Rwanda Housing Index

How the index is built

The Rwanda Housing Index follows the prices recorded in the land register, which is the only place a Rwandan price is written down by the parties to a sale.

What it measures

The average price per square metre of land transactions recorded by the National Land Authority, by year, for Rwanda, the five provinces and the thirty districts. The index sets 2019 to 100.

Why it starts in 2019

2018 is the first year the register priced anything. In fourteen districts its prices jump or collapse against 2019 and three have no 2018 point, so it is excluded below national level and kept in the download.

What it is not

It is an average, not a quality-adjusted or repeat-sales index, so a year that records more large rural plots reads lower. Nationally it is the land authority’s own line. The urban composite is Ziinga’s: the household-weighted mean of the ten districts with 100,000 or more urban residents.

Part years

The latest year runs to the land authority’s last update. Its average price is a fair comparison with a whole year; its transaction count is not, and is not compared.

Reading one year

Small districts swing. Above a volatility of 0.30 a single year’s change is flagged, and the trend is the better guide.

Not published here: a national price built from districts, any 2018 price below national level, and an affordability ratio, which needs household income by district that nobody publishes.

Sources and limits