Ghanaian Entrepreneurs to rescue Ghana housing deficit | Let’s build Ghana together #fixthecountry | PodBites Ep.4
Ghana’s housing sector right now is in a state of emergency and needs entrepreneurs who understand Ghana to bring innovation in the country to help create housing opportunities, make better use of land and create more accessibility to project funds.
Ghana currently has a two-million-housing unit deficit. What this is means is that the prices of house have gone up in value because of the lack of homes available. People all over the world, including the diaspora from Europe and America are now flocking to Ghana, and this may also contributed to an unexpected shortage of homes in the country. One of the issues here is that because of the discrepancy between the average income earner in Ghana and the prices of houses, a big unafforadbility gap has been created, and so there is a need for more cheaper homes that the low-income earner in Ghana can afford.
One way of tackling this shortage of affordable homes for average earners, has been the Ghana’s Government’s affordable housing scheme. According Joy Online, To achieve a minimum of 170 thousand housing units annually, which is the Governments target, the cost of housing construction has to be reduced.
One way the Government has looked to achieve this has been by collaborating with private developers and entrepreneurs on a partnership basis. So for instance, according to Joy online, the Government can secure the land for the private developer for construction, or as alternative, the Government can pay for the roads to be done around a development or source cheaper construction materials to subsidise the cost of development for the private developer.
Recently, Kofi Anku, The developer behind the Ayi Mensah Park project in Ghana, appeared on YouTuber Vanessa Kanbi’s channel whilst on a new construction site and explained how construction materials are increasing in the country, and as a result, they are having to pass that additional cost to the end user of the property. A market survey showed a bag of cement selling at GHS38 in 2020, has increased to GHS48 and GHS50 depending on the retailer. The aftermath of the pandemic and general inflation, is clearly having an impact on the Government closing the gap in the housing deficit.
According to housing finance Africa dot org, Before the pandemic, Ghana’s economic growth positioned the country as one of the Africa’s six economies leading the world’s 10 fastest growing economies. Many Ghanaians prefer to build and own their houses incrementally which accounts for the widespread horizontal development. Access to affordable housing for the majority of households is a challenge and the pandemic has affected the level of household incomes for formally and informally employed workers. The pandemic has further impacted the Ghanaian construction industry and engagements with investors focused on affordable housing delivery.
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