Nairobi, Kenya has been listed as Africa’s number one destination for real estate investment by Knight Frank, a real estate agency with over 500 offices across the globe.
According to business reports, over the last 12 months, premium residential prices in Nairobi have increased by 3.5 percent. Between Q3 2021 and Q1 2022, the city had a 2.4 percent change in six months and a 1.3 percent change between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022.
Of course, these interesting figures and a complete positive turnaround affected the ranking. Sources claim that the ranking only includes Nairobi as an African city to be chosen by Knight Frank. This is a positively reassuring event since it means that Nairobi now stands in the global market as a giant in the real estate market.
Prime residential property, as defined by Knight Frank, is the most desirable and expensive property in a specific location, often defined as the top 5% of any market by value.
Knight Frank Kenya’s Head of Residential Agency, Tarquin Gross, explained that the pent-up demand is to blame for this increase. As the world entered Q4 2021, two years after the pandemic began, there was a sense of normalcy returning. “I suspect that buyers’ resumption plans were motivated by their desire to go on with their lives. We also saw many expatriates return to Kenya now that the virus seemed to be over,” Gross added.
Knight Frank LLP was founded in 1896 in London by John Knight, Howard Frank, and William Rutley as an estate agency and residential and commercial property consulting. Knight Frank is one of the world’s major worldwide property consultancies, together with its American partner Cresa.
While Nairobi seems to be setting a positive real estate pace in Africa, Dubai seems to be doing the same in the middle east. From the third quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, Dubai emerged as the city with the fastest rising prime prices in the Middle East, with a 58.9% change in a year and a 23.2 percent change in six months.
Others who were also ranked include; Miami City, Toronto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles were ranked second, third, fourth, and fifth in North America, respectively.
According to Knight Frank’s data, since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a decrease in the price rise of prime properties. However, top cities continue to grow at a rate of 9% each year on average.
Wellington, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen witnessed yearly growth rates fall by 17%, 15%, 8%, and 7%, respectively, between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, according to the research.
Recall that Kenya was listed back in 2021 as a new hotspot for the world’s wealthiest people looking for second residences. The Kenyan city, as well as the country’s shoreline and the countryside surrounding Mount Kenya, were among the hotspots identified in the 2018 analysis by real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
The report claimed that Kenya is on the radar of 4% of the world’s wealthy individuals, in search of new houses, and ultra-wealthy Africans consider it one of their top five destinations for a second home.
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