Top 10 African cities with the least affordable housing

In recent years, the global real estate market has been marked by a remarkable trend of skyrocketing property prices. 

This surge in property values has far-reaching implications, affecting everyone from prospective homebuyers and renters to investors, policymakers, and even the overall economy. Depending on the economic climate of a particular location, various places have varied property prices. The African continent is not an exception to this rule. 

Africa is a continent diverse in culture, geography, and of course economics. Some regions have a fairly decent standard of living while others may not be so fortunate. As a result, the price for property differs based on where you find yourself in. 

As a result, there are indicators out there showing which regions are more expensive to live in and which ones are cheaper. Numbeo is one such platform with its own indicators. This platform generally highlights the differences in the standard of living across the globe, including the difference in property values. 

Courtesy of Numbeo, below are the 10 African cities with the highest property prices. This list is an update from Top 5 African countries with the least affordable housing.

Methodology

The values in the list are reflective of Numbeo’s price-to-income ratio. 

The price-to-income ratio is a fundamental measure for apartment purchase affordability, where a lower ratio indicates better affordability. It is typically calculated as the ratio of median apartment prices to median familial disposable income, expressed as years of income (although variations are used elsewhere). 

Numbeo’s formula assumes and uses: net disposable family income, as defined as 1.5 * the average net salary (50% is the accepted percentage of women in the workforce) median apartment size is 90 square meters price per square meter (the formula uses) is the average price of square meter in the city centre and outside of the city centre.

PS: Numbeo notes that there is no standard formula to calculate property price indices. The platform’s formulas differ from other research institution’s indexes such as the Case-Shiller Index, UK Housing Price Index, etc.