Pueblo Libre vs San Isidro: better rental investment? (2026)
n = 1,251 Airbnb listings · 1,194 sale listings · source: urbania.pe + airroi · as of 2026-09-17 · methodology →
Pueblo Libre takes this one on the numbers a landlord actually keeps: about 5.1% net long-term against San Isidro's roughly 4.4%. That long-term figure is net of 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, not you. You self-manage, so no management fee comes off either.
What you give up by choosing San Isidro is the entry price. Pueblo Libre trades at a median of about $1,798 per m2; San Isidro at about $2,510 per m2. Per square metre Pueblo Libre is roughly 29.2% cheaper, about $735 per m2 less. On a 70 m2 flat that is a real difference in capital, and it is the reason the lower headline yield in San Isidro bites harder than it looks.
Airbnb flips the order, but only just. Gross, Pueblo Libre runs about 6.8% against San Isidro's roughly 7.2%. The Airbnb figure subtracts the platform fee, host-paid utilities and internet, income tax, mantenimiento, property tax and arbitrios. Note that mantenimiento lands on you there, because no guest reimburses it. Neither side subtracts furnishing, cleaning, turnover or management fees in these numbers, and I would not pretend they are free.
So the pick is Pueblo Libre, and the uncomfortable half is that you are buying a cheaper district with thinner resale depth and a shorter list of foreign tenants. San Isidro wins on the short-let gross and on address, and if you run an Airbnb well enough to approach the top quartile you can argue past the gap. Most owners do not. For a buy-and-hold landlord who wants the tenant to carry mantenimiento, Pueblo Libre is the better trade.
Caveat: these are approximate figures, held steady between real moves, so the tables on the page may show slightly different values. The data here is thin on individual buildings and on actual achieved occupancy, so treat the yields as district-level guides, not a valuation of any one flat. Not investment advice.