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What rental yield can an apartment get in Puerto Vallarta?

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SUMMARY

A Puerto Vallarta apartment can currently generate roughly 4% to 6.5% gross on a normal long-term lease, while a well-bought vacation rental can reach around 6% to 10% gross before operating costs.

The biggest divide is not really between good and bad neighborhoods. It is between acquisition price and the rental strategy that makes the best use of what made the apartment expensive in the first place.

Versalles currently has one of the better long-term setups. Its relatively moderate purchase prices and stronger rents produce an implied gross yield around 6.4%, while individual compact units bought well can do materially better.

Marina Vallarta produces higher rents in absolute terms, but buyers also pay much more for the apartment. Once purchase price is included, its long-term yield lands at roughly the same level as Versalles rather than dramatically above it.

Zona Romántica shows the opposite problem. Long-term tenants do not fully compensate owners for the large tourism premium embedded in purchase prices, which can push conventional gross yields below 4% even in one of Puerto Vallarta's most desirable locations.

Short-term renting can unlock that tourism premium, but gross Airbnb revenue is a poor proxy for what the owner keeps. Management, HOA fees, utilities, maintenance and insurance can turn an 8% advertised gross yield into something closer to 4% or 5% before owner-specific tax.

Small apartments can break away from neighborhood averages because rent does not increase proportionally with floor area. That is why a carefully bought one-bedroom can occasionally reach 8% or 9% gross even when the surrounding neighborhood averages closer to 6%.

Puerto Vallarta still has plenty of tourist demand. The more important issue now is pricing power: current short-term-rental data show healthy occupancy alongside weaker ADR and RevPAR, so investors should not assume rising nightly rates will rescue an expensive purchase.

Medium-term furnished rentals deserve more attention than they usually get. In Versalles or Marina Vallarta, a stable one-to-six-month tenant can sometimes leave the owner with a similar operating return to Airbnb while avoiding much of the management cost and turnover.

A useful benchmark is simple: an apartment earning MXN 20,000 a month needs to cost around MXN 4 million to produce a 6% gross long-term yield. At MXN 5 million, the same rent gives only 4.8%.

The best income deals are therefore more likely to be compact MXN 3–4 million apartments with strong rent-to-price ratios than expensive trophy condos. Around 6% gross long term or 7% to 8%+ gross short term is a sensible target; anything substantially higher needs to be demonstrated property by property.

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What rental yield can an apartment get in Puerto Vallarta today?

A Puerto Vallarta apartment can currently generate roughly 4% to 6.5% gross on a normal long-term lease, while a strong vacation rental can reach around 6% to 10% gross before operating costs.

Those ranges are wide because Puerto Vallarta has several rental markets running at the same time. A local tenant signing a one-year lease, a Canadian staying for three months and a tourist booking five nights in Zona Romántica put very different values on the same apartment.

The latest neighborhood data from Propiedades.com make the long-term side relatively easy to frame. Versalles and Marina Vallarta currently work out at around 6.4% to 6.5% gross when we compare monthly rent per square meter with sale price per square meter. 5 de Diciembre is closer to 4.3%, Zona Hotelera Norte around 4.1%, and Emiliano Zapata roughly 3.7%.

Vacation rentals have more upside, although the headline revenue can be misleading. AirDNA's latest broad Puerto Vallarta dataset tracks 6,496 active short-term rentals with average annual revenue around US$31,400, 57% occupancy and a US$175 average daily rate. Once management, HOA fees, utilities, maintenance and vacancy enter the calculation, several percentage points can disappear.

The range an investor should expect depends heavily on how the apartment will actually be rented.

Puerto Vallarta rental strategy Rough gross-yield range What a good deal can look like Main catch
Long-term lease ~4–6.5% ~6%+ Lower upside
Small high-yield long-term unit ~6–9% ~7–9% Very property-specific
Vacation rental ~6–10% ~7–8%+ Higher operating costs
Professionally managed vacation rental Often ~3–6% net before owner tax ~5–6% net Management and HOA eat into revenue
Furnished medium-term rental Often ~5–7% Around ~6%+ Less peak-season upside

What does a normal long-term apartment actually yield in Puerto Vallarta?

A normal Puerto Vallarta long-term rental currently looks like a mid-single-digit investment, with roughly 4% to 6.5% gross being a much more believable expectation than 8% or 10%.

We get a useful comparison from Propiedades.com's latest neighborhood data. Instead of dividing each area's headline median rent by its headline median sale price, we compared monthly rent per square meter with sale price per square meter. That reduces the distortion caused by different apartment sizes appearing in the two datasets.

Versalles comes out at roughly 6.4% gross: MXN 234 in monthly rent per square meter against a sale value of about MXN 43,800 per square meter. Marina Vallarta reaches around 6.5%, using MXN 261 in monthly rent against roughly MXN 48,300 per square meter.

The drop after those two neighborhoods is quite sharp. 5 de Diciembre works out near 4.3%, while Zona Hotelera Norte lands around 4.1%. Emiliano Zapata, which includes much of the area buyers associate with Zona Romántica, falls to about 3.7%.

These are asking-price calculations rather than closed transaction yields, so they are better used as market benchmarks than promises. Still, they show something useful: strong tourism does not automatically turn an ordinary Puerto Vallarta apartment into a high-yield investment.

Neighborhood Monthly rent / m² Sale price / m² Implied gross long-term yield
Marina Vallarta MXN 261 MXN 48,300 ~6.5%
Versalles MXN 234 MXN 43,800 ~6.4%
5 de Diciembre MXN 211 MXN 58,400 ~4.3%
Zona Hotelera Norte MXN 171 MXN 50,200 ~4.1%
Emiliano Zapata MXN 244 MXN 79,700 ~3.7%

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Versalles went from a quiet grid of local streets to a wall of new towers in five years, and the rents never followed. Where asking prices sit furthest from what places really earn and resell for.

Can a small Puerto Vallarta apartment really yield 8% or 9%?

Yes, a small Puerto Vallarta apartment can reach an 8% or even 9% gross rental yield, although that usually comes from finding the right unit rather than choosing the right city.

Compact apartments often rent for much more per square meter than larger ones. A tenant might happily pay MXN 20,000 or MXN 22,000 for a well-located one-bedroom but would rarely pay twice as much for twice the floor area. Purchase prices generally scale more closely with size, so smaller units can produce a better rent-to-price ratio.

Recent property-level research from TheLatinvestor illustrates the effect. Its current modeling for Versalles includes a one-bedroom at roughly MXN 2.4 million renting for around MXN 19,000 a month. That works out at approximately 9.5% gross.

We would treat the exact percentage cautiously because it comes from a modeled property example rather than a neighborhood-wide average. The broader Propiedades.com data put Versalles closer to 6.4% gross.

That gap is useful. It shows how much can be gained by buying a compact unit below the neighborhood's typical acquisition cost.

Some apparently spectacular neighborhood yields deserve even more caution. La Floresta, for example, recently screened at above 9% using rent and sale prices per square meter, but the rental dataset contained only one active apartment. One odd listing can completely bend a tiny sample.

For investors chasing 8%+, the search therefore needs to happen apartment by apartment. City averages will rarely hand it to them.

Is Versalles the best place in Puerto Vallarta for rental yield right now?

Versalles currently looks like one of Puerto Vallarta's strongest neighborhoods for investors who care more about rental return than beachfront prestige.

The latest Propiedades.com data show a median apartment asking price around MXN 3.94 million and a median long-term rent close to MXN 19,675 per month. On a square-meter basis, that works out at about 6.4% gross.

The recent direction is even more interesting. Since early 2025, median apartment asking prices in Versalles have fallen about 12.5% while rents have risen roughly 14.1%.

That improves yield from both sides at once. Buyers are being asked to pay less while tenants are being asked to pay more.

Versalles also sits in an unusual middle ground. The neighborhood has restaurants, cafés and a growing lifestyle scene, while remaining close to the Hotel Zone and major services. That gives landlords several possible audiences: locals, expats, remote workers, medium-term residents and tourists.

Independent rental research also keeps Versalles near the top. Recent vacation-rental estimates generally place gross STR yields around 5.5% to 7%, while individual small apartments can do better on a long-term basis.

The overlap is what makes the neighborhood interesting. Several different rental strategies can work without forcing the buyer to pay Zona Romántica prices.

Versalles metric Latest indication
Median apartment asking price ~MXN 3.94M
Sale price / m² ~MXN 43,800
Median monthly apartment rent ~MXN 19,675
Monthly rent / m² ~MXN 234
Implied long-term gross yield ~6.4%
Change in asking sale price since early 2025 -12.5%
Change in asking rent since early 2025 +14.1%

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Does Marina Vallarta's high rent mean it gives the best yield?

Marina Vallarta currently produces some of Puerto Vallarta's highest monthly rents, but its rental yield is only slightly above Versalles because apartments cost much more to buy.

Propiedades.com's latest numbers put the median Marina Vallarta apartment rent around MXN 34,431 per month. Versalles is below MXN 20,000.

The purchase-price gap is just as large. A typical Marina apartment is currently listed around MXN 7.24 million, compared with roughly MXN 3.94 million in Versalles.

When we control for apartment size, Marina still looks solid. Monthly rents average about MXN 261 per square meter against an asking sale value near MXN 48,300 per square meter. That produces roughly 6.5% gross.

Versalles reaches around 6.4%.

The recent trajectory gives Versalles a clearer edge. Marina Vallarta asking prices have increased about 7.8% since early 2025 while rents have fallen about 4.5%. Versalles has moved the other way.

Marina can still be a good investment. Larger furnished apartments in particular can work well for seasonal residents and medium-term tenants. Buyers just should not assume that a MXN 35,000 monthly rent automatically means a huge return.

Why can Zona Romántica have weak long-term yields even though tourists love it?

Zona Romántica can produce surprisingly weak long-term rental yields because buyers pay a huge premium for tourism value that a twelve-month tenant does not fully pay back.

The numbers around Emiliano Zapata, which covers much of the wider Zona Romántica area, make that clear. Propiedades.com's latest data put apartment values around MXN 79,700 per square meter.

Long-term rents average roughly MXN 244 per square meter each month.

That gives us an implied gross yield of only about 3.7%.

Versalles currently produces roughly 6.4% using the same calculation.

Yet Zona Romántica remains one of the city's strongest tourist locations. Visitors are paying for walkability, restaurants, nightlife, Los Muertos Beach and the ability to stay in the middle of Puerto Vallarta's most active visitor district.

Those advantages are monetized much more efficiently by the night than through an ordinary annual lease.

A buyer paying a large Zona Romántica premium and then renting the condo long term is leaving part of what made the apartment expensive unused.

For a long-term landlord, that is a poor starting point. For a short-term operator, the economics can look much better.

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Versalles went from a quiet grid of local streets to a wall of new towers in five years, and the rents never followed. Where asking prices sit furthest from what places really earn and resell for.

How much can an Airbnb apartment make in Puerto Vallarta now?

A competitive Puerto Vallarta Airbnb can currently earn around US$30,000 a year before expenses, while strong properties can go materially higher.

AirDNA's latest broad Puerto Vallarta market shows 6,496 active short-term rentals generating average annual revenue of about US$31,400. Average occupancy is 57%, and the average booked nightly rate is US$175.

Those figures give us a useful market scale, but US$31,400 should not be treated as the income every two-bedroom condo can expect.

AirDNA itself currently publishes another Puerto Vallarta geography with only 269 listings. That smaller sample shows average annual revenue around US$38,000, occupancy around 55% and an average daily rate above US$400.

The huge difference between the two AirDNA geographies is a warning about market definitions. Property type, geographic boundaries, bedroom count and listing quality can all change the headline result.

Other rental-data providers have also produced different Puerto Vallarta estimates, sometimes by a wide margin.

For underwriting, comparable apartments in the same neighborhood, with similar bedrooms, views, amenities and building rules, are much more useful than a citywide average. The broad figure is best treated as a reality check.

Current local brokerage benchmarks generally put a well-managed Puerto Vallarta vacation condo around 6% to 10% gross yield. Reaching the top of that range requires a strong combination of purchase price and rental performance.

Is Puerto Vallarta's Airbnb market actually getting stronger?

Puerto Vallarta still has strong short-term-rental demand, although the latest Airbnb numbers do not show a clean boom.

AirDNA's broad market dataset currently reports average revenue per active listing up more than 60% year over year and occupancy up 14%.

At first glance, that looks spectacular.

The rest of the dataset is much less flattering. Active listings are down almost 50%, the average daily rate is down roughly 18%, and revenue per available night is down about 11%.

Meanwhile, AirDNA's smaller Puerto Vallarta geography shows annual revenue up only 1.1%, occupancy almost flat and RevPAR down about 10.5%.

Those two datasets clearly describe different pools of properties, so their growth rates should not be mashed together as though they track exactly the same market.

The more useful overlap is that tourists are still booking Puerto Vallarta heavily while pricing power has softened.

Continued vacation-rental demand therefore looks reasonable to underwrite. Rapid nightly-rate growth rescuing an expensive purchase does not.

Latest AirDNA metric Broad Puerto Vallarta market Smaller Puerto Vallarta geography
Active listings 6,496 269
Annual revenue ~US$31.4K ~US$38K
Occupancy 57% 55%
Average daily rate US$175 US$407
Revenue growth YoY +62.8% +1.1%
RevPAR growth YoY -11.1% -10.5%
Main takeaway Large composition change Much steadier revenue

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Which Puerto Vallarta neighborhoods give the best Airbnb yield?

5 de Diciembre and Versalles currently look more attractive for percentage returns than Puerto Vallarta's most expensive luxury districts.

Recent neighborhood modeling from HOMIA puts vacation-rental gross yields around 6.5% to 7.7% in 5 de Diciembre and roughly 5.5% to 7% in Versalles.

Zona Romántica comes in closer to 5% to 6.5%, while Marina Vallarta is around 4.5% to 6%. Amapas and Conchas Chinas also tend to sit around 4.5% to 6%.

The hierarchy can feel counterintuitive because luxury areas often charge the highest nightly rates.

Purchase price explains most of it.

Propiedades.com's latest numbers put a typical Versalles apartment around MXN 3.94 million and 5 de Diciembre around MXN 5.55 million. Emiliano Zapata is closer to MXN 7.49 million, while Amapas is around MXN 9.84 million.

A high-end Amapas apartment can earn far more rental revenue in pesos or dollars than a Versalles one-bedroom. The buyer may also have paid more than twice as much to own it.

For investors focused on yield, 5 de Diciembre and Versalles deserve more attention than their prestige ranking would suggest.

Zona Romántica remains compelling when the goal is absolute vacation-rental revenue, walkability and resale appeal to foreign buyers. Percentage return is a different contest.

How much do management, HOA fees and taxes cut an Airbnb yield in Puerto Vallarta?

A professionally managed Puerto Vallarta Airbnb can easily lose three or four percentage points between its advertised gross yield and the owner's real operating return.

Management is usually the first big deduction. Local operators commonly charge around 18% to 25% of gross short-term-rental revenue, while some full-service arrangements reach 30%.

Imagine a US$300,000 apartment producing US$24,000 a year. The headline gross yield is 8%.

A 20% manager removes US$4,800, leaving US$19,200. Add US$3,000 in annual HOA fees and the income falls to US$16,200. Another US$1,500 for owner-paid utilities and insurance brings it to US$14,700. A US$1,200 maintenance and replacement reserve leaves US$13,500.

The operating yield has now fallen to 4.5% before the owner's personal income-tax position.

Taxes require a separate calculation because the Mexican system does not reduce every owner's return in exactly the same way. Jalisco applies a lodging tax to short stays, Mexican VAT rules can apply, and digital platforms can withhold ISR from accommodation income. Airbnb also warns that hosts without a valid Mexican RFC can face materially higher withholding.

For comparing two properties, it is cleaner to calculate operating yield after management, HOA, utilities, insurance and maintenance first. The owner's specific tax structure can then be layered on top.

US$300K vacation condo example Annual amount Yield on purchase price
Gross rental revenue US$24,000 8.0%
After 20% management US$19,200 6.4%
After US$3,000 HOA US$16,200 5.4%
After US$1,500 utilities + insurance US$14,700 4.9%
After US$1,200 maintenance reserve US$13,500 4.5%
Operating income before owner-specific tax US$13,500 4.5%

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Can a furnished monthly rental beat Airbnb in Puerto Vallarta?

A furnished one-to-six-month rental can beat Airbnb on actual owner return in Puerto Vallarta when nightly rates are only average and management costs are high.

The medium-term model works particularly well in places such as Versalles and Marina Vallarta, where landlords can attract winter residents, remote workers, retirees and people testing Puerto Vallarta before moving permanently.

The gross revenue ceiling is usually lower than a successful Airbnb during peak season. The cost structure is much lighter.

A US$300,000 apartment rented for US$2,000 a month produces US$24,000 with twelve occupied months, equivalent to an 8% gross yield.

Ten occupied months produce US$20,000, or about 6.7%.

Compare that with an Airbnb grossing US$30,000. A 20% management fee alone removes US$6,000. Extra utility usage, turnovers, cleaning coordination and wear can narrow the remaining gap quickly.

Owners who manage Airbnb themselves can preserve much more of the short-term-rental upside. Investors looking for something close to passive income face a different calculation.

For the right apartment, a stable furnished tenant paying by the month can simply be a better business than chasing every available tourist night.

Is Puerto Vallarta tourism still strong enough to support rental investors?

Puerto Vallarta still has enough tourism to support a large vacation-rental market, and weak demand is currently far from the main concern for apartment investors.

Puerto Vallarta's airport handled about 6.95 million passengers in 2025, another record and roughly 38% above the 2019 level.

International traffic alone reached around 3.82 million passengers.

That international depth is particularly important for apartment owners because Puerto Vallarta draws heavily from the United States and Canada, two markets that generate winter stays and relatively high accommodation spending.

Air connectivity remains broad as well. Recent airport planning data showed hundreds of weekly frequencies linking Puerto Vallarta with more than 50 destinations across Mexico, the United States and Canada, with additional capacity still being added.

The rental numbers show the same depth. AirDNA's large current dataset still reports 57% occupancy across thousands of active short-term rentals.

The pressure point is increasingly the price operators can charge for each available night. As seen above, AirDNA currently shows RevPAR declining despite healthy occupancy.

Puerto Vallarta still has the tourists. Investors now have to compete harder for how much those tourists spend on each individual apartment.

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What purchase price do you need to get a 6% rental yield in Puerto Vallarta?

A Puerto Vallarta apartment needs to cost no more than roughly 200 times its sustainable monthly rent to produce a 6% gross long-term rental yield.

The calculation is simple enough to use before looking at any detailed investment model.

An apartment renting for MXN 20,000 a month produces MXN 240,000 a year. At a MXN 4 million purchase price, that is exactly 6% gross.

If the seller wants MXN 5 million for the same apartment, the gross yield drops to 4.8%.

For a 7% target, that MXN 20,000 rent supports a purchase price of only about MXN 3.43 million.

For 8%, the maximum falls to MXN 3 million.

This shortcut explains why two equally attractive Puerto Vallarta apartments can make completely different investments. Negotiating MXN 500,000 off the purchase price changes the yield permanently. Hoping for MXN 500 more in monthly rent barely moves it.

Sustainable monthly rent Price for 5% gross Price for 6% gross Price for 7% gross Price for 8% gross
MXN 15,000 MXN 3.60M MXN 3.00M MXN 2.57M MXN 2.25M
MXN 20,000 MXN 4.80M MXN 4.00M MXN 3.43M MXN 3.00M
MXN 25,000 MXN 6.00M MXN 5.00M MXN 4.29M MXN 3.75M
MXN 30,000 MXN 7.20M MXN 6.00M MXN 5.14M MXN 4.50M
MXN 35,000 MXN 8.40M MXN 7.00M MXN 6.00M MXN 5.25M

How hard is it to make a real 6% net yield from a Puerto Vallarta Airbnb?

A real 6% net operating yield from a Puerto Vallarta Airbnb is achievable today, although expensive condos need much stronger revenue than citywide averages to get there.

Take a US$300,000 apartment. A 6% net target means the owner needs US$18,000 in annual operating income.

If operating costs consume 30% of gross revenue, the apartment needs roughly US$25,700 in bookings.

At a 40% expense ratio, it needs US$30,000.

At 45%, gross revenue must reach about US$32,700.

That range sits surprisingly close to AirDNA's current broad-market average of US$31,400.

A US$300,000 apartment performing around the market average could therefore approach a 6% net operating yield if its costs remain disciplined.

Now change the purchase price to US$500,000.

The owner needs US$30,000 of net operating income to hit the same 6% target. With expenses equal to 40% of gross bookings, the apartment must generate US$50,000 a year.

That is far above the broad current market average.

The required rental performance rises quickly as buyers move into premium condos. Expensive Puerto Vallarta apartments can still work, but the rental business has to justify the premium rather than merely look impressive in a listing.

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So what rental yield should we actually expect from a Puerto Vallarta apartment?

A good Puerto Vallarta apartment should currently target around 6% gross on a long-term lease or roughly 7% to 8%+ gross as a vacation rental; anything materially higher should be proven with property-level numbers rather than assumed.

For conventional rentals, the current market supports roughly 4% to 6.5% gross across the main neighborhoods we examined. Versalles and Marina Vallarta sit near the top of that mainstream range.

Smaller apartments bought cheaply can push beyond 7%, and individual deals can approach 9%. Those are deal-level outcomes rather than normal Puerto Vallarta averages.

Vacation rentals offer a higher ceiling. Recent local market benchmarks still support roughly 6% to 10% gross for well-positioned condos, while AirDNA shows average annual short-term-rental revenue around US$31,400 across its broad Puerto Vallarta dataset.

The gap between gross and net deserves more attention than the headline Airbnb revenue. Professional management commonly takes around one-fifth of bookings, then HOA fees, utilities, insurance, repairs and vacancy keep reducing the owner's return.

A projected 4% or 5% gross Airbnb yield gives little reason to accept the extra work and risk of short-term renting. Around 7% to 8% gross starts to look more interesting. A properly calculated 6% net operating yield is already a strong result in today's Puerto Vallarta market.

Versalles currently stands out for investors chasing income because acquisition prices remain relatively low while rents have been moving higher. 5 de Diciembre deserves attention for vacation rentals. Marina Vallarta can work well for higher-budget furnished rentals. Zona Romántica remains one of the city's best tourism locations, but its expensive purchase prices make high percentage yields harder to achieve.

The purchase price ultimately decides most of the result. A compact MXN 3–4 million apartment renting for MXN 20,000–25,000 a month can be a serious income property. A beautiful MXN 9 million condo earning only moderately more rent may still be a great place to own, but investors should expect a much lower yield.

OUR METHODOLOGY

This analysis estimates what rental yield a Puerto Vallarta apartment can realistically generate by separating long-term rentals, short-term rentals and furnished medium-term rentals rather than forcing them into one citywide percentage. We compare rental income with acquisition prices, neighborhood differences, property-level examples, operating costs and tourism demand before deciding which yield ranges are actually defensible.

For long-term rentals, we rely mainly on current neighborhood data from Propiedades.com. We compare monthly apartment rent per square meter with asking sale price per square meter because the headline median rental unit and headline median sale unit can be very different sizes. The same method is applied across Versalles, Marina Vallarta, 5 de Diciembre, Emiliano Zapata and Zona Hotelera Norte so the neighborhood comparison remains reasonably consistent.

Market averages, neighborhood benchmarks and individual apartments are treated as different levels of evidence. Broad data establish the normal range, while property-level examples are used to test how far a particularly efficient purchase can outperform it. That is why the roughly 9.5% Versalles example from TheLatinvestor is treated as evidence that a small apartment can reach that level, not evidence that Versalles as a whole yields 9.5%. We apply the same caution to tiny samples such as La Floresta.

For short-term rentals, we use AirDNA's larger Puerto Vallarta market as the main benchmark for active listings, annual revenue, occupancy, ADR and RevPAR. AirDNA also publishes a much smaller Puerto Vallarta geography with very different headline figures, so we use that second dataset as a cross-check rather than averaging the two. Neighborhood STR yield ranges from HOMIA help show how purchase prices change the percentage return between areas such as 5 de Diciembre, Versalles, Zona Romántica, Marina Vallarta, Amapas and Conchas Chinas.

Gross yield and operating return are kept separate throughout. PVRPV's published 20% rental commission gives us a local reference point for professional management costs, while HOA fees, utilities, insurance and maintenance are modeled separately. Mexican ISR and IVA treatment for accommodation supplied through digital platforms is checked against SAT guidance, and Jalisco's lodging-tax framework is treated as an additional operating consideration rather than folded into one universal owner tax rate.

Tourism is used as a demand check rather than as proof of investment performance. Puerto Vallarta Airport passenger figures from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico help establish the size and international depth of the visitor market, while AirDNA occupancy and RevPAR show whether that demand is translating into stronger rental economics.

Key sources used for this analysis include Propiedades.com on Versalles rents, Versalles sale prices, Marina Vallarta rents, Marina Vallarta sale prices, 5 de Diciembre rents, 5 de Diciembre sale prices, Emiliano Zapata rents, Emiliano Zapata sale prices, Zona Hotelera Norte rents, Zona Hotelera Norte sale prices, La Floresta rental statistics, AirDNA's main Puerto Vallarta STR dataset, AirDNA's smaller Puerto Vallarta geography, HOMIA's neighborhood STR yield estimates, TheLatinvestor's property-level yield modeling, PVRPV on vacation-rental management commissions, SAT guidance on digital-platform accommodation taxation, the Government of Jalisco's lodging-tax framework, and Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico's Puerto Vallarta Airport traffic data.

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Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Gigi Tea 🇩🇴

Realtor, at RealtorDR

Her extensive knowledge of Puerto Vallerta's diverse neighborhoods and investment opportunities sets her apart as an expert. Gigi will guide you to the best properties while ensuring the buying process is stress-free and enjoyable. At the conclusion of our discussion, we revisited the blog post, refining details and adding her input to enhance its depth and personal angle.