A property described as a "7% yield" might be a 7% gross yield, a 7% cap rate or a 7% cash-on-cash return. Those are three different claims about three different quantities, and the same property can produce all three at once.
The definitions below are the ones the Property ROI Studio calculates and prints in its own report, so a figure on screen and a figure in an exported PDF mean the same thing.
Definitions
What each one actually divides.
Every one of these is income over a base. What changes is how much has been subtracted from the income, and which base it is measured against.
| Metric | Numerator | Denominator | What it ignores |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross rental yield | Scheduled annual rent | Purchase price | Vacancy, running costs and financing |
| Capitalisation rate | Net operating income | Purchase price | How the purchase was financed |
| Yield on acquisition cost | Net operating income | Purchase price plus buying costs | Financing |
| Cash-on-cash return | Annual cash flow after debt service | Deposit plus buying costs | Nothing about financing — that is the point |
Metric 01
Gross yield is a screening tool, not an answer.
Scheduled rent divided by purchase price. It is quick, it needs two numbers, and it is the figure most often quoted in a listing — because it is the largest of the three and it excludes everything that reduces it.
It is genuinely useful for one thing: filtering a long list quickly. Two properties at 4% and 9% gross are worth different amounts of attention. Beyond that it says nothing, because the property with the higher gross yield may have the service charge, the vacancy risk and the maintenance bill that erase the difference.
Treat it as a reason to look closer, never as a reason to buy.
Metric 02
Cap rate compares properties. It says nothing about your deal.
Net operating income over purchase price. It deliberately excludes financing, which is what makes it comparable: two buyers with different mortgages looking at the same building should compute the same cap rate.
That exclusion is also its limit. It describes the asset, not your position in it. A strong cap rate financed badly is a weak investment, and the cap rate will not tell you so.
The number is only as honest as the expense list behind it. Service charges, management, insurance, maintenance and a realistic vacancy allowance all belong in NOI. Leaving one out raises the cap rate on paper and changes nothing about the building.
Metric 03
Cash-on-cash is the one you actually live with.
Annual cash flow after debt service, divided by the cash you actually put in: deposit plus buying costs. It answers the question the other two avoid — what does this return on the money that left my account?
Leverage is why it can diverge so far from the cap rate. Borrowing at a rate below the cap rate raises cash-on-cash and raises risk with it; borrowing above the cap rate lowers it. A financed purchase can show a modest cap rate and a strong cash-on-cash, or the reverse, and both are correct descriptions of the same property.
It is also the figure that turns negative first. A property can have a perfectly respectable cap rate and negative cash flow, which is a solvency question rather than a returns question.
| Situation | Cap rate | Cash-on-cash | Why they diverge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bought outright | Meaningful | Equals yield on acquisition cost | No debt service, so the two converge |
| Borrowing below the cap rate | Unchanged | Higher | Leverage amplifies the return on your own cash |
| Borrowing above the cap rate | Unchanged | Lower | Debt service exceeds what the asset produces |
| Interest-only period | Unchanged | Temporarily higher | No principal repayment while it lasts |
The rest
Two more that decide whether the deal survives a bad year.
Debt service cover is NOI divided by annual debt service. It is the ratio a lender cares about, and it is undefined when there is no debt — which is a reason to show N/A rather than a number.
Break-even occupancy is the share of scheduled rent needed to cover running costs, debt service and capital expenditure. It converts every other assumption into one question: how empty can this get before it costs me money? A property that breaks even at 60% occupancy and one that breaks even at 92% are different risks at identical yields.
Holding-period return is the total across the whole hold, not an annual rate, and it should never be compared with an annual figure. The Property ROI Studio labels it as a total everywhere it appears for exactly that reason.
Progressive disclosureTechnical Notes
None of these are annualised for you
Gross yield, cap rate and cash-on-cash are annual by construction. Holding-period return is not, and treating it as one will overstate the result by roughly the length of the hold.
No market data is involved
Every figure comes from assumptions you enter. There are no rental averages, no transaction history, no fee schedules and no appreciation forecast anywhere in the calculation.
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