Moroccan cities Rabat and Casablanca are among the 10 African cities with the most expensive real estate markets in 2024, according to rankings on the Business Insider Africa website.
The platform Numbeo, known for its economic index, showed that Rabat’s price-to-income ratio reaches 16.8–ranking 50th–globally while Casablanca’s price-to-income ratio stands at 15.8 and takes the 57th spot worldwide.
Business Insider Africa noted that this rise in property prices is due to economic booms and rapid urbanization.
According to the website, the residential real estate segment is likely to dominate the African real estate industry, with a projected market volume of $13.39 trillion in 2024. Global data and business intelligence portal Statista also revealed that the market is expected to reach a value of $15.98 trillion by that year.
“The market is expected to witness a yearly growth rate of 5.92% between 2024 and 2028, leading to a market volume of US$20.11 trillion by 2028,” it said.
Douala, Cameroon, takes the lead as the African city with the highest real estate costs, followed by Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Algiers, Algeria.
The price-to-income ratio is a fundamental measure for apartment purchase affordability, where a lower ratio indicates better affordability.