Barranco vs Pueblo Libre: better rental investment? (2026)
n = 1,760 Airbnb listings · 618 sale listings · source: urbania.pe + airroi · as of 2026-09-17 · methodology →
Pueblo Libre edges Barranco on both yields, and it does so while costing far less to buy: about 5.1% long-term against about 4.7%, and about 6.8% on Airbnb against about 6.2%. The catch is that the long-term gap is roughly 0.3 points, which is close enough that I would not build a purchase around it.
The price is where these two actually separate. Barranco's median sits at about $2,545 per m2; Pueblo Libre's is about $1,798. That is near 29% cheaper, or about $735 per m2 less, and it is the one number here big enough to change what you can buy.
Both yields are net of the same things on the long-term side: the long-term figure subtracts property tax, arbitrios, rental income tax and a 3% vacancy allowance. It does not subtract mantenimiento, 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 arbitrios. Neither figure subtracts furnishing, cleaning, turnover or management fees, and the owner self-manages on both sides.
So the honest read is that the headline yield is a tie you cannot trade on. Pick on price, on how quickly you can let the flat, and on whether you want to run a short-let at all. Pueblo Libre gives you the cheaper entry and the slightly better numbers; Barranco is the district with more tourist demand behind the Airbnb case, and you pay for that in the purchase price.
One caveat: these are approximations held steady between real moves, so the tables on the page may show a slightly different exact value. The data here is also thin on liquidity and on how deep the short-let demand actually runs in each district, which is exactly what would decide this pair. Not investment advice.