Industry players in Ghana’s housing sector want the government to critically address Ghana’s land acquisition and documentation system to ease the burden associated with the provision of decent accommodation.
The estate developers contend that the high costs of properties have priced out the majority of prospective homeowners and compounded the housing challenge.
Participants at Citi Fm’s Real Estate Forum, largely real estate players were however hopeful the trend could be reversed should land acquisition be made less cumbersome.
For the CEO of Apollonia City, Bright Owusu Amofa, the inconvenience of meeting up with land disputes after heavy investments will continue to drive potential developers away.
“Lands in existing areas are very expensive so in our view, it makes more sense to look outside the city, extend infrastructure and start new developments…No investor wants to invest time, energy and money in acquiring land only to be saddled with winding litigation which is a case in Accra,” he remarked.
“The Metropolitan and national governments must be willing and able to either acquire or facilitate the acquisition of bulk developable lands. We also need to provide the enabling infrastructure for the development of satellite towns and cities,” Mr. Amofa added.
The Chief Operating Officer of Ghana Home Loans, Kojo Addo-Kufuor also maintained strongly the need for the government to address the infrastructure needs of the citizenry.
According to him, such attempts should quicken the pace for the private sector to commit investments and provide the needed accommodation for the majority of home seekers.
“Government should be playing in the infrastructure and if at all, construction region. Once you build the roads, everything else follows; and once the roads have been provided and the necessary infrastructure has been laid, the private sector is quite capable of doing everything else. It’s not easy but it is doable and I think it is more sustainable for the private sector to take that lead in that direction,” he stated.
The thoughts were among the many constraints that have been cited as militating against bridging the widening housing deficit.
The Real Estate and Housing Forum climaxed the outdoor events for the 2017 edition of the Citi Business Festival.
The forum looked at the future of housing with an emphasis on sustainability, affordability, standards and financing.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
