Construction of new apartments and houses over the last four years has created a large rental supply in Santa Cruz. Lower demand for these rentals has resulted in dropping rents. Vacancy rates are high at all but the most popular apartment buildings. Construction continues, with more 2-3-bedroom apartments planned to enter the rental market in the next 6-18 months. However, sources believe rents have likely reached their lowest point.

Oil was discovered offshore Guyana nearly five years ago, but the country has taken a fairly measured approach to development, bringing in consultants to ensure that the oil industry (and the country’s future economy) is stable. The first extraction project, Liza Phase I, is on schedule to begin production of 120,000 barrels of oil per day starting in Q1 2020. The rate of incoming workers is picking up speed and demand has risen quickly not only for rentals properties, but also goods and services.

Since the 2015 discovery of vast oil deposits two hundred kilometers off Guyana’s coastline, the country has become one of the hottest oil and gas locations in the world. The capital city of Georgetown is now a center of activity as exploration, planning, and infrastructure development progress.

As a resident of Hong Kong, I’m used to seeing the supremely fast-paced development of a modern city: new skyscrapers, high-speed train stations, subway lines, road tunnels, highways, stores, restaurants, and even a 55-kilometer-long bridge were built in the short time that I’ve lived there.

AIRINC's surveyors plan their days carefully so that they are able to gather the immense amount of data that is used to assess and calculate cost of living.

Guangzhou and Shenzhen have stable but strong and growing rental markets. While rents for units in some of the most popular buildings increase every year, rents in less competitive buildings tend to decrease.

AIRINC’s most recent survey of Nairobi closely coincided with the 5th anniversary of the Westgate Mall attack when members of the extremist Islamic group al-Shabaab took siege of the building, which resulted in 71 deaths.

Expatriate Housing Snapshot: The cost of expatriate-quality rentals increased over the past six to twelve months. Demand is up, thanks to more expatriate arrivals, particularly in the growing IT sector.

Local developers have followed these expatriate trends and there’s been an ever-growing number of new small apartment blocks coming onto the rental market.

Pot-holed streets, garbage-littered avenues, diesel drenched traffic jams, drainage canals littered with sewage, stagnant water pools, and the knee-deep flooding of streets during rainy season – just as I’d remembered it; these are the things that keep Conakry ranked as one of the most uncleanly capital cities in the world.