Home prices reach whopping average of P1m
Lewanika Timothy | Monday October 6, 2025 06:00
Rental prices followed suit, climbing to an average of P5,000, enriching investors but pushing home ownership further out of reach for the average Motswana.
Property prices have been rising across all segments particularly the residential market in Gaborone, with market watchers warning of concentration in the urban area. The latest report by property group, Ribbery, quoted in the central bank’s latest monetary policy report, shows that property prices rose a notch higher with residential homes costing close to a whopping P1 million on average.
Property market researchers noted that low-end residential homes were attracting an average price between P400,000 to P800,000 whilst high-end properties rose by over 24.3% quarter on quarter to over P947,000.
“The report indicates high demand for affordable prime located houses up to P5,000 for rentals and P400,000–P800,000 for purchase, amid limited supply. “For medium-end to upper-market houses, the supply increased from early 2022, plateaued in early 2024, and decelerated by mid-to-late 2024,” Ribbery researchers said.
They added: “The average price for residential properties sold in the fourth quarter of 2024 was P947,639, a 24.3% increase compared to the third quarter of 2024, attributable to the increase in the number of high-valued properties traded in the quarter under review.
Whilst prices surge, incomes have not kept pace. According to a Statistics Botswana labour survey released last year, the country’s top earners (professionals and managers) took home an average of P21,942 per month. They were followed by professionals and technicians at P19,653, associate professionals at P13,725, and the lowest earners at just P1,393.
The shortage of liquidity in the financial sector is predicted to drive market prices down, Ribbery researchers said.
“The current liquidity squeeze is expected to put significant pressure on the property market moving forward. “While the fourth quarter of 2024 showed some positive trends, a shortage of credit in the banking system will likely lead to tighter mortgage lending conditions and reduced buyer activity, particularly in the high-end market,” researchers noted.
There have been concerns over the rising price of residential properties in Gaborone, with banks also tying millions and millions of their loan books to a sharply increasing number of developments. The trend has raised concerns over fair pricing practices in the capital, with worries of a potential bubble forming in the residential real estate market.
The Financial Stability Council (FSC), in one of its reports last year, sounded similar concerns over the growing concentration of real estate loans in the capital, Gaborone, warning that such 'location risk' could pose vulnerabilities to the broader financial system, despite currently low default rates.
“There are, however, outstanding concerns about concentration (location) risk, given that most loans finance properties in or around Gaborone,” the FSC cautioned.
The warning echoed growing market concerns about Gaborone’s saturated property market.
Analysts have said the growing asset bubble in Gaborone, where runaway property prices are increasingly not reflective of forced sale prices, will expose banks and developers to heightened risks if economic conditions worsen or if demand drops.
Last year a property market segment update in the BoB household indebtedness report, noted a softening in the local property market during the first quarter. The residential market, in particular, had experienced an increasing vacancy rate with supply outpacing demand.
According to the bank’s Credit Conditions Survey for the second quarter of 2025, some commercial banks reported slightly reduced demand for residential property loans by households, whilst for others, demand remained unchanged during the March–May 2025 period.
The central bank noted that demand for residential properties was taking a dip due to slow lending by financial institutions as the country’s financial space continues to be subdued by tight lending conditions.
“The Survey projects a further decline in household demand for residential property loans for the June–August 2025 period, due to tighter lending conditions. “This projected decrease in demand for residential property loans may translate into reduced demand for residential properties and, thus, exert downward pressure on property prices,” researchers noted.