Purpose The paper aims to examine the influence of urban violence on residential property rental value in Kaduna metropolis. This is motivated by the spate of insurgency and the attendant destructions of land and properties in the past few years in the study area. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopted a survey of key sites of urban violence and also a total enumeration of all the 67-estate surveying and valuation firms in the study area to elicit from them vital information on trends on rental from 2011 to 2019. The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential methods of statistical analysis. Findings The result of this study revealed that among other sources of urban violence, violence fueled by ethnic affiliations/convictions is the only significant factor that influenced rental value of residential property in the study area. The regression analysis shows that ethnic violence accounted for 21.6% of the variability observed in residential property rental value over the period of study. Furthermore, the correlation result showed that ethnic violence is negatively correlated (−0.458) and significantly related to residential property rental value. Practical implications This study concluded that the emergence of urban violence in Kaduna metropolis contributed to a fall in the rental value of residential property in the study area. This study thus suggested policy directions that could engender harmonious coexistence among different ethnic groups in the study area. Originality/value This study is expected to enhance improvement in residential property rental value in Kaduna metropolis through increase assurance to security of lives and property.