Nairobi Is Only African City Featuring In Prime Global Cities

Nairobi is the only African city listed among 45 global cities that recorded annual growth in Q3 2022.

The Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index, which tracks movement in the top five percent of residential prices across 45 global cities, reported that global prime price growth dipped for the second consecutive quarter.

According to the report, Nairobi recorded 2.9 percent growth in the year from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022 and posted a change of 0.4 percent in the last six months and 0.5 percent over the last three months.

The Prime Global Cities Index places Nairobi two positions ahead of London and one position behind Geneva. Wellington City in Australasia, the region consisting of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and neighboring islands in the Pacific Ocean, closes the list of the 45 cities surveyed.

Slowdown

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.

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

The Index

The index, which tracks the movement in the top 5 percent of residential prices across 45 global cities, recorded average annual growth of 7.5 percent in Q3 2022, down from a peak of 10 percent in Q1 2022.

However, at 7.5 percent, annual growth still sits above the index’s average five-year growth rate of 4.4 percent, and the number of cities registering year-on-year price falls has only shifted from six last quarter to seven this quarter.

Those markets that registered some of the strongest price rises during the pandemic are well represented amongst this group: San Francisco, Toronto, Wellington, Stockholm, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Seoul, as well as some Chinese mainland cities.

In prime central London (2.7 percent) prices are now rising at their fastest rate since Q1 2015. Meanwhile, in New York, the rate of annual growth has dipped to 5.2 percent from 7.1 percent last quarter, but it remains well above its average rate of growth over the last five years of -1.2 percent.

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