Investing in a 2-bedroom apartment in Surco, Lima

The numbers for a 2-bedroom in Surco are not close. Long-term renting gets you about 6.8% gross yield. Put the same apartment on Airbnb and you're looking at roughly 2.5% gross. That's not a rounding error, it's the difference between a decent return and a bad one.

For this size in this district, long-term is the stronger play. The Airbnb figure is gross, before you subtract cleaning, platform fees, furnishing, and the hours you or a manager spend on turnover. Long-term at 6.8% gross also has costs, but far fewer of the operational headaches that eat into short-term income.

I'll be straight about what these figures are: gross yields, not net. I don't have the breakdown of maintenance, vacancy, or the arbitrio and predial taxes here, so treat 6.8% as the top line, not what lands in your account. Run your own cost assumptions before you commit.

Who does a 2-bed in Surco suit? Someone who wants a steady long-term tenant and a return that beats the Airbnb alternative by a wide margin, without the work of running a short-stay operation. If your reason for buying was Airbnb income specifically, this size in Surco doesn't make that case.

None of this is investment advice. It's the ratio the numbers give: 6.8 versus 2.5, and long-term wins.

Related: Surco overview · Best district by size