The Best Places to Buy an Airbnb in 2026, Compared on Real Calendar Data

Data by Brixfox · July 2026 · Updated October 1, 2026

Kayak on turquoise water at Benagil beach, Algarve — Brixfox cross-market Airbnb revenue data, 2026

Updated · October 1, 2026

This article first compared the markets on the trailing quarter to June 2026, measured before Brixfox’s night-by-night calendar archive existed. Every figure is now re-measured on August 2026, the archive’s first complete month. Greece and Thailand, now flagship markets, are added; Aruba, first in June, is third in August — its low season — and a new section explains why one month flatters some markets and understates others. The yield figures and the Dubai permit authority (DET, formerly DTCM) are updated.

Restated again on 1 October 2026 on the final August figures, which Brixfox’s data engine kept re-measuring every day until 30 September: Spain’s median occupancy fell from 77% to 74%, listing counts moved by up to 7% (Curaçao), nightly rates by up to 2% (Bonaire) and estimated revenue by up to 1.4% (Aruba). The December-versus-August ratios were re-read the same day. Asking rates move as hosts reprice and as more December rates are read, and two moved a lot: Aruba’s from 1.51 to 1.27 and Curaçao’s from 1.24 to 1.12.

Ask ten YouTubers where to buy an Airbnb in 2026 and you will get ten different “best cities” lists, none of them measured. So we did what we always do: read the calendars. The table below compares every market where Brixfox tracks both live for-sale inventory and Airbnb performance — the median occupancy, nightly rate and estimated August revenue of actively-rented listings, across more than 100,000 performing listings with a full August 2026 calendar.

Two warnings before you read it as a ranking. First, revenue is not yield: a market where the median listing grosses an estimated $6,000 a month can still be a worse buy than one grossing an estimated $4,000, if entry prices are three times higher. Second, this is one month, and August is peak season for some of these markets and low season for others. The sections after the table cover both.

The median performing Airbnb in August 2026, by market: occupancy, nightly rate and estimated revenue

August 2026, performing listings (booked at least 10% of the month’s nights). Occupancy = median share of August nights booked; nightly rate = median advertised rate for August stays; revenue = the median of each listing’s estimated August gross (its own occupancy × its own advertised rate × 31 nights), USD — usually a little below the two median columns multiplied together; listings = performing listings measured.

Market	Occupancy	Nightly rate	Est. Aug revenue	Performing listings
Greece — islands	81%	$303	$6,363	16,089
Portugal — Algarve & coast	84%	$253	$5,752	19,382
Aruba	74%	$250	$5,147	2,965
Spain — islands & costas	74%	$242	$4,915	26,190
Netherlands	81%	$212	$4,706	6,061
Bali & Lombok	77%	$178	$4,036	18,631
Bonaire	61%	$195	$3,750	379
Curaçao	65%	$197	$3,587	1,960
Dubai	74%	$157	$3,380	4,047
Thailand — Phuket, Samui & islands	77%	$143	$3,192	9,704

What the data says

Read this table as one month, not a year. August is peak season on the Mediterranean and in Bali, and low season in Dubai, the Caribbean and Thailand — and hosts price accordingly. On the same listings, asking rates for December stays run at 0.65× August’s in Portugal, 0.73× in Greece, 0.85× in the Netherlands and 0.90× in Spain, but 1.10× in Bonaire, 1.12× in Curaçao, 1.27× in Thailand and Aruba, and 2.30× in Dubai. Bali barely moves (0.94×).
Greece and Portugal top the August table: performing listings booked 81% and 84% of nights at median advertised rates of $303 and $253, and the median listing grossed an estimated $6,400 and $5,800 for the month. Both are summer markets, so these are their best months, not their typical ones.
Aruba is the standout off-season performer. In its low season it still booked 74% of nights at $250 — about $5,100 for the median listing in August, ahead of Spain — and its hosts ask about 1.3 times that rate for December stays. Curaçao and Bonaire had less estimated revenue per listing in August — about $3,600–$3,800, at 61–65% occupancy — but follow the same winter-peaking curve.
Bali is the least seasonal market on the table and sits mid-table on revenue, at about $4,000 for August — but near the top on yield, because its median for-sale villa costs about $300,000 against roughly $810,000 in Portugal and $820,000 in Dubai.
Dubai and Thailand read weakest in August because August is their weakest month: Dubai booked 74% of nights at $157 and Thailand 77% at $143. December asking rates on the same listings are 2.3 and 1.3 times August’s; one summer of calendar history cannot yet tell us how full those winter nights get.
The Netherlands is the drive-to summer market: 81% of August nights at $212, about $4,700 for the month, with a milder off-season than Portugal or Greece (December asks 0.85× August).

Revenue is only half the equation — entry price makes the yield

Yield is revenue against everything it costs to own the asset: purchase price, transfer taxes, notary and legal fees, furnishing and the short-term-rental launch, then management and operating costs every year after. On that all-in basis, at the time of writing (23 September 2026) the median fully-managed after-tax net yield across our for-sale catalogues runs from about 1.4% (Portugal) to about 6% (Bali’s leasehold villas), and the top tenth of each catalogue by BrixfoxScore from about 3% (Portugal) to about 8% (Dubai). Those figures move hourly; the homepage ranks the flagship markets on that basis, live.

That is also why the highest-revenue market is not automatically the best buy. Greece and Portugal had the highest estimated revenue per listing in August, yet Portugal ranks last of the eight flagship markets on yield: an $810,000 median asking price absorbs the revenue. The purchase decision lives at the property level: this villa, at this price, with these comps around it.

Licences, leases and taxes decide what you keep

Every market on this table carries at least one rule that materially moves the net result. In Bali it is tenure and zoning: most villas are leasehold, so the years remaining discount every future dollar, and short-term letting is only legal in designated tourism zones. In Portugal it is the Alojamento Local (AL) licence: whether the property already holds one, and whether it survives the sale, depends on the municipality. In Spain it is the regional licence regime — ETV in the Balearics, VV in the Canaries, VUT in Andalusia (formerly VFT) and HUT in Catalonia — plus the national registration number required since July 2025, with caps and moratoria on new licences in several islands. In Greece every short let needs an AADE registration number (ΑΜΑ), which is issued to the registrant and does not transfer with a sale. Thailand turns on ownership and the Hotel Act: foreigners can own condos freehold within the 49% foreign quota, most villas are leasehold or company-held, and letting by the night generally needs a hotel licence. Dubai is the simple one: freehold title, a DET holiday-home permit and no personal income tax. The Netherlands runs on municipal rules and recreation-park zoning. The ABC Islands are freehold-dominant, with dollar-pegged or dollarized economies.

None of this fits in a market-level table — which is why each Brixfox market page carries the local cost model, and each listing shows its net yield after these rules, not before them.

How to use this table

Treat the table as your first filter, and read it with the calendar in mind: pick the demand profile you want to own (Caribbean winter, European summer, tropical year-round, Gulf winter) and the ownership regime you are comfortable with. Then move to the market page and let per-property data take over — because within every market on this list, the gap between the median listing and a well-selected one is larger than the gap between the markets themselves. The best Airbnb you can buy in 2026 is not in the “best market”; it is the mispriced property with proven comps around it, wherever that happens to be.

How this is measured

Brixfox tracks 1.8M+ short-term-rental listings across 50+ countries and territories. For the listings whose Airbnb calendars it reads, it keeps each night’s final booked-or-open state in a night-by-night archive that began on 22 July 2026, and occupancy is measured from that archive rather than taken from host estimates. Nightly rates are the hosts’ asking rates for those stays: Airbnb does not publish what a night actually sold for, so every rate and revenue figure here rests on asking prices. Figures cover listings in every market shown with a full August 2026 calendar (25 or more nights observed), the first complete month the archive covers. A listing counts as performing if it booked at least 10% of the month’s nights; occupancy and nightly rate are medians across performing listings, and estimated revenue is the median of each performing listing’s own estimate — its occupancy × its advertised rate × 31 nights. That is not the two medians multiplied together (the median occupancy and the median rate rarely belong to the same listing), and it usually sits a little below that product. A night closed on the calendar counts as booked, so some owner-blocked nights remain in the figures; calendars closed almost entirely with no detected booking are excluded as unverifiable, and listings our data engine flags as likely owner-blocked are left out of the medians. December-versus-August ratios compare the same listings’ advertised rates for December and August stays (the median of each listing’s ratio), read on 1 October 2026. A night closed on the calendar counts as booked, including one first seen closed on its own date after being open the day before, which a host’s same-day booking cutoff also produces. In Thailand, Curaçao and Bonaire 12–18% of the booked nights were of that kind, against 2–9% elsewhere on this table, so read their occupancy as high: counting none of those nights, it falls 6–7 points. For-sale yields are read from Brixfox’s market statistics on 23 September 2026. Informational, not investment advice.

Compare live for-sale inventory across every flagship market, ranked by true net yield