The Best Places to Buy an Airbnb in 2026, Ranked by What Listings Actually Earn

Yield is revenue against everything it costs to own the asset: purchase price, transfer taxes, notary and legal fees, furnishing, the short-term-rental launch, then management and operating costs every year after. On that all-in basis, at the time of writing the median true net yields across our for-sale catalogues run from the mid-4-percent range (Portugal, the ABC Islands) to the mid-5s (Bali, Dubai) — with the top decile of listings in every market well above that, which is precisely the point of ranking individual properties instead of markets.

That is also why the highest-revenue market is not automatically the best buy. Aruba’s median listing earns 84% more than Bali’s, but Caribbean beachfront pricing means the extra revenue is often fully paid for upfront. The purchase decision lives at the property level: this villa, at this price, with these comps around it.

Every market on this table carries 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 licence — existing, transferable licences carry real value where new ones are frozen. In Spain it is the regional licence regime (ETV in the Balearics, VFT in Andalusia), with moratoria capping new supply in the strongest islands. Dubai is the simple one: freehold title, a straightforward DTCM holiday-home permit, and 0% income tax. The Netherlands runs on municipal rules and recreation-park zoning. The ABC Islands are freehold-dominant with USD-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.

Treat the table as your first filter: pick the demand profile you want to own (Caribbean year-round, European summer, Asian tropical, Gulf urban) 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.