Nairobi among 13 cities that recorded growth drop

NAIROBI, KENYA: Nairobi prime real estate recorded a drop in luxury property prices in the 12 months between June 2016 and June 2016, going down 2.4 per cent.

From January to June 2017, however, the prices remained almost static, with a 0.9 per cent growth, and no change (growth or drop) between March and June.

This is according to the Knight Frank’s Prime Global Cities Index, which tracks the movement in luxury residential prices across 41 cities worldwide.

This development saw Nairobi among the 13 cities, out of the 41 tracked, that recorded a drop in growth. However, even those that saw a growth have remained static. “Overall, 28 of the 41 cities (68 per cent) recorded flat or rising luxury prices over the 12-month period, a figure that has remain largely static in the last two years,” says the report.

While some of Nairobi’s fortunes could be attributed to the just-concluded elections, it is indicative that prices at the top end of the market have only shown slight changes over the last few years.

The same index last year showed that luxury home prices in the city increased by 2.1 per cent between June 2015 and June 2016, and by 1.3 per cent from December 2015 to June 2016. At the same time, Knight Frank’s Prime Global Rental Index last year showed rents in this segment fell by 9.2 per cent between June 2015 and June 2016.

Back to this year’s performance, Russia was most affected with St Petersburg and Moscow recording a drop of 7.6 per cent and 11.8 per cent respectively between June 2016 and June 2017.

The other end of the scale saw China leading in growth with three cities in the top five in terms of price growth, with Guangzhou leading the charge at 35.6 per cent. Shanghai and Beijing are fourth and fifth, respectively at 19.7 per cent and 15 per cent.

The index, however, reckons that even this growth in prices had more to it: “All three Chinese cities tracked by our index recorded a decline in annual growth compared with the rate seen last quarter.”