How much does a holiday home in Sardinia earn on average?

A reliable average does not exist, and anyone offering you one over the phone is guessing. Published averages lump together homes that are not comparable: a studio in the city and a villa with a pool near the beach, a full year and a year that started in July. What your home earns can only be estimated from real comparables in your own micro-area, with the same number of beds and the same features.

What really drives the return of a home in Sardinia?

The exact location and the real distance from the sea (minutes on foot, not kilometres on a map), the genuine number of beds, parking, outdoor space and any pool, features such as air conditioning and wifi, the length of the usable season, the quality of the photographs and the opening price. Two homes on the same street can close the year with very different income.

How long does the short-let season last in Sardinia?

The usable window is narrow and the central weeks of summer fill almost by themselves. The difference between one home and another is played out on the shoulder season, on the average length of stay and on peak pricing. A home that opens in May and closes in October and one that only works in August share an address and have two different sets of accounts.

How is a serious estimate built?

You start from real comparables: homes similar to yours, in the same micro-area, with the same number of beds and the same features, observed across a full year. From there you rebuild a plausible calendar (how many weeks are sellable, at what price in each band, with what average length of stay), then you subtract the costs one by one and arrive at the net figure.

Which costs do owners forget when they do the sums themselves?

Cleaning and linen changes, summer utilities (air conditioning running all day adds up), platform commissions, routine maintenance and replacing what wears out, plus tax. The tourist tax, on the other hand, is not a cost: you collect it from the guest and pay it over to the municipality, so it passes straight through and is not the owner's revenue.

Why look at the net figure and not at gross income?

Because the gross figure is not comparable with anything. Two homes with identical gross income can leave the owner with very different amounts, depending on running costs, commissions and tax. The net figure is the only number you can set beside the alternative of a long let, or beside the cost of keeping the home closed.

How much a holiday home in Sardinia really earns

An average return for a home in Sardinia does not exist, and anyone offering you one over the phone is guessing. Two homes on the same street, with the same floor area, close the year with different income: what changes is the real distance from the sea, the genuine number of beds, parking, outdoor space, the length of the usable season, the photographs and the opening price. A serious number does exist, but it comes later: it is built on comparables from your own micro-area and read net, not gross.

You will not find a table of returns by location here. You will find which factors really move the result, how an estimate that holds up is put together, and which costs always vanish from the sums owners do on their own.

1. Why there is no single figure

The averages circulating online add up things that do not belong together: a one-bedroom flat in the city and a villa with a pool two hundred metres from the beach, a full year and a year that began in mid July. The result is a number that describes no existing home, least of all yours.

Then there is the practical reason: nobody can know what your home earns without having seen it. The return comes from a dozen variables that all sit inside that property and on that street, and there is no statistical shortcut that replaces them.

When somebody quotes you a figure before knowing the address, they are doing one thing only: selling. That number is there to secure the appointment, not to help you decide.

2. The factors that really move the result

The exact location and the real distance from the sea. Not kilometres on a map: minutes on foot with two children, the towels and a cool box. Three hundred metres on the flat and three hundred uphill are two different listings.

The genuine number of beds. A sofa bed in the living room is not a bed in a bedroom. Families filter by number of guests, then read how those beds are arranged: if the count is inflated, the reviews come back lukewarm, and a lukewarm review in June costs you the whole of the following season.

Parking. In Sardinia almost everyone arrives by car or hires one on landing. A guaranteed parking space, ideally in the shade, lifts the price you can hold through the peak weeks.

Outdoor space and a pool. A shaded veranda that is usable at three in the afternoon changes how the home is perceived more than an extra bedroom does. A pool moves a lot, but it brings maintenance and checks that belong in the same year's budget.

Air conditioning, real wifi, a washing machine. These are not premium features: they are the minimum conditions for not collecting bad reviews in July.

The photographs and the opening price. These are the two most underrated levers. The very same home, photographed two different ways, does not get the same number of clicks; and the price of the first weeks decides the first reviews, which decide the visibility of the entire season. You either start well or you spend the year catching up.

3. The Sardinian season is a narrow window

What you charge in mid August is not the point: in mid August almost everything fills, badly managed homes included. What counts is what you manage around it.

The game turns on three things. The shoulder season, where it is genuinely won or lost, because there the demand has to be gone after. The average length of stay, because every changeover has a cost and every two-night gap is a straight loss. And peak pricing, because the central weeks should be neither sold off in January for peace of mind nor left empty in August out of pride.

A home that opens in May and closes in October and one that only works in the central weeks share an address and have two different sets of accounts. The difference is not the property: it is how it is sold.

4. How a serious estimate is built

You start from real comparables, not from the average: homes similar to yours, in the same micro-area, with the same number of beds and the same features, looked at across a full year and not across one week in August. Micro-area means your side of the street, not your municipality.

From there you rebuild a plausible calendar: how many weeks are genuinely sellable, at what price in each band, with what average length of stay. Then you subtract the costs, one by one, and arrive at the net figure. It is not an algorithm, it is manual work that takes an hour when it is done properly. It is also the only thing worth handing an owner in writing. Everything else is a promise.

5. The items that disappear from a home-made calculation

When an owner does the sums alone, they usually start from the income and take two things off. The items that are almost always missing are these: cleaning at every changeover, linen washed and replaced, summer utilities (air conditioning left on all day by someone who is not paying the bill adds up), platform commissions, maintenance and the replacement of everything a season wears out, and tax.

One item that is not a cost, even though everybody throws it in the pile: the tourist tax. You collect it from the guest and pay it over to the municipality: it passes straight through and is not your revenue.

6. The gross figure tells you nothing

Gross income is the number used to impress, and it is also the only one that is no use for deciding: two homes with the same gross income can leave the owner with very different amounts, because running costs, channel mix and tax regime all differ.

The net figure is the only number you can set beside something else: beside the rent of a long let, beside the cost of keeping the home closed, beside what you would do with that money elsewhere. If an estimate does not reach the net figure, it is not an estimate: it is a headline.

7. What we can say about ourselves, and what we cannot

We manage 90+ properties and have generated over €1 million in revenue for owners. For homes that moved from the owner's previous management, Propertize currently publishes a historical portfolio range of +30% to +140%. It is neither an average nor a guarantee, and performance depends on the property, area and period. We distribute across 50+ portals and have a 5.0/5 average Google rating.

What we do not do, and will not do, is give you a percentage return before we have seen your home. If you need a number, you need it on the real property.

Note. The increases from +30% to +140% refer to properties in the Propertize portfolio that moved from the owner's own previous management to ours. It is the historical range currently published by Propertize; it is neither an average nor a guarantee. Performance depends on the property, area and period. This guide explains a method and is not an estimate of the return on your own property.

Owners still ask me what their home earns before they have told me which street it is on. I understand why: they want to know whether the conversation is worth continuing. But if I answered with a figure, I would be lying to them in the first minute.

We manage these homes ourselves, every day, and the surprises are always in the details a data sheet never shows: the steep stairs, the parking space that only exists until June, the west-facing veranda that in July can only be used in the evening. Those are the things that move the calendar, and the calendar is the number.

If you want a figure for your own home, ask for the free valuation: we look at the comparables in your micro-area and leave you with a reasoned net figure instead of an average. Even if you then decide to carry on alone, you keep that sheet, and it is what you use to compare anyone else.

Edoardo PisanuCEO of Propertize

Last updated in August 2026. We review figures, rules and references periodically; before making tax or operational decisions, check the linked sources and your circumstances with a qualified adviser.

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Want a figure for your home, not for an average? Ask for the free valuation: we start from the comparables in your area and work through to the net figure. The page for owners explains how we work.