Accra, June 28, 2017//- A renowned Professor of Architecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof George William Ntsiful, has asked stakeholders in the housing industry to stop the blaming and tackle the country’s housing deficit which currently stands 1.8 million.
According to him, the continuous talking and blaming of the deficit without taking action can never solve the problem.
Prof Ntsiful made the call at a Citi FM’s Real Estate/ Housing Forum held in Accra, as part of the ongoing Citi Business Festival.
With approximately 55 percent of the country’s population living in urban areas which put pressure on the limited housing facilities, the challenges confronting the provision of houses should be glossed over, he told participants at the forum.
Prof Ntsiful noted: “We need to tackle the housing challenge more practical” than paying lip-service to it, stressing: “In some countries, local assemblies are able to build houses for their workers. But no assembly in Ghana has never built a single house for a worker”.
Another dampener that makes majority of people to lose interest in the houses built by real estate developers is the dollar pricing.
This Prof Ntsiful who is also a member of the Ghana Institute of Architects emphasises that the continuous pricing of properties in dollars by developers still remains as a major limitation to the country’s housing challenge.
He added: “GREDA has apparently moved towards the high-end of the housing systems in the country; some of the housing systems that they build, first of all, the cost is in dollars not in cedis and some people do afford and have bought such houses but I don’t think the average Ghanaian can ever dream of buying a house from GREDA”.
Furthermore, “without land, there can’t be a building. So, all the factors such as land acquisition, registration and financing which affect housing need to be looked at”.
Prof Ntsiful used the occasion to recommend to real estate developers in the country to use cheap local materials such as Pozzolana cement and clay their buildings. This, he explained would the houses less expensive and affordable to the people.
However, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Sammy Amegayibor blamed the high cost of the houses in the country on the depreciation of the local currency.
He explained that most of the building materials used in the building are imported. Mr Amegayibor stated: “It is not our fault we don’t actually want your dollar but the problem is we have invested money and most of us also go out there to borrow money. Real estate is not a supermarket item where you can produce it 24 hours; it takes a long time like two to three years.
Contributing to the discussion, CEO of Apollonia City, Bright Owusu Amofa, lamented that 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”.
He was quick to add: “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”.
“The Metropolitan and the 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 suggested.
Also, the Chief Operating Officer of Ghana Home Loans, Kojo Addo-Kufuor expressed the need for the government to address the infrastructure needs of the country.
“Government should be playing in the infrastructure and if at all, the construction regime. 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 stressed.
Participants at the forum raised concerns about the skyrocketing prices of domestic, official and commercial houses, the lack of standards and regulatory bodies in the housing industry, among others.
The forum which climaxed the outdoor events for the 2017 edition of the festival, looked at the future of housing with an emphasis on sustainability, affordability, standards and financing.
The month-long Citi Business Festival being organised by the Citi FM in partnership with MTN Business is focused on thematic areas such as financial inclusion, housing and real estate, foreign direct investments, innovation and tourism.
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