Methodology
What we count, the statistic we use, and how figures are labelled and cited.
Each index counts flats and houses with 1 to 5 bedrooms first published on Private Property in the three months ending with that month. The Rent Index covers listings to rent, the House Price Index listings for sale, and the Short-let Index short-lets priced by the night. Studios, rooms, homes with 6 or more bedrooms, land and commercial property are not in these series.
Figures are published for Nigeria, each state, each city or LGA and each area, for flats, for houses and for both together, and for each bedroom count.
Rent: the yearly rent. Rents advertised by the month are multiplied by 12; rents advertised by the day or week are left out. Sale: the price of the whole property; prices per square metre are left out. Short-let: the nightly rate; short-lets priced by the week or month are left out, not divided down to a night.
Each figure is the median asking price: half the listings asked more and half asked less. A single mansion cannot move it the way it moves an average. The typical range runs from the lower quartile to the upper quartile, so it covers the middle half of listings.
Asking prices bunch on round numbers, so we use a grouped median: prices are sorted into narrow bands, each 5% wider than the one below, and the median is placed within its band by how many listings sit either side. A few more listings at ₦8M than at ₦7M then nudge the figure, rather than flipping it from one round price to the next. Each month's figure covers the three months ending with it, which smooths it further; changes on last month therefore move gently, and changes on a year ago compare windows that don't overlap.
A missing comparison reads Not available, never 0%. Biggest moves only use states and cities with 100 or more listings in both months; a city that moved exactly as its state is left out.
Gross yield = a year's median asking rent ÷ the median asking price × 100, for the same place, property type and bedroom count in the same month. It is worked out for flats or for houses, never both together, because they rent and sell at different ratios. Both figures need 100 or more listings, and we only publish yields from 1% to 12%; outside that range a mismatch between the rent and sale listings is more likely than a real yield. It is a gross yield: before service charge, maintenance, agency fees, empty months and tax.
Each month's figures are worked out once the month ends, from listings first published in the three months ending with it, and are not changed afterwards. Figures for months before the launch of the index were worked out the same way, at the asking price each listing carries today.
The figures are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0): you can quote, chart and republish them, including commercially, as long as you credit Private Property and link to the page you took them from.