As urbanisation accelerates across Africa, housing demand is soaring—leading to rising rental prices and growing affordability concerns in cities across the continent.
With Africa’s population estimated at 1.5 billion in 2024 and increasing by around 100 million every three years, the strain on urban housing markets is becoming more intense. For many households, rent is now the largest monthly expense, impacting migration patterns, reducing disposable income, and exposing the broader challenges of housing shortages and inflation in fast-growing urban centres.
A recent analysis, based on Numbeo’s 2025 Rent Index and published by the press, highlights the African countries where it is most expensive to rent a home. Numbeo, a global crowd-sourced database for cost of living data, uses New York City as the benchmark with an index value of 100. A Rent Index of 20, for instance, means the average rent in that country is 20% of what it costs in New York.
The ranking reveals the top 10 African countries with the highest rent levels relative to New York, offering additional context on population size, regional location, and major urban hubs contributing to rising housing costs.
Mauritius ranks 10th on the list of Africa’s most expensive countries to rent in 2025, with a Rent Index of 9.7—a slight drop from its 2024 ranking, where it placed eighth with an index of 11.0.
Located in southeastern Africa, Mauritius continues to grapple with elevated rental prices driven by limited land availability and growing urbanisation. As of June 2025, the country’s population stands at approximately 1,268,340, with about 41.5% (around 526,689 people) residing in urban areas. With a compact land area of just 2,030 square kilometres and a high population density of 625 people per square kilometre, cities like Port Louis, Curepipe, and Quatre Bornes are experiencing significant housing demand that far outpaces supply.
As urban migration accelerates and housing markets tighten, managing rental affordability will remain a pressing challenge for policymakers and residents across Africa.
