New build or resale: which is better to invest in

The question is usually put as though one answer were right for everyone. In fact a new build and resale solve different problems: the first gives price growth up to handover, the second gives rent from the first month. What you choose depends on your timescale and your appetite for risk, not on which is better.

As at October 2026 our database holds 6,266 apartments: 4,131 on the resale market and 2,135 developer units across 425 complexes. The figures below come from the same database.

What a new build gives you

A lower entry price for the same floor area. At an early stage the metre costs less than in a finished building next door, and the difference between the foundation stage and handover is the return the investor is counting on.

Instalments without a bank. The deposit in Odesa new builds usually starts at seven or ten per cent, and in some buildings the payment period runs to sixty months. That lets you enter a property without the whole sum in hand.

Everything new: services, lift, courtyard, parking. An apartment that needs no rebuilding lets faster and for more.

The cost of that is time and risk. The money does not work until handover, and handover arrives later than promised more often than not. Our database contains complexes dated 2029 and 2030, which is five years without income.

What resale gives you

Income from the first month. The apartment can be let immediately, and the tenant pays while the price does or does not rise on its own.

A property you can see. The building stands, the neighbours are known, the courtyard is visible, the water either runs or does not. The risk is not whether it will be finished but only in the documents, and that risk is checked before the deposit.

An exit at any time. A resale apartment can be sold when you need to, not when a developerʼs contract allows it.

The cost of that is a higher entry price and the money needed to put it right. And one thing people rarely consider: an older building may levy a contribution for major repairs or a new lift.

The figures worth comparing

The metre by number of rooms as at October 2026: one bedroom 1 300 $, two bedroom 1,398, three bedroom 1,112, four bedroom 1,030. For an investor that is the key number here: small flats cost more per metre precisely because demand for them, including rental demand, is the strongest.

The metre by district: Prymorskyi 1,567, Kyivskyi 1,278, Khadzhybeiskyi 1,061, Peresypskyi 900. Almost a twofold difference within one city, and rental yield in percentage terms is often higher in the cheaper districts, because rents fall less steeply than purchase prices.

Entry into the market: 454 listings under 30 thousand dollars and 1,176 between 30 and 50 thousand. That is the segment where buy to let purchases usually happen.

Choosing for your own purpose

If you need the money back within a year or two, an early stage new build does not suit: either you cannot exit, or you exit at a loss.

If the aim is rental income, look at one bedroom and small two bedroom resale flats in districts with steady demand and close to transport. The metre costs more there, but a tenant is found faster and the void periods are shorter.

If the aim is to hold a sum for five years or more, a new build in a complex with slow but real construction gives more. Here what matters is the developer and the contract rather than the entry price.

And in either case, count the costs above the price: duties at the deal, renovation, furniture, void periods. Without them a yield calculation always looks better than reality.

What belongs in a yield calculation

Rental yield is not the annual rent divided by the price. That formula leaves out half the costs, which is exactly why it looks attractive in advertising.

From the annual rent you have to subtract: the empty months, usually one or two a year; the utilities the owner pays between tenants; small repairs and replacing appliances, because everything wears out faster in a rented apartment; the tax on rental income; and the building management contributions.

Then to the purchase price you have to add the closing fees, the renovation before the first tenant, and furniture with appliances. For a small apartment that is often a tenth of the price, and it eats the first year whole.

After those two corrections the yield in Odesa usually comes out noticeably below the figure quoted at a viewing. That does not mean investing is a bad idea: it means the comparison has to be made on clean numbers rather than advertised ones.

And keep liquidity in mind separately: a property that rents quickly usually sells quickly too, and that is an investor main insurance.

What to do next

We calculate the yield on a specific property rather than for the city: the purchase price, the real rent in that district, the costs and the exit timescale. The valuation is free, and afterwards it is clear which of the two options is yours.