A flat bought to let earns its keep from the rent. The rental yield says how hard the money works: a year's rent as a share of the price. It's the quickest way to compare a flat in Ostrava with one in Prague 8, and the first figure any landlord should know. This guide explains gross and net yield, shows where yields are highest right now and goes through what an owner pays out of the rent.
Gross yield in one line
Gross yield is a year's rent divided by the price, times 100. Take an example flat asking 6,000,000 Kč that would let for 20,000 Kč a month: 20,000 × 12 is 240,000 Kč a year, and 240,000 ÷ 6,000,000 is 4 %.
Gross yield is easy to compare because it needs only two figures, and every listing shows them. But it leaves out everything the owner pays, so treat it as a first filter, not an answer. Bytky works it out for every town and district from the median asking rent and the median asking price of flats of the same size, so a two-room flat is compared with two-room flats.
Where yields are highest right now
The table ranks Czech towns by the gross yield of a two-room flat, from today's listings. Each column heading opens the full rankings, sorted by that column, with every part of Prague and the neighbourhoods of the big cities.
A high yield usually comes with a low price, and a low price has its reasons: fewer jobs, older buildings, or a slower market when you want to sell. Where prices are high, yields tend to be lower, partly because buyers expect prices to keep rising. Compare yields within a town as well as between towns, and look at how long flats stay listed there.
These are the two-room flats for sale in Ostrava with the highest gross yield, each from its own price and the rent similar flats nearby ask:
From gross to net: what the owner pays
Not all of the rent is yours. The tenant pays the charges for the building's services, but the owner pays these out of the rent:
| Cost | Typically | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Repair fund (fond oprav) | 10–50 Kč per m² a month, 15–20 Kč in the middle | The building's owners, by a vote1 |
| Building administration (správa domu) | 150–300 Kč a flat a month | The building's administrator |
| Insurance of the flat | About 2,000 Kč a year | Your insurer |
| Property tax | By floor area and town, below | The law and the town |
| Empty months | About one a year between tenants | The market |
Many landlords also set aside 5–10 % of the rent for repairs inside the flat, and an agency that manages the flat for you typically takes 8–12 % of the rent.
Property tax on a flat is its floor area × 1.22 × 3.50 Kč × a coefficient by the town's size, from 1.0 in a village to 3.5 in a city of over 50,000 and 4.5 in Prague, × any local coefficient the town sets.2 For a 60 m² flat in Prague that's 60 × 1.22 × 3.50 × 4.5, about 1,153 Kč a year before a local coefficient.
Net yield is what's left of a year's rent after these costs, divided by what you paid for the flat, including the costs of buying it.
Tax on rent
Income from letting is taxed at 15 %, and at 23 % on the part of your whole tax base above 36 times the average wage: 1,762,812 Kč in 2026.3 Each year you choose how to count your expenses:
- Flat-rate expenses: 30 % of the rent, up to 600,000 Kč a year, with no receipts.
- Actual expenses: the costs you can prove, plus depreciation of the flat. A flat is in depreciation group 5: written off over 30 years, 1.4 % of its price in the first year and 3.4 % in each year after. The land under it can't be depreciated.
A loss from letting under actual expenses can be deducted over the next five years. If the rent is your only income, the basic taxpayer credit of 30,840 Kč a year comes off the tax. Letting a flat you own isn't self-employment, so no social or health insurance is due on the rent.
Financing: what ČNB allows
Most landlords buy with a mortgage. ČNB, the Czech central bank, limits a mortgage to 80 % of the property's value, or 90 % for buyers under 36 buying their own home. For a flat bought to let, or a third flat and beyond, it has recommended since 1 April 2026 a loan of at most 70 % of the value, and total debts of at most seven times your net yearly income.4 The average rate on new housing loans was 4.94 % in August 2026, by ČNB's figures. Your bank's offer will differ.
A mortgage cuts both ways. It lets you buy with less of your own money, but its interest comes out of the rent, and when the fixation ends (most often after five years) the rate is agreed again.
Run the numbers for one flat
The calculator works out the cash flow, the tax and the return for one flat, year by year. Here it starts from the example flat above. Change the price, the size and the rent to the flat you're looking at.
Cashflow nach Steuern−5.561 Kč im Monat
Bruttomietrendite4,0 %
Was dabei herauskommt
Kostet dich 5.561 Kč im Monat bei einer Miete von 20.000 Kč; Break-even-Miete 26.025 Kč.
- Cashflow nach Steuern
- −5.561 Kčim Monat
- Vor Steuern: −5.561 Kč im Monat
- Bruttomietrendite
- 4,0 %
- Nettomietrendite
- 3,4 %
- Rendite auf das eingesetzte Kapital
- −3,7 %
- Break-even-Miete
- 26.025 Kč
- Schuldendienstdeckung
- 0,75×
- Monatliche Rate
- 22.393 Kč
- Benötigtes Startkapital
- 1.817.000 Kč
Einkommensteuer: 0 Kč im Jahr. Über 10 Jahre gerechnet kostet die Methode „Tatsächliche Ausgaben“ 232.500 Kč weniger Steuer als die andere.
What is a good rental yield in Czechia?
There's no single answer. It depends on the town, the size of the flat and how much risk you accept. Compare a flat's gross yield with the median for its town and size in Bytky's rankings, then work out its net yield.
Is gross yield the same as profit?
No. Gross yield leaves out the repair fund, the building's administration, insurance, property tax, empty months, income tax and the mortgage. The net yield and the calculator's cash flow take them into account.
Do I pay social and health insurance on rent?
No. Letting a flat you own isn't self-employment, so only income tax is due on the rent.
How much can I borrow for a flat to let?
ČNB recommends that banks lend at most 70 % of the value of a flat bought to let, and that your total debts stay below seven times your net yearly income. Your bank decides within those limits.
Sources
-
Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1180. ↩
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Property Tax Act (Act 338/1992 Coll.), §10 and §11, as amended from 2024. ↩
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Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §9, §16, §31 and §35ba; Government Regulation 365/2025 Coll. ↩
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Czech National Bank, recommended limits for investment mortgages from 1 April 2026, left unchanged on 4 June 2026. ↩
