Quick answer: there is no area yield to give you, and the per-area net bands this page used to lead with have been withdrawn. Thailand keeps no letting register, so nobody, including us, can measure what apartments earn in Bang Tao against Patong. What separates the areas is measurable and sits below: Patong runs at 234,561 THB per square metre across 202 priced apartments and Bang Tao at 161,000 across 4,589, which is a 46% premium per metre into a market one twenty-second the depth. Yield is decided at the unit, from documents; the area decides what you pay and who you can sell to.
Area comparison page for the Phuket rental yield guide, methodology and tax sit in the pillar; this page compares districts.
Rental yield is the number every Phuket property investor asks first, and it’s also the number most often quoted misleadingly. Developers advertise gross figures. Management companies promise occupancy rates based on peak season. The reality across Phuket’s six main investment areas is more nuanced, and the difference between choosing the right area and the wrong one can be 2-3 percentage points annually.
This guide breaks down actual rental yield performance by area using 2025-2026 market data, explains what drives the differences, and helps you match your investment goals to the right location.
How Rental Yield Is Calculated in Phuket?
Gross yield = Annual rental income ÷ Purchase price × 100
Net yield = (Annual rental income − all expenses) ÷ Purchase price × 100
Expenses include management fees, typically 20-30% of rental revenue on a nightly programme, plus condo maintenance, utilities, insurance, repairs and the nights that do not sell. Every one of those is quotable before you buy. The income they come off is not, which is the whole reason a gross figure in a brochure cannot be corrected into a net figure on a page: the correction needs a number nobody publishes.
Throughout this guide there are no yield ranges. There were, area by area, and they have been withdrawn: occupancy and achieved nightly rates for privately owned Phuket units are recorded only by the companies managing them and published by nobody, so no area on this island has a measured yield. What each section carries instead is what that area costs and what format it is, from MORE Group’s own price records, plus the management fee, which is quotable in advance.
Area-by-area breakdown
Bang Tao and Laguna
| Bang Tao, from the price records | |
|---|---|
| Priced apartments | 4,589 |
| Median unit | 7,017,150 THB |
| Rate | 161,000 THB per sqm |
| Median size | 46 sqm |
| Typical management fee | 20-25% of gross |
No yield, occupancy or peak-premium row: none of the three is collected for privately owned Phuket units by any Thai body, so the figures this table used to carry were assembled rather than measured. 464 finished of 5,151, the deepest market on the island.
What works well here: branded residences within the Laguna complex command premium nightly rates and benefit from the resort’s own booking engine. Units outside Laguna depend more heavily on OTA channels.
What to watch: The area is large and heterogeneous. A studio on the beach road commands a materially higher nightly rate than one tucked inland, and no published series measures by how much. Location within the area matters enormously, which is why an area average is the wrong tool.
Kamala
Kamala has emerged as one of Phuket’s strongest yield locations over the past three years. The combination of a quieter beach (compared to Patong), proximity to Phuket’s “Beverly Hills” hillside developments, and improving F&B infrastructure has driven both nightly rates and occupancy up.
| Kamala, from the price records | |
|---|---|
| Priced apartments | 699 |
| Median unit | 7,723,650 THB |
| Rate | 156,200 THB per sqm |
| Median size | 47 sqm |
| Typical management fee | 20-28% of gross |
No yield, occupancy or peak-premium row: none of the three is collected for privately owned Phuket units by any Thai body, so the figures this table used to carry were assembled rather than measured. 7 finished of 740; the branded scheme runs at 255,119 per sqm.
Hillside condos in Kamala with sea views carry the area’s clearest view premium, and beachfront units are rarer still. No net figure attaches to either. Occupancy is consistently strong.
Rawai
Rawai sits at Phuket’s southern tip and has a distinct renter profile compared to the northwest coast. It attracts digital nomads, divers, Muay Thai practitioners, and long-term expats, renters who stay weeks or months rather than days.
| Rawai, from the price records | |
|---|---|
| Priced apartments | 1,291 |
| Median unit | 6,818,000 THB |
| Rate | 145,000 THB per sqm |
| Median size | 51 sqm |
| Typical management fee | 18-22% of gross |
No yield, occupancy or peak-premium row: none of the three is collected for privately owned Phuket units by any Thai body, so the figures this table used to carry were assembled rather than measured. 51 finished of 1,372; a median unit above the 35 sqm line.
The lower peak-season premium is partly offset by better low-season retention. Long-stay renters at 30,000-50,000 THB/month provide predictable income with lower management overhead. If you prefer passive income over yield maximisation, Rawai suits that profile.
Surin
Surin occupies the premium segment between Bang Tao and Kamala. It’s arguably Phuket’s most upmarket beach, and the rental market reflects that. Properties here tend to be larger-format, villas, pool residences, branded condos, which affects both the yield range and the renter profile.
| Surin, from the price records | |
|---|---|
| Priced apartments | 108 |
| Median unit | 9,150,000 THB |
| Rate | 155,000 THB per sqm |
| Median size | 60 sqm |
| Typical management fee | 22-30% of gross |
No yield, occupancy or peak-premium row: none of the three is collected for privately owned Phuket units by any Thai body, so the figures this table used to carry were assembled rather than measured. The thinnest market here: 108 priced apartments in four schemes.
The yield range looks similar to Bang Tao, but unit prices in Surin are typically higher, which compresses yield on a per-baht basis. The upside is capital appreciation potential, Surin land prices have moved faster than most areas over the past five years.
Patong
Patong is Phuket’s entertainment hub: high footfall, high turnover, a letting profile dominated by stays of one to four nights. Whether that makes it the island’s highest-yield area is not something anyone can show you, and this page no longer claims it. What the records do show is that Patong is the most expensive metre on the island at 234,561 THB, across just 202 priced apartments in two off-plan schemes, so nothing there is finished and the resale market you would eventually sell into barely exists yet.
| Patong, from the price records | |
|---|---|
| Priced apartments | 202 |
| Median unit | 11,070,000 THB |
| Rate | 234,561 THB per sqm |
| Median size | 53 sqm |
| Typical management fee | 25-35% of gross |
No yield, occupancy or peak-premium row: none of the three is collected for privately owned Phuket units by any Thai body, so the figures this table used to carry were assembled rather than measured. Nothing finished; the island’s dearest metre on two off-plan schemes.
The management fee is higher here because managing high-turnover short stays requires more housekeeping, maintenance, and guest support. Some operators also charge additional booking fees on top of the base percentage.
Who should invest here: investors willing to be active, who have a strong management company relationship, and who are targeting maximum income rather than lifestyle use. Patong is not an area for self-use investors.
Nai Harn
Nai Harn is the quiet achiever of Phuket’s south. The beach is consistently rated among Thailand’s most beautiful, yet property prices remain more accessible than Kamala or Surin. The rental market skews heavily toward longer stays and repeat visitors.
| Nai Harn, from the price records | |
|---|---|
| Priced apartments | 277 |
| Median unit | 6,480,000 THB |
| Rate | 125,000 THB per sqm |
| Median size | 54 sqm |
| Typical management fee | 18-22% of gross |
No yield, occupancy or peak-premium row: none of the three is collected for privately owned Phuket units by any Thai body, so the figures this table used to carry were assembled rather than measured. The cheapest metre of any beach area.
The lower management fee is significant, it reflects the longer average stay length, which reduces operational overhead. For investors who want to use their property personally for 2-3 months per year and rent it the rest, Nai Harn strikes a practical balance.
What Actually Drives Yield Differences?
Floor level and view. A sea view is worth something per night, and the premium this sentence used to quantify has been withdrawn; you can price it yourself in a few minutes by comparing view and non-view listings in the same building on the same dates. Upper floors outperform ground level.
Pool access, Private pool condos command 35-50% nightly rate premiums over non-pool units. Shared pool access is table stakes; it no longer commands a premium.
Furnishing quality, Well-furnished units with kitchen equipment, quality linens, and consistent photography earn 15-25% more on OTAs. This is often overlooked at purchase.
Management company. The same property with two different operators can yield 1-2 percentage points difference in net return. Interview operators before buying, not after.
Building age and condition, Newer buildings (under 8 years) command higher nightly rates and have lower maintenance costs. Older buildings often need capital expenditure that owners underestimate.
Get a Yield Estimate for Your Target Area
MORE Group analysts can model net yield projections for specific properties across all Phuket areas.
Seasonality: The Factor Most Buyers Underestimate
The areas least affected by low season: Rawai and Nai Harn (east-facing beaches get less direct rain), and properties with strong long-stay rental bases.
The areas most affected: Patong and Surin, which depend heavily on peak-season short-stay tourists.
Budget conservatively: take the occupancy from a comparable unit’s own statements rather than from any average, and stress-test it ten points lower. Developers who show you 80% annual occupancy are using peak-season numbers.
Management company selection: why the operator matters more than the area
This paragraph used to attribute occupancy comparisons between operators to MORE Group’s transaction database and a repeat-booking figure to a JLL report. Neither attribution was sound: a transaction database records sales, not occupancy, and the second figure could not be traced to a published source. Both are withdrawn.
What remains true and testable is the mechanism rather than the margin. Two managers in the same building sell the same apartment through different channel mixes, with different review histories and different pricing behaviour, and those differences are visible to you before you appoint one: ask how many distribution channels they list on, what their review scores are on the platforms they use, and whether they price dynamically or hold a flat rate. Then ask the one question that settles it, for twelve months of statements on a unit they manage in that building.
What to ask an operator before signing a management contract:
| Due diligence question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| OTA review scores for units you manage? | Proxy for guest satisfaction and rebooking rate |
| 12-month occupancy data for a comparable unit? | Hard evidence versus projections |
| How many channels do you distribute on? | More channels = better shoulder season coverage |
| What is your dynamic pricing policy? | Static pricing loses 10-15% of revenue in high-demand periods |
| Fee structure: gross vs net? | Determines the real fee basis after OTA commissions |
| Contract termination notice period? | Short notice (30 days) protects you if performance drops |
Area-by-area, the best operators are not always the largest: in Rawai, boutique operators specialising in digital nomad long-stay can outperform hotel-program giants on a monthly-stay yield basis. In Bang Tao, branded programs from Wyndham and Accor offer the most consistent short-stay yield because of their GDS connectivity and loyalty program guest access.
Micro-Location Within Areas: Why 500 Metres Changes the Product
The micro-location factors that consistently move achieved rates:
Bang Tao: buildings within 400 metres of the beach or the Laguna estate boundary ask more per night than buildings a kilometre inland with the same specification, because a guest without a car experiences them as different products. The rate premium this paragraph used to quantify has been withdrawn; the asking prices for both are on any platform today.
Kamala: hillside units with sea views ask more than valley-facing or road-adjacent ones, and the beachfront stock within 200 metres of the sand is limited in supply, which is the durable part of the argument. The percentage premium has been withdrawn.
Surin: the stretch between Surin Beach and the southern end of Layan Beach (approximately 1.5 km) represents Phuket’s highest-density premium short-stay corridor. Buildings outside that strip ask less, by an amount the current listings will show you rather than this page.
Rawai: micro-location matters less for short-stay yield (the market is primarily monthly-stay here), but matters significantly for resale. Rawai properties within 500 meters of the seafront or the Nai Harn Lake promenade transact faster and at higher prices than inland equivalents.
The practical implication is a method rather than a payback period, and the recovery times and cumulative income figures this passage used to give have been withdrawn: each needed an achieved rate for both units, which no source supplies. When you are comparing two Bang Tao condos at $180,000 and $160,000, price both on a booking platform for the same week in January and the same week in August. The difference in asking rate, multiplied by the nights you believe each will sell, is what the $20,000 is buying. If the asking rates are the same, it is buying nothing but the walk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unanswerable, and this page no longer ranks areas by yield: occupancy and achieved nightly rates for privately owned Phuket units are not collected by anyone, so no area has a measured yield. Patong has the strongest short-stay demand driver and the island's dearest metre at 234,561 THB per sqm on only 202 priced units, none finished. However, it also has the highest management fees and operational complexity. Kamala sits between the two on price at 156,200 THB per square metre across 699 priced apartments, which is the comparison this page can actually make.
Significantly, and it is the one side of the calculation you can pin down in advance. A 30% management fee on a property earning 300,000 THB a year is 90,000 THB to the operator before you see anything, and the fee is written into the agreement you sign. Get it in percentage terms and in baht, ask what else is charged separately, cleaning, linen, listing fees, minor repairs below a threshold, and read the clause on how the fee is calculated when a booking comes through the operator's own website rather than a platform.
Not comparable on published data, because none of the three cities has a collected yield series for privately owned units. Phuket has the deepest foreign-buyer market and the strongest short-stay demand of the three, which is a statement about demand rather than return. Koh Samui is comparable but has fewer premium buildings and less established management infrastructure.
A developer guarantee runs for a fixed term at a percentage set in the contract, and it is funded from your own purchase price. They're useful for cash flow planning in early years but shouldn't be the primary investment thesis. Focus on what the property can earn on the open market.
Depends on your goal. Patong maximises income but has limited capital growth. Bang Tao and Kamala offer strong yields alongside genuine appreciation potential. Most investors targeting total return prefer the northwest coast over Patong.
Red flags in any area yield claim
- An area-level yield quoted for a specific unit. Yield is a building-level number; two buildings on the same road diverge by several points on management alone.
- A single annual occupancy figure. Phuket’s year has two distinct halves, and the blended average hides the one that decides your cash flow.
- Gross presented where net is implied. Ask which deductions are included and at what occupancy, then check the arithmetic yourself.
- No hotel licence position. Stays under 30 days are hotel business under the Thai Hotel Act absent a licence, and house rules can prohibit short lets independently. A nightly-rate model is void without both confirmed.
- A guaranteed return with no named counterparty. Ask who pays it, from what revenue, for how many years, and what happens in year six.
- Yields quoted from a period that is not the last twelve months. Ask for the actual trailing year from comparable units, not a strong season.
Insider tip: the fastest way to test any area figure is to ask for the month-by-month occupancy behind it. Managers who have the data produce it in minutes; those who do not have given you a marketing number, and the appropriate response is to build your own model at an occupancy you would be willing to defend to a lender.
Buyer scenarios by area goal
Scenario A, balanced investor: a Bang Tao or Laguna condo with 4-6 weeks of owner use, taken for the resale pool rather than for a return figure: 4,589 priced apartments means comparables exist when you sell. See Bang Tao area guide and Laguna yield analysis.
Scenario B, Long-stay passive: Rawai or Nai Harn with monthly tenant mix. Lower peak ADR but steadier shoulder occupancy. Compare Rawai guide vs west-coast short-stay models.
Scenario C, premium capital play: a Surin villa or branded residence. The scarcity is real, 108 priced apartments in four schemes, and it cuts both ways: it is the argument for the address and the reason a resale has almost nothing to be priced against. Read capital appreciation by area before you underwrite.
How to stress-test any area yield claim
- Occupancy source: Is it operator data from 12 months or peak-season only?
- Fee stack: Does net yield include CAM, commercial electricity, linen, and platform commissions?
- Micro-location: Is the unit beach-walkable or hillside with taxi friction?
Phuket averages hide block-level variance. A Kamala ridge condo and a Patong studio can both quote 9% gross yet land at 6% and 10% net after operations. Use Phuket property prices 2026 to sanity-check entry basis against nightly rate assumptions.
Seasonal cash-flow planning by district
Before you commit to a district, walk the micro-location at two times: peak Saturday traffic and a rainy weekday in September. Yield spreadsheets rarely capture guest frustration from access roads, construction noise, or misleading beach proximity, those show up in reviews and ADR within one season.
Cherng Talay and Laguna: yield nuance north of Patong
Laguna-branded inventory inside the estate costs more per metre than independent Cherng Talay stock and carries a higher management fee, 30-35% of gross against 18-25%, plus an estate service charge on top of the building’s own. Whether the branded booking channel earns that difference back is not published for Phuket, and the yield-compression figure this page used to give has been withdrawn. Treat the premium as a fee-for-distribution trade to be tested against one operator’s statements, not as an established discount or an established advantage.
Who this guide suits?
Three readers, and the yield tables above answer a different question for each.
The yield-first investor. Buying to a target return, indifferent to which beach it is near, and comparing areas on the numbers. Read the tables as a starting shortlist rather than a ranking: the spread within an area is usually wider than the spread between areas, so the building and the management decide more of the outcome than the postcode does.
The lifestyle buyer who also wants it to earn. You already know roughly where you want to be, and the question is what that costs you in return. Owners who need steadier occupancy rather than peak nightly rates are often better served by the long-stay profile of Rawai or Nai Harn than by Patong, where the peaks are higher and the troughs are deeper.
The owner reviewing what they already have. Comparing your actual statements against the area band is the most useful thing on this page. If your unit sits well below its area’s range, the problem is more often the management or the listing than the location, and that is fixable without selling.
One caution that applies to all three. Every figure here is a gross band. Management, estate charges, utilities, vacancy and maintenance come out before anything reaches you, and the gap between gross and net is wider on short-let than on long-let. Use the bands to compare areas against each other, not to plan a household budget.
Olga
Head of Rentals, MORE Group
Runs the rental side at MORE Group: occupancy and rate data from managed Phuket units, management-company selection, and what an owner actually nets after costs.
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