(3 Minutes Read)
Namibia’s coastal housing sector has staged a notable recovery in the third quarter of 2025, buoyed by strong foreign demand and renewed investor confidence, according to the latest FNB House Price Index Report.
The report indicates that average coastal house prices increased by 1.2% year-on-year, reversing the -0.3% contraction seen in the previous quarter. However, this growth remains slightly below the 2.7% expansion recorded during the same period in 2024. The average house price along the coast climbed to N$1.48 million, supported largely by heightened buying activity in the small and medium market segments.
FNB’s Market Research Manager, Mandisa van Wyk, attributed the rebound to persistent international demand and an upsurge in local investment in rental properties, despite continued sluggishness in household mortgage credit growth. “The coastal region’s rebound is underpinned by sustained interest from foreign buyers and growing local investment in rental housing,” Van Wyk emphasized.
In terms of transaction activity, the coastal market recorded a 41.5% surge in transaction volumes, up from 35% in the second quarter and rebounding from a 4.7% contraction a year earlier. Breaking it down by segment, small homes grew 42.3%, medium homes 35.8%, and large properties skyrocketed by 183.6% on a 12-month average. However, FNB cautioned that the spike in large-property transactions was influenced by base effects, as only 13 transactions were recorded in that category, with no luxury sales during the quarter.
The coastal region’s share of national housing transactions dipped slightly to 20.0% in Q3 2025 from 20.7% in Q2, though it remained higher than the 16.9% share reported in the same quarter of 2024.
On a national level, Namibia’s housing market demonstrated continued resilience. The FNB House Price Index rose 5.9% year-on-year, a slowdown from 7.7% in the previous quarter. The average national house price increased to N$1.38 million, up from N$1.36 million in Q2 and N$1.30 million a year earlier. Transaction volumes also expanded 18.4% year-on-year, marking the third consecutive quarter of growth since late 2024.
Despite the positive momentum, mortgage credit growth remained subdued at 0.6% year-on-year in September 2025, down from 0.8% in August. FNB attributed this weakness to ongoing affordability challenges, with the market increasingly dominated by high-income and cash buyers rather than mortgaged households.
Van Wyk noted that broader macroeconomic conditions had offered some relief to the housing sector. The Bank of Namibia’s decision to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50% in October 2025 provided some support amid slower GDP growth of 1.6% in Q2 and easing inflation at 3.6% in September.“To improve housing market access, proactive municipal efforts to accelerate land servicing could significantly expand property ownership opportunities for a wider segment of the population,” Van Wyk added.
Regionally, the northern region led price growth with a robust 10.9% increase, followed by the southern region at 8.5%, both driven by gains in small-segment homes. The central region posted a 4.8% rise, maintaining the largest share of national transactions at 39.6%.
Read Also;
Conversely, residential plot sales declined by 32.3% nationally in Q3 2025, with the coastal region showing a smaller 1.9% dip. Van Wyk highlighted that this slowdown underscores the urgent need for accelerated land servicing and infrastructure development to unlock new housing supply and address affordability gaps.
Despite these challenges, FNB remains cautiously optimistic about Namibia’s housing outlook, citing strong underlying demand, ongoing investor interest, and supportive government policy interventions as positive indicators for the market’s medium-term performance.
