RELOVA JOURNAL

Blog/Published April 30, 2026 · Updated September 19, 2026

How Expats Can Invest in Real Estate Remotely in 2026

By Anna Moore

Remote real estate investing for expats: gross yields in Tbilisi, Athens, Porto, Dubai, and Bali, and the fees that eat into them.

Trusting the Chain of People, Not the Market

Investing in property you've never visited, in a country where you don't speak the language, sounds reckless until you look at how it's actually done: remote real estate investing means trusting a chain of specific professionals — a power-of-attorney holder, an escrow or closing lawyer, and an ongoing property manager — rather than trusting the market itself. Get that chain right and the mechanics are genuinely manageable; get it wrong and no yield figure matters.

Gross Yields Across Tbilisi, Athens, Porto, Dubai, and Bali

The yields that draw people in are real but need context. Tbilisi commonly shows gross rental yields in the 6–9% range, among the highest in Europe-adjacent markets, though a meaningful chunk of that return depends on currency stability — the lari has been relatively steady, but investors converting back to dollars or euros should model a currency-risk scenario, not just the headline yield. Athens runs closer to 4–6% gross, propped up by strong tourism demand and short-term rental potential in central neighborhoods, though Greece has tightened short-term rental rules in some districts, which can compress net yield if you're counting on Airbnb-style income. Porto sits at the lower end, roughly 4–5% gross, constrained partly by licensing requirements for short-term rentals that have gotten stricter across Portugal in recent years. In the UAE, Dubai's freehold towers typically show 5–8% gross yields, though service charges on apartments — an ongoing building-maintenance fee separate from any management cost — can be substantial and need to be subtracted before comparing Dubai's number against a market without an equivalent charge. At the aggressive end, Bali leasehold villas are sometimes quoted at 8–12% gross, but leasehold is a materially different (and generally riskier) legal structure than freehold ownership, with the property reverting to the landowner at the end of a fixed term rather than being owned outright.

Property Management Fees That Eat Into Returns

None of these gross figures survive contact with actual management costs. A local property manager for long-term rentals typically takes 15–25% of rent as a fee, covering tenant-finding, maintenance coordination, and rent collection — a cost that's easy to forget when you're comparing headline yields across countries but that eats a fifth to a quarter of your top-line income every single month. Short-term rental managers, who handle guest turnover, cleaning, and platform listings for Airbnb-style properties, typically take a steeper 20–30% of revenue, reflecting the much higher operational workload of short stays versus a single long-term tenant.

Before you get to ongoing management, there are upfront legal costs that scale with how careful you are — and skipping them is the single most common way remote investors get burned. Title diligence, meaning a lawyer verifying the seller actually owns the property free of liens or disputed claims, typically runs €200–500, a cost that's trivial relative to the price of the property itself but is the step most likely to be skipped by investors trying to move fast. If you're buying via power of attorney rather than flying in to sign personally, notarizing that POA abroad — often through a consulate or an apostille process — typically costs €50–150. Both of these are non-negotiable line items for anyone investing without setting foot in the country before closing.

Currency Exposure and Hedging

Currency exposure is the other risk that compounds quietly over a holding period. If your rental income comes in a currency prone to swings against your home currency — the Turkish lira and, to a lesser extent, several emerging-market currencies are the classic examples — a strong yield in local-currency terms can still produce a loss once converted home. Hedging through forward contracts, or simply using a low-fee multi-currency platform like Wise to manage the conversion timing rather than converting automatically, is worth setting up before you buy, not after the first bad currency quarter.

REIT ETFs as the Liquid Alternative

For investors who want the yield exposure without any of the management overhead or illiquidity, REIT ETFs remain the standard liquid alternative — you give up the leverage and tax structuring that direct ownership can offer, but you gain the ability to exit in a week rather than the months a physical sale typically takes.

For a deeper look at the direct-ownership route specifically, see Expat Property Investment Guide 2026.

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