Dominican Republic Property Taxes and Buying Costs: What a Non-Resident Landlord Actually Keeps

The Dominican Republic pays an 8.53% gross rental yield and taxes non-resident landlords at a flat 27% of the gross, with no deductions. Here is what survives.

Two numbers drive most purchase decisions in the Dominican Republic, and they pull against each other. Gross rental yield in the Glopra snapshot of 23 July 2026 (methodology v3) is 8.53%, at the top of the range across the markets Glopra tracks. The tax on that income, if you are not tax-resident in the country, is 27% of the gross rather than of the profit.

How much of the 8.53% gross yield reaches a non-resident owner?

Article 305 of the Código Tributario obliges whoever pays you — the tenant, the agency, the management company — to withhold the Article 297 rate of 27% before the money leaves the country. Twenty-seven per cent of 8.53 is 2.30 percentage points, which leaves 6.23%. That is before the annual IPI, insurance, management and repairs.

Six point two three per cent is still a strong figure by international comparison. It is simply not the figure printed in the brochure.

Why can a non-resident landlord deduct nothing at all?

Dominican law treats the gross amount as though it were the net. Article 305 describes the withholding as a pago único y definitivo — a single, final payment — and fixes the taxable income on the gross sum sin admitir prueba en contrario, without admitting evidence to the contrary. That last clause is what closes the argument: it is an irrebuttable presumption, so mortgage interest, maintenance, agency commission and depreciation play no part in the calculation.

Ley 30-26, passed in 2026, left the treatment exactly where it was.

What do the 7.1% round-trip transaction costs cover?

The same Glopra snapshot of 23 July 2026 puts round-trip transaction costs — everything paid on the way in and on the way out — at 7.1% of the purchase price. The single largest item is the 3% transfer tax, charged on the value the DGII assesses rather than on the price you negotiated. Notary work, title registry filing and legal due diligence account for most of the balance.

Measured against a gross yield of 8.53%, that 7.1% is roughly ten months of rent spent before the property has earned anything. Over a two-year hold it is a heavy drag; over ten years it thins out.

Is 2,447 US dollars per square metre expensive for Santo Domingo?

That is the Glopra capital average for 23 July 2026, carrying a high confidence rating. Next to almost any North American or Western European capital it reads as cheap. Set against local earnings it reads differently: the price-to-income ratio is 13.8, so a typical household would need close to fourteen years of undivided income to buy an average home outright.

In US dollar terms, prices rose 8.9% over the twelve months to that snapshot date. For a foreign buyer whose returns are denominated in dollars, that is the framing that matters.

Does CONFOTUR change the arithmetic?

For certified developments in designated tourism zones it does. The regime can lift both the 3% transfer tax and the annual IPI for a defined period, which pulls the entry cost below the 7.1% national figure. The exemption attaches to the certified project rather than to the neighbourhood, so the question for a developer is whether this specific building holds a current CONFOTUR resolution and how much of its term remains.

CONFOTUR does not touch the 27% withheld from rental income paid to a non-resident. That is income tax under Article 297 and it applies whatever the building's tourism status.

Glopra's bubble score for the country is 32 out of 100, at the low end of the moderate band — a market running warm on price growth rather than one flashing the credit and valuation signals that push a score toward the top of the scale.

Before you model a return, put one question to your accountant: who will act as withholding agent on your rent, and can they show proof that the 27% is being remitted?

This article is information only and is not legal, tax or investment advice.

Sources

Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII), dgii.gov.do

Código Tributario de la República Dominicana, Ley 11-92, Articles 297 and 305

Ley 30-26 (2026)

Ley 158-01, CONFOTUR regime

Glopra snapshot 2026-07-23, methodology v3

Market data: Punta Cana · Dominican Republic