The Real Estate Yield Index 2026

103 countries,
five pillars

Where in the world does property investment pay, and where is the title safe once you hold it? Five pillars, unequally weighted, scored across 103 countries. This is the research behind the 2026 Edition, told as a scroll.

Countries scored

Pillars

Per cent weight on the lead pillar

Points covering first to third place

Research and analysis by Bridgehead Communications for Nomad Capitalist. Figures are The Nomad Real Estate Yield Index, 2026 Edition.

Scroll

How the index works

Five pillars,
unequal weights

Yield and Affordability carries 35 per cent of the overall score. Property Rights and Market Momentum carry 20 per cent each. Safety and Stability carries 15 per cent, and Investment and Residency Access carries 10 per cent. The weights reflect how much each dimension matters to the property-investment decision.

35 per cent

Yield & Affordability

Best in the index

United Arab Emirates

96.5

Universe mean 54.7

20 per cent

Property Rights & Legal Security

Best in the index

Denmark

95.8

Universe mean 59.7

20 per cent

Market Momentum

Best in the index

North Macedonia

100.0

Universe mean 47.7

15 per cent

Safety & Stability

Best in the index

Iceland

100.0

Universe mean 64.2

10 per cent

Investment & Residency Access

Best in the index

Panama

100.0

Universe mean 87.1

Where a pillar is missing

90 of 103 countries are missing at least one pillar score because of data gaps. They are scored on the pillars they hold, and the missing pillar is printed on the row rather than filled in. 13 countries are scored on all five.

The verdict

The UAE leads,
Iceland and Puerto Rico follow

The United Arab Emirates finishes first on 78.05, Iceland second on 77.76 and Puerto Rico third on 76.64. 1.41 points separate first from third. The UAE leads two pillars: Yield and Affordability, and Investment and Residency Access.

Points covering first to third place

Points covering the whole top ten

Countries reaching a top three under the five priority tilts

Worst-case rank correlation across ten reweightings

United Arab Emirates78.05

Iceland77.76

Puerto Rico76.64

Portugal75.04

Oman73.13

Denmark71.05

Bars are the overall score out of 100. The full 103 are further down this page.

How to read a rank here

The top of this index is a group, not a queue. The UAE and Iceland are effectively tied in the Monte Carlo simulation. Further down, the gaps widen and ranks mean more.

The atlas

103 countries,
one map

Keep scrolling. The map holds still and moves to each destination in turn.

21.578.0 Overall score

01 / 09

The whole field

103 countries, one scale

Every country in the 2026 Edition, shaded by its overall score. The scale runs from 21.49 to 78.05. Five pillars with unequal weights: Yield and Affordability carries 35 per cent, two pillars carry 20 per cent each, Safety and Stability carries 15 per cent, and Investment and Residency Access carries 10 per cent.

02 / 09

First, on 78.05

United Arab Emirates

The UAE leads on Investment and Residency Access with 93.9, and on Yield and Affordability with 96.5. Monte Carlo rank band: 1-5.

03 / 09

Second, on 77.76

Iceland

Iceland has a perfect Safety and Stability score of 100.0 and the highest Property Rights score in the index at 85.8. 0.29 points behind the UAE. Monte Carlo band: 1-4.

04 / 09

Third, on 76.46

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico scores 81.7 on Yield and Affordability and 67.8 on Market Momentum. A US territory with no Investment and Residency Access pillar. Monte Carlo band: 2-5.

05 / 09

Fourth, on 75.69

Portugal

Portugal scores 67.6 on Property Rights and 93.7 on Market Momentum, both above the field mean. The top four are covered by 3.01 points.

06 / 09

The Gulf cluster

UAE, Oman, Qatar

Three Gulf states in the top 20. Oman finishes 5th on 73.13, Qatar 41st on 59.65. The Gulf's Yield and Affordability scores are consistently above the field mean of 54.7.

07 / 09

The European cluster

Iceland, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands

Four European countries in the top ten. The continent's strength is Property Rights and Safety: every European country in the top ten scores above 65 on both pillars.

08 / 09

The biggest risers vs 2024

Where the index moved

Switzerland (+69), Hungary (+57), Bosnia And Herzegovina (+54), Czech Republic (+53). The re-scoring added new data sources, refreshed tax rates, and applied unequal pillar weights for the first time.

09 / 09

The shape of the result

Yield pays, rights protect, safety anchors

The heaviest pillar, Yield and Affordability at 35 per cent, pulls the Gulf and parts of Central America upward. Property Rights and Safety hold Europe steady. No single region dominates because no single pillar does.

The five pillars

Five pillars,
five leaders

The leader on each pillar. The UAE leads two of the five (Yield and Affordability, and Investment and Residency Access), which the unequal weighting amplifies into its overall first place.

Yield & Affordability

United Arab Emirates

1st overall on 78.05. Universe mean for this pillar: 54.7.

Property Rights & Legal Security

Denmark

6th overall on 71.05. Universe mean for this pillar: 59.7.

Market Momentum

North Macedonia

22nd overall on 65.02. Universe mean for this pillar: 47.7.

Safety & Stability

Iceland

2nd overall on 77.76. Universe mean for this pillar: 64.2.

Investment & Residency Access

Panama

17th overall on 66.67. Universe mean for this pillar: 87.1.

Yield tells you how much the investment pays. Property rights tell you whether you keep what you bought.

The Real Estate Yield Index, 2026 Edition

Whose priorities

Tilt one pillar,
and the order moves

Move one pillar to 40 per cent and the other four to 15 per cent each, and the top of the index reshuffles. Choose what you care about most.

First

United Arab Emirates

Second

Puerto Rico

Third

Iceland

Leadership at the top is priority-dependent

No country reach the top three under all five tilts. 8 countries reach a top three at least once.

Top-three appearances across the five tilts

Each tilt moves one pillar to 40 per cent and the other four to 15 per cent each. Copper: four or more appearances.

One pillar is not a verdict

The best market momentum score in the index
finishes 22nd

North Macedonia has the highest Market Momentum score in the index, 100.0, and finishes 22nd overall on 65.02. Its other pillar scores sit closer to or below the universe mean.

When the pillars are weighted to reflect the full investment decision, one outstanding pillar cannot carry four ordinary ones. That is the design working, not the model misbehaving.

North Macedonia's five pillar scores. Dashed line: the universe mean for that pillar. Copper where North Macedonia scores above the mean, emerald where it scores below.

The trade-off the index refuses to hide

High yield
does not mean safe investment

Yield and Affordability carries 35 per cent of the score, but a high yield in a country where property rights are weak and safety is poor does not make a good investment. The scatter shows why the index refuses to let one pillar carry the result.

8 countries score above the mean on Yield and Affordability while sitting in the bottom third on Safety and Stability. Most of them finish in the lower half of the ranking.

Each dot is one of the 103 countries. Highlighted: countries above the yield mean and in the bottom third on safety. Axes are pillar scores out of 100.

What is genuinely robust

The ordering holds.
The podium does not.

Perturbing each pillar weight by five percentage points in either direction, 10 runs in all, never drops the rank correlation with the baseline below 0.989. 9/10 of the top ten stay in the top ten. That is a statement about the whole ranking, never about the top three.

Reweightings run

Worst-case Spearman rank correlation

Of the top ten retained, at worst (best case 10)

Countries in a top three under all five priority tilts

The ranking

All 103,
in order

Bars are scaled to the real range of the index, 21.49 to 78.05, not to a notional zero. Rows tagged with a pillar count carry missing data.

#	Country	Score	Yield	Rights	Momentum	Safety	Access
1	United Arab Emirates	78.05	96.5	69.2	56.2	65.3	93.9
2	Iceland 4 pillars	77.76	67.0	85.8	71.8	100.0	n/a
3	Puerto Rico 2 pillars	76.64	81.7	n/a	67.8	n/a	n/a
4	Portugal	75.04	56.6	67.6	93.7	87.9	97.7
5	Oman 3 pillars	73.13	81.5	61.8	n/a	68.8	n/a
6	Denmark 4 pillars	71.05	69.2	95.8	39.5	84.5	n/a
7	Montenegro	70.81	57.6	57.9	88.1	76.8	99.2
8	Netherlands 4 pillars	70.60	63.5	86.2	59.1	81.6	n/a
9	Moldova 4 pillars	69.82	57.8	62.0	99.0	69.4	n/a
10	Ireland 4 pillars	69.75	66.5	74.0	55.6	90.5	n/a
11	United States	69.02	75.2	81.4	58.6	37.7	90.4
12	Lithuania 4 pillars	68.14	58.6	79.3	65.4	79.2	n/a
13	Switzerland 4 pillars	67.68	58.0	88.7	46.3	90.8	n/a
14	Cyprus	67.58	73.1	64.4	49.5	63.5	96.9
15	Slovenia 4 pillars	67.33	61.1	67.0	61.2	90.6	n/a
16	New Zealand	66.79	57.3	92.9	41.9	91.8	60.3
17	Panama 4 pillars	66.67	67.0	52.1	n/a	63.1	100.0
18	Latvia 4 pillars	66.58	62.5	78.3	51.5	80.6	n/a
19	Malaysia	66.28	61.5	64.9	46.7	84.0	98.5
20	Canada	66.19	53.8	81.0	48.5	83.5	89.3
21	Kazakhstan 4 pillars	65.85	60.9	55.7	79.9	72.3	n/a
22	North Macedonia 4 pillars	65.02	54.3	44.0	100.0	71.4	n/a
23	Estonia 4 pillars	64.99	58.2	83.3	48.0	79.1	n/a
24	Norway 4 pillars	64.99	61.9	93.7	33.4	76.1	n/a
25	Hungary 4 pillars	64.48	47.1	53.7	91.9	82.9	n/a
26	Australia 4 pillars	63.94	57.5	87.8	39.2	80.0	n/a
27	Egypt 4 pillars	63.78	58.0	47.5	97.8	53.5	n/a
28	Bosnia And Herzegovina 4 pillars	63.37	54.4	43.8	93.2	70.6	n/a
29	Czech Republic 4 pillars	62.68	51.7	68.3	60.4	83.9	n/a
30	Greece	62.47	55.9	56.4	58.2	69.8	95.5
31	Austria 4 pillars	62.27	53.8	83.3	36.7	88.2	n/a
32	Bulgaria 4 pillars	62.01	59.7	57.1	58.4	78.8	n/a
33	Croatia 4 pillars	61.96	52.0	61.5	67.0	79.2	n/a
34	Luxembourg 4 pillars	61.81	51.4	83.3	42.5	n/a	94.0
35	Spain 4 pillars	61.81	56.9	69.8	50.5	77.7	n/a
36	Georgia 4 pillars	61.78	64.0	67.3	54.5	59.0	n/a
37	Uzbekistan 2 pillars	61.73	56.3	n/a	n/a	74.4	n/a
38	Chile 4 pillars	60.83	55.3	77.3	47.3	69.8	n/a
39	Kuwait 3 pillars	60.53	52.3	67.5	n/a	70.4	n/a
40	Armenia 3 pillars	59.95	57.5	56.7	n/a	69.9	n/a
41	Qatar 4 pillars	59.65	77.7	68.0	7.0	76.7	n/a
42	Jordan 3 pillars	59.61	62.4	50.1	n/a	65.9	n/a
43	Mongolia 3 pillars	59.60	48.5	66.7	n/a	75.9	n/a
44	Slovakia 4 pillars	59.56	55.0	65.0	48.8	77.3	n/a
45	Malta 3 pillars	59.39	49.5	59.2	76.8	n/a	n/a
46	Costa Rica 4 pillars	59.13	57.1	66.9	48.0	68.3	n/a
47	Finland 4 pillars	58.89	59.7	86.7	9.6	85.6	n/a
48	United Kingdom 4 pillars	58.87	59.1	78.4	27.4	74.2	n/a
49	Dominican Republic	58.58	60.1	50.0	43.2	60.2	98.6
50	Japan 4 pillars	58.25	49.0	78.6	33.9	85.1	n/a
51	Sweden 4 pillars	58.06	56.4	85.3	21.8	74.1	n/a
52	Serbia 4 pillars	57.86	53.8	53.5	63.4	65.6	n/a
53	Germany 4 pillars	57.65	51.0	79.2	32.9	77.5	n/a
54	Belgium 4 pillars	56.77	57.7	68.5	26.2	79.7	n/a
55	Saudi Arabia 4 pillars	56.44	82.8	64.9	0.0	58.9	n/a
56	Albania 3 pillars	56.15	54.9	44.7	n/a	74.4	n/a
57	Vietnam 4 pillars	55.86	47.0	48.8	65.0	73.8	n/a
58	Poland 4 pillars	55.48	50.9	51.5	49.5	79.4	n/a
59	Kosovo (Disputed Territory) 1 pillars	55.27	55.3	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
60	Tunisia 3 pillars	55.21	54.0	50.5	n/a	64.4	n/a
61	Mexico	54.39	61.7	41.2	49.5	32.5	97.8
62	Taiwan (China) 4 pillars	54.22	27.4	73.7	67.4	73.2	n/a
63	Guatemala 3 pillars	54.04	59.5	39.3	n/a	60.8	n/a
64	South Africa 4 pillars	53.51	74.6	59.4	14.9	48.0	n/a
65	Thailand	53.21	46.7	51.6	42.0	57.9	94.5
66	Bolivia 3 pillars	53.19	61.2	34.5	n/a	59.5	n/a
67	Honduras 3 pillars	53.18	59.0	38.9	n/a	58.6	n/a
68	Philippines 4 pillars	52.66	43.6	49.5	67.8	57.8	n/a
69	Singapore	52.51	31.4	82.8	59.1	87.6	0.0
70	Romania 4 pillars	52.37	55.8	65.4	18.9	71.6	n/a
71	Uruguay 4 pillars	52.24	47.5	55.2	42.0	73.1	n/a
72	Azerbaijan 3 pillars	51.35	51.3	48.3	n/a	55.5	n/a
73	Italy 4 pillars	51.32	54.4	61.4	18.1	75.0	n/a
74	Ecuador 3 pillars	50.99	58.6	47.7	n/a	37.5	n/a
75	Ghana 3 pillars	50.56	43.2	52.9	n/a	64.5	n/a
76	Russia 4 pillars	50.48	45.5	50.4	97.2	0.0	n/a
77	France 4 pillars	50.40	50.3	71.1	24.1	58.2	n/a
78	Belarus 3 pillars	49.75	53.0	42.3	n/a	52.2	n/a
79	Peru 4 pillars	48.09	51.4	53.2	31.0	56.5	n/a
80	Iraq 3 pillars	47.80	62.3	34.3	n/a	32.0	n/a
81	Sri Lanka 3 pillars	47.54	39.2	48.3	n/a	66.0	n/a
82	Kenya 3 pillars	47.11	47.0	51.4	n/a	41.7	n/a
83	Turkey 3 pillars	47.02	53.0	45.9	n/a	34.5	n/a
84	Morocco 4 pillars	46.88	49.5	56.4	17.7	67.1	n/a
85	Algeria 3 pillars	46.66	47.0	36.5	n/a	59.6	n/a
86	Israel 4 pillars	45.82	47.6	66.9	47.8	11.0	n/a
87	Lebanon 3 pillars	44.65	49.6	37.8	n/a	42.2	n/a
88	Colombia 4 pillars	43.66	53.4	54.4	27.1	28.6	n/a
89	Venezuela 3 pillars	43.58	57.7	22.6	n/a	38.6	n/a
90	India 4 pillars	43.39	50.2	50.8	24.0	43.4	n/a
91	Nepal 3 pillars	43.25	35.6	47.5	n/a	55.5	n/a
92	Iran 3 pillars	42.81	50.1	41.4	n/a	27.6	n/a
93	South Korea 4 pillars	42.39	27.7	74.0	16.3	69.3	n/a
94	Pakistan 3 pillars	41.88	50.5	43.0	n/a	20.3	n/a
95	Indonesia 4 pillars	41.59	43.1	46.9	15.5	65.7	n/a
96	Argentina 4 pillars	40.83	40.8	41.5	21.7	65.5	n/a
97	Ukraine 4 pillars	38.35	55.4	47.9	21.6	8.3	n/a
98	China 4 pillars	38.10	22.6	46.6	46.8	51.5	n/a
99	Bangladesh 3 pillars	37.92	47.9	10.1	n/a	51.7	n/a
100	Brazil 4 pillars	37.90	47.0	48.6	4.6	46.9	n/a
101	Cambodia 4 pillars	35.93	47.1	24.8	10.6	58.6	n/a
102	Hong Kong (China) 3 pillars	34.93	16.3	70.5	32.0	n/a	n/a
103	Syria 3 pillars	21.49	26.1	19.4	n/a	13.6	n/a

Source: Nomad Capitalist Real Estate Yield Index 2026, five-pillar scoring, 103 countries. Research and analysis by Bridgehead Communications.

Yield pays. Rights protect.
The index holds both.

The UAE leads on yield and access, Iceland on safety and rights, and which of those matters most depends on what you are buying and where you already stand.

The Nomad Real Estate Yield Index, 2026 Edition. Research, analysis and design by Bridgehead Communications. Every figure on this page comes from the report's own data layer.

103 countries,five pillars

Five pillars,unequal weights

Yield & Affordability

Property Rights & Legal Security

Market Momentum

Safety & Stability

Investment & Residency Access

The UAE leads,Iceland and Puerto Rico follow

103 countries,one map

103 countries, one scale

United Arab Emirates

Iceland

Puerto Rico

Portugal

UAE, Oman, Qatar

Iceland, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands

Where the index moved

Yield pays, rights protect, safety anchors

Five pillars,five leaders

United Arab Emirates

Denmark

North Macedonia

Iceland

Panama

Tilt one pillar,and the order moves

United Arab Emirates

Puerto Rico

Iceland

The best market momentum score in the indexfinishes 22nd

High yielddoes not mean safe investment

The ordering holds.The podium does not.

All 103,in order

Yield pays. Rights protect.The index holds both.

103 countries,
five pillars

Five pillars,
unequal weights

The UAE leads,
Iceland and Puerto Rico follow

103 countries,
one map

Five pillars,
five leaders

Tilt one pillar,
and the order moves

The best market momentum score in the index
finishes 22nd

High yield
does not mean safe investment

The ordering holds.
The podium does not.

All 103,
in order

Yield pays. Rights protect.
The index holds both.