Housing in Abidjan: the real cost of the formal market
310 listings, 4 districts compared. Abidjan's formal rental market: median rent, housing cost burden, and what real estate agencies don't advertise.
Analysis Summary
Data collection
In May 2026, I collected 310 residential listings from an Ivorian listings platform using Python and Playwright, the only one with enough structured listings to work with. The collection ran over three days. Each listing was extracted with its available attributes (district, property type, surface area where stated, monthly rent), then cleaned to remove duplicates, commercial listings, and properties outside Abidjan proper. Of the 310 raw listings, 287 passed the filter and formed the basis of the analysis.
Key findings
Median rent in the formal market is 1,000,000 FCFA/month, 13.3 times the minimum wage (75,000 FCFA/month under Decree n°2023-01). That ratio says something concrete: formal-market housing in Abidjan is priced for incomes most Ivorian workers don't earn. Cocody accounts for 62% of listings and sits at the top of the price range, driven by large apartments and villas. Yopougon is the only district with a median below 500,000 FCFA, at around 350,000 FCFA. Only four districts had enough listings for statistically meaningful results: Cocody, Plateau, Marcory, and Yopougon, each with at least 5 listings with a stated price. Le Plateau has the highest median at 1,450,000 FCFA/month, pulled up by high-end supply targeting corporate clients and expatriates. Marcory sits between Cocody and Yopougon in price and offers the most varied property mix of the four districts.
Methodological note
The formal online market covers an estimated 5-10% of total rental activity in Abidjan. A partial view, but the only one with structured, comparable data available. Prices are advertised figures, not negotiated rents, and the gap between the two can be substantial depending on the district and property type. The platform skews toward upper-middle-class renters with internet access. The informal gré-à-gré market, which accounts for most transactions in the city, is not captured here. A field survey or access to notarial data would be needed to cover these segments and correct the selection bias inherent to this type of collection.
Interactive Report
This analysis was produced by Klomèna YEO, freelance Analytics Engineer specialised in Finance & HR data. Available for data projects in France and internationally.