What apartment prices in Baku are made of
A listing shows one figure, but it is built from several layers. The biggest share comes from the location: which district, how far the walk to the metro is, whether the street is quiet. Then comes the building. A new or an old building, when it was handed over, what kind of elevator and courtyard. The last layer is the condition of the apartment itself: floor, renovation, layout, which way the windows face.
When you see the layers separately, the difference between listings becomes clear. In one building, an apartment with a renovation and one without will go for different prices. And an apartment with the same renovation in another district will sell for a quite different price. So the question "how much does an apartment in Baku cost?" has no single answer, but every layer has one.
We do not put figures in this text, because a written figure goes out of date. The prices page on the site has a live table instead. There, the median price of each category in Baku (apartment, new building, private house and so on) is calculated from the listings currently on the site and is updated along with them, so it always shows the situation today. The same page has a fuller picture and a comparison across all of Azerbaijan.
| Category | Average price | Price per m² | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartments | 210 000 AZN | 2 727 AZN | 1889 |
| New buildings | 235 000 AZN | 2 689 AZN | 1372 |
| Old buildings | 174 000 AZN | 2 825 AZN | 517 |
| Houses / Country houses | 150 000 AZN | 1 100 AZN | 870 |
| Land plots | 112 000 AZN | — | 448 |
| Offices | 902 500 AZN | 5 564 AZN | 6 |
District and metro: the price of location
Price changes first of all with the district. Places closer to the center, that is Nasimi, Sabail and the central part of Yasamal, are traditionally expensive: work, universities and infrastructure have long been in place. Khatai and Narimanov are between the center and the outskirts. There is a metro, there are many new buildings, and the price is usually lower than in the center.
In districts such as Binagadi, Sabunchu, Surakhani and Khazar, the price depends more on the particular settlement and the distance to the metro. An apartment from which you can walk to the metro is noticeably more expensive than one in the same part of the district that is reached only by bus. Look not at the words "near the metro" in the listing but at the distance on the map.
Within a single district the market is also divided. In Yasamal a block of new buildings sits next to a block of old five-story buildings, but their prices belong to different markets. Take the district's median price as a starting point, and assess the specific street and building separately.
- How long the walk to the nearest metro is
- How you get out to the main road, and whether there are morning traffic jams
- Whether a school, kindergarten, market and hospital are close
- Whether the street is noisy, and whether it is lit at night
- Whether there is parking in the courtyard, and what condition the entrance is in
New building or old building
In Baku the difference between a "new building" and an "old building" is more than the age of the building; they are two different logics of price. In an old building you pay for a ready apartment. The building is in use, the title deed is usually in hand, and you know the neighbors and utility costs in advance. In a new building part of the price is paid for the future: a new layout, an elevator, a closed courtyard, sometimes infrastructure that is not yet finished.
New buildings have price steps of their own. In a building still under construction, an apartment is usually cheaper than in an already completed building of the same project, because the buyer takes on the wait and the risk that the building will not be finished. After the building is commissioned and the title deed is issued, the price usually goes up a step. See whether the listing says "commissioned" and "has a title deed": these two conditions explain most of the price difference.
In an old building the price is determined first of all by the type and condition of the building. A stone building or a panel one? Are the roof and the entrance renovated, does the elevator work? It is normal for an old-building apartment in the center to cost more than a new-building apartment of the same size in an outlying district. We compared the pros and cons of both types in a separate article.
Floor, renovation and the other details
Even within one building the price depends on the floor. The first and the last floor traditionally go a little cheaper. On the first, noise and security are a worry; on the last, the roof and heat. Most buyers look for a middle floor, and sellers build that into the price. In a new building with an elevator, on the other hand, the upper floors may cost more because of the view.
Renovation moves the price most. "Renovated" in listings is written about everything: a simple neat renovation and expensive work to a custom design. Look at the photos and ask when the renovation was done. For an "unrenovated" apartment, add the cost of the renovation to the price and only then compare.
The rest goes into the price too: whether the apartment is sold with its furnishings or empty, whether there is a balcony or loggia, where the windows face, how the rooms are laid out, what condition the documents are in. An apartment without a title deed or with incompletely registered documents usually looks cheap on the market. That cheapness is the price of the risk. With such an apartment, look first not at the price but at the documents.
- Floor: first and last are usually cheaper, middle floors cost more
- Renovation: what kind and when it was done
- Where the windows face: the courtyard or the road
- Balcony, loggia, layout of the rooms
- The apartment is sold furnished or empty
- Whether there is a title deed
Price per square meter, total price and the median
Compare two apartments not by total price but by price per square meter. The total price depends on the area, and a big apartment will always seem expensive. The price per square meter shows how much the seller asks for the location and the building. The calculation is simple: divide the price in the listing by the area, then compare with similar apartments in the same district.
When people say "the price in this district" or "in this building," they may mean two different figures: the average price and the median. The average price is what you get by adding up the prices of all listings and dividing by their number. A few listings that are too expensive or too cheap pull it one way. The median is found differently: you line the prices up in order and take the one that stands exactly in the middle. Half of the listings are cheaper than it, half are more expensive.
Baku listings often have inflated prices and extra zeros by mistake. The average price shifts sharply because of such listings, while the median hardly moves, so here the median can be trusted more. The table on the site's prices page shows exactly the median. The right way to read the figure there is "an ordinary apartment in this district costs about this much."
- Divide the price by the area to find the price per square meter
- Compare only buildings of the same type with each other
- Start from the district median
- Disregard the very cheapest and the very most expensive listings
How prices move: season and district
In Baku the price does not change at one speed all year. The end of summer and the start of autumn are usually livelier. Families get ready for the school year, students return to the city, demand for rentals grows, and this pickup is felt in sales too. Midwinter and the holidays are a quiet time, and in such periods there is often more room to bargain with the seller. This rhythm repeats every year, only its strength differs from year to year.
Districts do not move together either. In a district with many new buildings, supply grows fast, and that holds the price back. In the center supply is limited, and the price is steadier. When a metro line is extended, a new road opens or a large project is handed over, the price in that place moves apart from the general market. So look not at the citywide figure but at the movement of the district you need.
The simplest way to follow this is to look at the table on the prices page from time to time and remember the median of the district you need. Where the figure is heading, whether the number of listings is growing or shrinking: from this you will see the state of the market. For a seller this table helps set the price correctly. And for a buyer it gives the most accurate reference point for comparing a listing with the market.