Nairobi Ranked Prime City In Africa

Nairobi is the only African city listed among 45 global cities that recorded annual growth in Q3 2022, a new report shows.

According to the latest Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index, Nairobi recorded 2.9 percent growth in the year from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022.

The report which tracks movement in the top five percent of residential prices across 45 global cities noted that Nairobi posted a change of 0.4 percent in the last six months and 0.5 percent over the last three months.

Overall, Nairobi ranked position 29, two positions ahead of London and one position behind Geneva.

In first place was Dubai, recording an 88.8 percent growth in Q3 2022 compared to Q3 2021, Miami came second after posting a 30.8 percent growth while Tokyo came third after posting a 17 percent growth.

Prime is defined as the most desirable and expensive property in a location, defined as the top 5 percent of each market by value.

“In the period under review, the average annual growth dropped from 10 percent in Q1 to 7.5 percent in Q3,” Knight Frank notes.

The report indicates a marked slowdown, as 19 out of the 45 cities tracked registered a decline between June and September 2022.

It noted that resilient labour markets, a lack of supply and well capitalised lenders will support prime prices in most markets into 2023.

“However, the transition out of a sustained period of low lending rates will lead to pinch points in some markets, particularly amongst highly-leveraged prime landlords, potentially adding to stock levels in some cities,” Knight Frank noted.