Cameroon ranked among countries with least affordable housing.

The ranking, released recently, revealed a concerning trend across African countries, disclosing a wide gap between property prices and average household incomes. 

The Price-to-Income Ratio, PIR, is the key metric used in the index. It compares the cost of a home to the median annual household income in a country. 

The higher the ratio, the more years of income it would take for a typical citizen to afford a house signaling poor affordability. 

Numbeo released the 2025 figures based on crowd-sourced entries across global cities and countries. The data paints a stark picture for countries like Ethiopia and Cameroon, where citizens face almost five decades of income sacrifice just to own a modest home. 

In contrast, some African nations, like South Africa, have some of the most affordable housing ratios on the continent. Experts blame the lack of mortgage banking, luxury-focused development, and the widening gap between housing demand and availability. 

The top eight African countries with the highest price-to-income ratios in 2025 include Ethiopia, Cameroon, Mauritius, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa.

Real estate pioneer, Ermias Amelga, described the Ethiopian market as oversupplied with expensive apartments and villas. 

He said: “Speculative investors are offloading properties at discounted rates”, noting that demand has slowed and confidence has dropped. 

In Addis Ababa, the situation is especially severe. Despite hosting institutions like the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the City Administration has repaid just 1.9% of its 25.85-billion-birr bond to the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia over the first three quarters of the fiscal year. 

Experts blame the lack of mortgage banking, luxury-focused development, and the widening gap between housing demand and availability. The crisis is also tied to a wider slowdown in Ethiopia’s real estate sector. 

Developers face longer sales cycles, while government efforts to regulate the industry and close the supply gap have struggled to gain traction. 

Besides Ethiopia, Cameroon is also facing problems with access to housing. In 2023, government launched a project for the construction of 3,060 new housing units in Olembe, Yaounde. 

The foundation stone was laid by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Célestine Ketcha Courtès. The initial pilot phase was aimed at building 60 housing units within nine months on a 5,000 m² space, including three buildings and a green area.

The second phase involves constructing the remaining 3,000 housing units on 20 hectares, which was expected to start in 2024 and spanning four years.

The project, entrusted to the Spanish group Pabloy Natalia Holding Group, PNHG, aligns with government's programme to build 10,000 social housing units and develop 50,000 buildable plots. 

The ministry said PNHG has a pragmatic approach to revitalising the programme and meeting the increasing demand, following less satisfactory results from previous initiatives.

The housing deficit in Cameroon is estimated at 2.5 million units.  Authorities said the situation is due to demographic growth, poverty, and unemployment. 

To address the shortfall, government initiated a programme in 2010 to construct 10,000 units, aiming to provide access to decent housing for Cameroonians. 

The initial phase of the programme included the construction of 1,675 homes in Yaounde and Douala, with 500 earmarked for Olembe.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3483 of Tuesday June 24, 2025