Narimanov: From the Presidential Palace to Montin

Narimanov is the Baku district where the internal spread is wider than the spread between districts. It was established in 1941 under the name Keshla and renamed in August 1957 after Nariman Narimanov. It covers 24.5 km² and had roughly 170,300 residents as of 2013. Inside those same boundaries sit both the Presidential Palace and old industrial-era housing stock.

Location and character

Narimanov sits north-east of the city centre, bordering Nasimi to the west and Khatai to the south. It is a wholly urban district - it contains no villages and no rural administrative units, unlike the Absheron peninsula districts. The practical consequence: there is no dacha market here and no beach seasonality. What exists, exists year round.

What is in the district

Narimanov holds three public assets of national scale: the Presidential Palace, the Baku Convention Center and Baku Zoo. That produces two separate things worth understanding separately - administrative prestige along the main axes, and visitor traffic around the convention centre and the zoo.

Alongside them sit neighbourhoods of an entirely different character: Montin, Çermet and Milyonerlər. These are the names locals use, and anyone searching a local listings portal will meet them rather than the district name. Montin and Çermet carry older housing stock and a working character. Milyonerlər - "the millionaires" - is a neighbourhood name, not a description of prices.

Transport

The Nariman Narimanov metro station serves the district. Coverage here is thinner than in Yasamal, which has four stations, so distance from the station is an unusually strong price variable in Narimanov - stronger than in districts with a dense network. A flat within walking distance of the station and a flat in Montin are entirely different assets, even though both are "in Narimanov".

The property market, and what one number cannot tell you

This calls for honesty. Our price per square metre index holds a single measurement point for Narimanov, around 1,658 AZN per m² - the lowest in the table. That does not mean Narimanov is the cheapest district in Baku, and it certainly does not describe the area around the Presidential Palace.

What a single point like that most likely reflects is the older stock - Montin, Çermet and similar - rather than the central axes. A district with an internal spread this wide cannot be described by one number, and anyone attempting it, ourselves included, has to say so plainly. If you are weighing a purchase here: the real range is wide, and you need figures at street level rather than district level.

For context, according to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, in the second quarter of 2026 the primary market index rose 12.38% year on year against 8.58% for the secondary market. In Narimanov, where the two layers sit kilometres apart, that gap shows up as a widening difference between the central axes and the older neighbourhoods.

Who it suits

Narimanov suits a buyer willing to work at street level rather than district level, and anyone looking for older stock at an accessible price within a short commute of the centre. It suits you less if you want to buy by district name without checking - here that is an expensive mistake.

In summary

Narimanov is the district that demonstrates why a district-average price is a poor measure. A presidential palace and old industrial housing inside the same administrative boundary are not the same market. If you are weighing a purchase, set it against other districts with the neighbourhood comparison tool and read the wider context in our guide to the best neighbourhoods.