Long-term rental is the only legal investment strategy in Brooklyn (Kings County). NYC Local Law 18 effectively bans whole-home short-term rentals under 30 days for non-owner-occupied properties, leaving investor returns dependent entirely on tenant rents. Across 38 Brooklyn ZIPs, gross yields range from 5.8% in Stuyvesant Heights/Bed-Stuy (11233) at the top down to about a fifth of that figure in premium inner ZIPs at the bottom. That spread is wider than the gap between Brooklyn and the national average of 5.3%, which means where you buy inside Brooklyn matters more than the headline city yield of 3.5% suggests.
Regulatory note: Short-term rentals heavily restricted in New York. Investment properties generally not permitted; may require owner occupancy, specific zoning, or other conditions (permit required, $145). NYC Local Law 18 (2023) effectively bans most short-term rentals under 30 days. Hosts must register, be present during stays, and may host no more than 2 guests. Entire-home rentals under 30 days are prohibited. The yield ranking below assumes a long-term, lease-based rental; short-term letting is not a viable strategy in Brooklyn for the great majority of investment purchases.
Stuyvesant Heights/Bed-Stuy (11233) Leads Brooklyn at 5.8%
Gross yields = annual rent / sale price. Based on 3-bed house medians. Short-term letting is not modelled because NYC Local Law 18 prohibits it for typical investor properties. The dashboard shows every property type and bedroom count.
Why Outer-Belt Brooklyn Leads the Yield Ranking
The pattern across the top of Brooklyn's yield ranking is consistent: gentrifying outer-belt neighborhoods where rents have caught up to demand but sale prices have not fully reset to match. Stuyvesant Heights/Bed-Stuy (11233) sits at the top because brownstone-heavy housing stock pulls strong rents from young professionals priced out of Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights, while sale prices remain noticeably below those benchmark areas. The A and C trains put the neighborhood within roughly 25 minutes of Midtown, the same commute as ZIPs that trade at twice the price.
Sunset Park (11220) reflects a different driver. It is a working-class neighborhood transformed by the Industry City redevelopment and broader waterfront commercial activity. The N, R and D trains run direct to Manhattan, and rents have been pulled up by demand from a tenant base that includes both long-tenured immigrant households and newer arrivals priced out of the brownstone belt. Tenancy stability tends to be higher than in faster-churning gentrifier areas, which compresses vacancy risk relative to the headline yield.
Crown Heights (11213) sits between the two, gentrifying steadily on the back of brownstone supply and Prospect Park access, with demand spilling over from neighboring Prospect Heights at noticeably lower entry prices. Sunset Park/Industry City (11232) is anchored by the same Industry City effect as Sunset Park proper, and East Flatbush (11203) reflects the same affordability-driven rental demand further south. The common thread: investors who can underwrite Brooklyn's rent-stabilization framework and who are comfortable with neighborhoods earlier in their gentrification cycle capture the yield premium. The same buyer paying for Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights pays for completed gentrification, school quality and capital appreciation, not yield.
The Yield-Price Trade-Off Is Steep in Brooklyn
The inverse relationship between yield and entry price holds tightly. Sale prices in Brooklyn span from $503,543 in the cheapest 3-bed ZIP to $3,477,780 in the priciest, a sevenfold range. Rents do not move on the same scale: a tenant in a top-end Brooklyn Heights brownstone pays maybe two or three times what a tenant pays in East Flatbush, but the buyer pays close to seven times more. Yield is the residual.
An investor entering at $762,250 in Stuyvesant Heights/Bed-Stuy (11233) versus $1,065,940 at the city median faces a very different capital-risk profile. The lower entry price means less downside exposure, less mortgage stress, and faster equity buildup if the rental holds. The premium-suburb buyer is paying for the optionality of capital growth and a tenant pool that is less rate-sensitive, which is a different bet entirely. With NYC's short-term rental ban removing the option to lift income through nightly letting, that growth assumption has to do all the heavy lifting in the premium ZIPs.
Premium ZIPs Yield Less, Carrying a Capital Growth Thesis
For context, here is how some of Brooklyn's most in-demand neighborhoods compare. These are established, capital-growth-led areas where investors typically accept lower yields in exchange for liquidity, lifestyle amenity and a stronger long-term price trajectory.
High-demand, premium-priced Brooklyn ZIPs for context. Same methodology as the yield ranking above.
These ZIPs cluster around brownstone Brooklyn (Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, DUMBO) and the more recently developed waterfront condo stock, where the buyer thesis is appreciation, not income. Long-term yields can sit in the 1 to 2 percent range, well below the city median of 3.5%, but underwriting at this level typically assumes that capital growth and equity buildup compensate over a 7 to 10 year hold. With short-term letting off the table, that appreciation assumption has to carry the entire investment case.
What This Ranking Doesn't Show
This ranking has real limits, and treating it as a simple buy list would be a mistake. A high yield often signals depressed sale prices rather than strong rents, and Brooklyn's yield leaders tend to be neighborhoods where capital appreciation has lagged the brownstone-Brooklyn benchmark. If your thesis is 10-year total return rather than year-one cash flow, premium suburbs may still win on a total-return basis once the appreciation differential is accounted for.
Rent stabilization is the second factor the table cannot show. Many Brooklyn buildings of six or more units built before 1974 fall under New York's rent-stabilization framework, capping annual rent increases regardless of market movement. A high gross yield today says little about whether you can lift it. Vacancy risk is the third: some high-yield neighborhoods carry thinner rental pools than the medians suggest, and a 60-day vacancy in a $762,250 property erases more of the year's net income than the same gap in a Park Slope brownstone where you can re-let inside a week. The dashboard's market score methodology and data sources page document how each of these inputs is handled.
View Brooklyn in the dashboard →Free preview · every bedroom count and property type
For full per-neighborhood filtering and saved scenarios, $19 24-hour access. Get access
Brooklyn Sits Below the National Yield Median
Brooklyn's headline yield of 3.5% sits below the New York state median of 5.3% and the US national median of 5.3%. Only the top of the Brooklyn ranking, led by Stuyvesant Heights/Bed-Stuy (11233) at 5.8%, clears those benchmarks at all; the median Brooklyn ZIP and the entire premium tier trail them by 2 to 4 points. New York investors pursuing yield without leaving the state can find ZIPs in upstate cities like Syracuse and Rochester producing materially higher gross yields on the same property class, but the trade-offs (population decline, weaker rental demand, no Manhattan adjacency) explain why Brooklyn capital still flows here. The Brooklyn yield buyer is making a hybrid bet: outer-belt yield today plus the appreciation tailwind of a market with persistent demand pressure and constrained supply. For a same-city comparison across property types, see Brooklyn House vs Apartment: Apartments Lead Before HOA Costs. For a Queens yield ranking, see Rego Park (11374) Leads Queens Rental Yields at 6.8%.
Data reflects market conditions as of May 2026. Explore rental data in the dashboard for ZIP-level, bedroom-level and property-type filtering.
Explore Brooklyn in the dashboard
Free preview with neighborhood-level data, every bedroom count, every property type.
View Brooklyn →Need full filtering and saved scenarios?
$19 for 24-hour access. All neighborhoods, all property types. Get access
This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Regulations and market conditions change frequently. Verify current rules with local authorities before making investment decisions.
Methodology and Assumptions
Defaults used in the figures above. All inputs are adjustable in the dashboard.
How available nights are determined
Available nights default to 330 per year, reflecting an active operator with minimal blocked time. Where local regulations cap whole-home short-term lets (for example London at 90 nights, New South Wales at 180), the cap is applied. In markets where short-term rental requires owner-occupancy or is otherwise prohibited for investment properties, available nights drop to zero.
How occupancy is measured
The percentage of available nights that get booked, drawn from market data. A property listed for 200 nights with 100 bookings shows 50% occupancy. Adjustable in the dashboard.
Long-term rental management default
Defaults to self-managed (zero management fee), reflecting the most common arrangement for US individual investors. The dashboard slider lets you add a property manager fee if you plan to outsource.
Short-term rental management default
Set to self-managed (zero management fee) by default, the most common arrangement for individual investors. Hiring a professional manager typically costs 20-25% of gross revenue and reduces net yield proportionally. Toggle in the dashboard.
How property tax is calculated
Calculated as a percentage of property value, varying by state and county. California properties show lower effective rates due to Proposition 13's 1% cap on assessed value. Property tax sits with the owner; long-term tenants do not pay it.
Local regulations
Short-term rentals heavily restricted in New York. Investment properties generally not permitted; may require owner occupancy, specific zoning, or other conditions (permit required, $145). NYC Local Law 18 (2023) effectively bans most short-term rentals under 30 days. Hosts must register, be present during stays, and may host no more than 2 guests. Entire-home rentals under 30 days are prohibited.
Sampling and data sources
Short-term rental yield figures reflect properties currently listed on short-term rental platforms. In high-tourism markets, listings tend to concentrate in central postcodes, which can pull city-median yields above what residential areas of the same city would achieve. Yields for any specific suburb may differ materially from the city-wide median.
For metric definitions and broader methodology, see the About page.