the JB-wide figures say
- Johor Bahru average gross yield: 5.19% for apartments, against a Malaysian average of 5.28% in Q3 2026 (Global Property Guide, September 2026, based on asking rents and prices).
- 5% to 6.5% gross for JB, according to Juwai IQI’s group CEO, quoted by BusinessToday in March 2026.
- About 6% to 8% gross in the nine Johor-Singapore SEZ flagship zones over the past year, against about 5% to 6% for Johor as a whole, according to Savills research reported by Stacked Homes in October 2026.
- 6% to 8% gross in prime city-centre locations, according to CBRE | WTW (EdgeProp, October 2026).
These are asking-rent figures and consultant estimates, not audited returns: a range, not a forecast for your unit.
Rental yield by area in Johor Bahru
| Area | Gross yield reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| JB city centre / Bukit Chagar | 6%–8% gross in prime city-centre spots; condos in the city centre and RTS zones 6%–7% | CBRE | WTW via EdgeProp, Oct 2026; PropertyGuru, Jun 2026 |
| Danga Bay | No published area yield found; one large waterfront development had 824 rental listings on EdgeProp | EdgeProp listing count, checked 17 Oct 2026 |
| Mount Austin / Tebrau | Mount Austin apartments: 4.22% (2-bedroom), 5.52% (3-bedroom); landed in Tebrau 4%–5.5% | Global Property Guide, Sep 2026; PropertyGuru, Jun 2026 |
| Iskandar Puteri (Medini, Puteri Harbour, Bukit Indah) | Serviced apartments in Medini and Iskandar Puteri 6%–7% | PropertyGuru, Jun 2026 |
| Skudai / Tampoi | Skudai: 6.35% (3-bedroom), 5.40% (4+ bedroom); Tampoi: about 6.7% to 8.0% across unit sizes | Global Property Guide, Sep 2026 |
| Permas Jaya | No dated area survey found | — |
| Kulai / Senai | Landed 4%–5.5%; occupancy and yields reported to be improving | PropertyGuru, Jun 2026; CBRE | WTW via EdgeProp, Oct 2026 |
City centre and Bukit Chagar. CBRE | WTW says well-kept units near the CIQ and the future RTS station have low vacancy. A consultancy’s branded EdgeProp article (February 2026) put asking rents near the RTS at RM3,300 and up; treat that as one firm’s view. One reported example: EdgeProp Singapore reported in November 2023 a 700 sq ft, two-bedroom unit on Jalan Abdullah Tahir, about 3.3 km from the RTS station, bought for about RM600,000 and let at RM2,100 a month. Illustration from the cited rent and price: RM2,100 × 12 = RM25,200; RM25,200 ÷ RM600,000 = 4.2% gross. See my Bukit Chagar guide.
Danga Bay. The issue is competition. When I checked, a single large Danga Bay development had 824 rental listings on EdgeProp, out of 10,061 residential rental listings across Johor Bahru. NAPIC data cited by EdgeProp also shows 10,349 completed serviced apartment and SoHo units unsold in Johor in 1Q2026, almost all in JB. When hundreds of similar units chase the same tenants, the cheapest landlord sets the rent.
Mount Austin and Tebrau. Mount Austin apartment yields sit below the JB average in Global Property Guide’s data; this mature, family area suits landed homes that let steadily at lower yields.
Iskandar Puteri. Medini and Puteri Harbour are mostly serviced apartments, where the overhang above matters; Bukit Indah is more landed and owner-occupied.
Skudai and Tampoi. Older, cheaper stock and student and workforce tenants give some of the higher published percentages, but a low price does not keep a unit let.
Permas Jaya. I found no dated rent survey, so I give no figure. Ask for signed rents in the exact block before you buy.
Kulai and Senai. CBRE | WTW says occupancy and yields here are improving, helped by industrial and data centre investment. See my Kulai and Senai guide.
The costs that cut net yield in JB
- Maintenance fees and sinking fund on condos and serviced apartments, paid every month whether the unit is let or not. See my guide to maintenance fees and sinking fund.
- Vacancy. One empty month a year takes about 8% off your gross rent.
- Agent fee. The Board of Valuers’ scale caps the letting fee at 1.25 months’ gross rent for a tenancy of up to three years, with a minimum of one month.
- Furnishing and repairs, which wear out.
- Quit rent, assessment and insurance.
- Income tax on rent. Non-residents and Singapore owners should read my guide to rental income tax on JB property.
Illustration from the cited rent and price above: take RM25,200 a year, minus one vacant month (RM2,100) and a one-month agent fee (RM2,100). That leaves RM21,000, or 3.5% of RM600,000, before maintenance, quit rent, assessment, insurance, repairs and tax.
Who rents in Johor Bahru
- Cross-border workers. Singapore’s checkpoints handled close to 245 million travellers in 2025, a record, with about three-quarters moving through the land crossings with Malaysia (ICA figures reported by SCMP, February 2026).
- Young professionals working for data centre, manufacturing and services investors (CBRE | WTW via EdgeProp, October 2026).
- Students near campuses, especially around Skudai.
- Corporate tenants and expatriates, the main demand in the SEZ flagship zones according to Savills.
Short-term rental (Airbnb) in Johor
I found no Johor-specific short-term rental law. National guidelines are still in final review with the tourism ministry, Housing Minister Nga Kor Ming said in October 2026. Check your building’s strata by-laws and ask the local council about licensing before listing.
What I would watch before buying for yield
CBRE | WTW warns that today’s tight rental market partly reflects a lull in completions, and that new supply from 2027 could slow rent growth, with about 60,000 high-rise units in Johor’s pipeline. So I judge a purchase on signed rents today, not hoped-for RTS rents, and compare it with subsale prices on my JB condo listings page. Rents and yields change, and no area promises a return.
Questions about your situation?
Send me the area, price and quoted rent, and I will help you work out a realistic net yield.
Sources: Global Property Guide, “Gross rental yields in Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur and 7 other areas”, September 2026; EdgeProp, “Johor adds 115,000 homes to meet demand fuelled by industrial, RTS, JS-SEZ”, October 2026; Stacked Homes, “Johor-Singapore SEZ Property Prices Are Up 7–9% — But Investors Still Face One Big Risk”, October 2026; PropertyGuru, “Rental Yield Trends in Malaysia 2026: Where Are Returns Rising?”, June 2026; BusinessToday, “Johor Named Malaysia’s Top Property Investment Hotspot For 2026”, March 2026; EdgeProp (branded content by Far Capital), “How to reap Johor Bahru’s ripe opportunities without getting burned if the bubble bursts”, February 2026; EdgeProp Singapore, “Progress of RTS Link fuels boom in Johor Bahru properties”, November 2023; South China Morning Post, “Cross-border trips to Johor push Singapore checkpoint traffic to record high in 2025”, February 2026; EdgeProp, “Residential properties for rent in Johor Bahru (listing count)”, accessed October 2026; EdgeProp, “Condominium properties for rent at Country Garden @ Danga Bay (listing count)”, accessed October 2026; Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers (LPPEH), “Scale of fees”, accessed October 2026; Media Selangor, “Short-term rental guidelines at final review stage — Minister”, October 2026; New Straits Times, “New rules coming for Airbnb-style stays”, July 2025
Jason Lim, REN 84424, IQI Realty Sdn. Bhd. E (1) 1584/6. General information checked on 17 October 2026, not legal, tax or financial advice.