Rental Housing in Africa

While much policy and research focus in housing concerns home ownership, urban Africa demonstrates high levels of residential rental activity, in most cases, despite limiting policy environments. Yet, there are still severe shortages in most African cities, particularly at the lower end of the market. The residential rental stock that does exist is often of poor condition, sometimes prohibitively expensive and can be subject to unreasonable conditions on the tenants. With more players, more developments and more rental options for households, the current issues with rental stock will ease. The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) believes that, for investment in housing to increase, better data and information is required so that investors can better quantify the risk and the opportunity. CAHF does research to support the data needs of investors in rental housing, and works to set an agenda for further research and interventions, both in terms of the financing of affordable rental across Africa and in its multiple forms, and key policy interventions that would support its sustainable growth.

See our new Focus Note series for Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tanzania.  A full paper on the methodology for quantifying rental markets is also available. Full report on rental markets are available for Angola and Cameroon (in French). The executive summary for the Cameroon report can be accessed in English here.

CAHF, in partnership with FSD Mozambique (FSDMoc), has also published a study on Mozambique’s rental housing market.

In addition to our research focused specifically on rental markets, our Housing and the Economy Project also includes important data on rental markets. The Housing Economic Value Chain reports–published for Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Cote d’Ivoire–quantify the impact of the rental market on the country’s GDP, as part of the larger contribution of the housing construction and rental value chains to the economy. Visit the Housing and Economy Project Page, or the individual country reports (below) for more information.