Housing in Tashkent: more transactions, but prices are rising slower than inflation

Transactions: a surge before escrow, then back to normal

Since 1 April 2026, property sale transactions have been settled only through a bank escrow account. The market answered with a surge ahead of the deadline: 43,600 housing transactions were completed nationwide in March. In the first quarter the number of property transactions rose 48.4%, and 64% in Tashkent.

The market then returned to its usual pace: 25,000–26,000 transactions a month over the summer. August brought 25,100, up 0.2% on a year earlier; Tashkent had 7,400, up 2.2%. For January–August the country recorded 222,500 transactions (+18.4%), and Tashkent grew 27.5%.

The lesson for sales planning: the growth of 2026 was made mostly in the first quarter. The base for a 2027 plan should be the summer months, not the annual average.

Prices: growth below inflation

From the second quarter of 2026 the National Statistics Committee calculates its house price index by a new method, hedonic regression, which accounts for area, district, floor and other characteristics. The series have been recalculated back to 2024.

Annual inflation in Tashkent was 7.4% in October 2026. The regions are getting more expensive faster than the capital. In its financial stability review the Central Bank estimates that market housing prices fell 4.8% in 2025, and that buyers moved from betting on price growth to buying for rental income.

The index is built on listing prices from OLX.uz, not on transaction prices. That limitation applies to all open housing price data in Uzbekistan.

What costs how much

Since September 2026 the state has published average asking prices by district. Data from the National Centre for Mass Valuation of Real Estate under the Cadastre Agency as of 1 September 2026, flats in multi-storey buildings:

Dollar values without “about” were published by the agency; the rest are our conversion at the Central Bank rate on 1 September 2026 (UZS 11,801 to the dollar). The gap between the most expensive and the most affordable district is 2.3 times.

Mortgages and affordability

In the first half of 2026 banks issued UZS 13.1 trillion in mortgages, 38% more than a year earlier (UZS 9.5 trillion). Loans went to 42,575 people. Three quarters of the amount financed purchases on the new-build market, and Tashkent took almost a third of all lending.

The weighted average rate was 20.1% on loans from banks’ own funds, 21.6% through the Mortgage Refinancing Company and 16.8% on budget-funded loans.

Affordability improved all the same. According to the Central Bank, in 2025 the average salary in Tashkent (UZS 10.7 million) covered 72% of the price of a square metre (UZS 14.9 million), against 58% a year earlier: incomes grew faster than prices.

Supply

In 2025 the country completed 15.9 million sq m of housing (+7.2%), and 3.3 million sq m (+6.6%) in the first quarter of 2026. At the end of the first quarter 2,900 apartment blocks were under construction. High-rise construction is concentrated in the capital: Tashkent accounts for 36% of buildings above 13 storeys under construction.

What is changing in the rules

• Escrow in sale transactions has applied since 1 April 2026: the bank holds the buyer’s money and transfers it to the seller once the contract is notarised.
• The shared-equity construction law was adopted by the Legislative Chamber on 10 November 2026 and sent to the Senate. In the version debated, buyers’ money reaches the developer only after the building is commissioned, and at least 70% of the construction cost is financed by a bank loan. For developers this means a greater need for project finance and higher interest costs.
• Mass valuation. Tashkent has carried out a mass valuation of more than 600,000 flats and 213,000 houses. Preliminary results put their value at 7.4 and 15 times the current cadastral value. The Ministry of Economy and Finance says the tax burden will not rise in proportion and rates will be cut, but there are no specific rates yet.