1-bedroom apartment in Surco, Lima: yields (2026)
n = 840 Airbnb listings · 1,516 sale listings · source: urbania.pe + airroi · as of 2026-09-17 · methodology →
A 1-bedroom in Surco shows about 6.8% gross long-term against roughly 7.8% on Airbnb, and I would still take the tenant. The gap is real but thin, and the Airbnb figure is the one that has to survive your own time and your own bills.
The long-term figure subtracts property tax, arbitrios, rental income tax and a 3% vacancy allowance, and it leaves mantenimiento alone because in a Lima long-term let the tenant pays that. The Airbnb figure subtracts the platform fee, host-paid utilities and internet, income tax, mantenimiento, property tax and arbitios. Neither figure subtracts furnishing or fit-out, cleaning and turnover, or management fees, because the owner self-manages on both sides.
That is the uncomfortable half: the Airbnb number is gross of your evenings. You are the one answering messages, arranging the handover and absorbing the weeks nobody books. The long-term figure is not gross of those things in the same way, because a signed tenant removes most of them.
So who does this suit? A buyer who wants the flat to work while they are elsewhere, or who is not in Lima enough to run a short-let properly, should take the long-term route and accept about 6.8% gross. Someone living in the building, or with a reliable person on the ground, can chase the roughly 7.8% Airbnb figure, but they are buying themselves a second job for a gap that is not large.
One caveat on the data: these are gross yields, and the long-term side is the one I would trust more, because its costs are predictable and its income is contractual. The Airbnb side looks better on paper and behaves worse in practice. Not investment advice.