In thirty world cities, prime rents have beaten prices for four years running

When renting outperforms owning for four years in a row, that is not a property story. It is an interest rate story wearing a property costume.

The two headline figures

Across the 30 cities in the Savills World Cities Prime Residential Index, capital values rose 0.6% and rents rose 1.1% in the six months to June 2026. Rental growth was up from 0.5% in the second half of 2025. The report was published on 19 August 2026.

The four-year pattern

Prime rents have outperformed capital values since mid-2022. Savills attributes it to elevated interest rates, affordability constraints and deferred purchase decisions — households choosing flexibility over ownership while the cost of the mortgage is the largest variable in the sum.

Where the growth was

Cape Town and Lisbon were among the strongest rental markets. Tokyo led on capital values, up 7.0% in six months and 20.4% over the year to June. Sixty per cent of the index recorded stable or positive capital value growth.

What it does to yields

Prime yields were broadly stable, which is what happens when rents and values move together. Amsterdam and Berlin recorded no yield movement at all; Lisbon and Los Angeles saw yields compress as values outran rents; Hong Kong and Cape Town saw yields expand as rents outran values.

Historical scale

Before the global financial crisis, prime markets routinely delivered 5% to 7% capital growth every six months. Through the 2010s that settled to 2% to 4.5%. A half-year reading of 0.6% is a slow market by any measure the index has ever recorded.