Apartment investing: high-yield districts and below-market listings on one page
If you are thinking of buying a flat to rent out, two questions come first: where does rent pay back most relative to the price, and what is selling below market there? Prayk has a new page for exactly that — Apartment investing. The district ranking and the district pages have gained new indicators too.
Two steps: district first, then listing
The page ranks districts and towns by gross annual rental yield. Pick one and you see apartment sale listings there that are at least 10% below the market median — up to 6 per district. Each listing shows the expected monthly rent and the yield that follows from it. You can filter by number of rooms.
In the calculation on the morning of 27 September the list held 10 districts and towns with 41 listings. The highest gross yield came out in Shirvan (6.4%), followed by Absheron and Mehdiabad (5.6%). Baku as a whole sits at 4.4%: the median apartment sale price is 218,000 AZN and the median monthly rent 800 AZN.
How the yield is calculated, and what it leaves out
The formula is simple: median monthly rent × 12 ÷ median sale price. For a district, it uses the medians of that district's apartment sale and rental listings; each group needs at least 8 listings, otherwise no yield is shown. For an individual listing, the expected rent is the median rent of flats with the same number of rooms in the same district. Payback is 100 divided by the yield: 4.4% means roughly 22.7 years.
This is a gross figure, and we are upfront about its limits:
- The numbers are asking prices — what sellers want, not what deals closed at.
- Taxes, vacancy, repairs, utilities and agent commission are not deducted.
- At district level, the sale and rental groups are not the same flats — the room mix can differ.
- Listings more than 45% below market are left out: a price like that is more often a mistake or bait than a bargain.
Always check the reason for a low price (paperwork, floor, condition) in the listing itself. This is general information, not investment advice.
New columns in the district ranking
The apartment prices by district table has three new indicators: vs Baku (the district's median price per m² against the Baku median), payback in years, and 7-day change. You can sort by ₼/m², yield or weekly change; the choice is kept in the link, so a sorted table can be shared as is.
Today the Baku median for apartment sales is 2,738 AZN/m². Narimanov is 20.6% above it and Nasimi 12.1% above; Khatai is 8.7% below and Binagadi 13.7% below. Narimanov's gross yield is 2.3%, a payback of about 43.5 years — in the pricier central districts rent returns less relative to the price.
Neighbours on the district page
Each district's own page carries the same indicators, plus the change over the last 30 days in the by-rooms table and a Neighbouring districts block — the four nearest districts with their median price per m² and distance. Take Yasamal: a median of 2,920 AZN/m² (6.6% above Baku), gross yield 3.0%, payback 33.3 years. Its neighbours are Nasimi (2.6 km, 3,071 AZN/m²), Narimanov (4.8 km, 3,301 AZN/m²), Binagadi (5.3 km, 2,363 AZN/m²) and Sabail (6.4 km, 2,800 AZN/m²).
Where to find it
All three pages are in the Prices section, and the figures refresh every night. The calculation rules are published openly on the methodology page. To value a specific flat, see our piece on What's my home worth?.