Comparing housing cost in Ghana, US won’t work; we need good policies to put up affordable houses — GREDA to Akufo-Addo

The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) Samuel Amegayibor has stated that much as the real estate developers have a role to play in affordable housing, government has a big role to play in enduring that dream is achieved.

He said government must introduce policies that would help reduce the cost of doing business in the country by way of taxes and levies.

He was speaking on Joy News today in reaction to President Akufo-Addo’s lamentation over the high cost of housing in the country.

He charged members of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry (GhCCI), to find innovative ways through which the country can build cheap houses for the citizenry, noting that housing in Ghana is largely a “monopoly of the rich”.

President Akufo-Addo indicated “we are here in Ghana and some small three-bedroom house in East Legon will cost you 350,000.00, 400,000.00 to 500,000.00 dollars”.

Lamenting, he stated, “You get mansions for that in many parts of America. 100,000.00, 200,000.00 dollars’ maximum, that gives you a very well appointed home because of the materials that go into construction in the United States.

“They are local, indigenous and they are very cheap. We need to find a solution to how we can build strong houses here but cheaply.

“I think that it is something that we all have to put our heads around and find a solution to it so that we can address our housing matters” President Akufo-Addo advocated.

In reaction to the President’s call, GREDA’s Samuel Amegayibor stated that the use of local materials is laudable however most Ghanaians opt for the foreign materials.

“There are certain local materials that private people and individuals have tried to bring into the market, but sometimes acceptance by Ghanaians on some of these products on the market has not been forthcoming and so we need government to bring in some policies to encourage government itself to use some of these products to create awareness so that acceptance will be easier and not place that burden on the business person alone.”

He added that government as a major partner in the real estate industry should take the lead in patronising local products and create awareness.

According to him, Ozolana cement which was a local product was very affordable and patronised by the industry players for construction.

He indicated due to lack of patronage the factory had to shut down. He opines that if government was patronizing products like these and creating awareness and formulating policies to sustain such products, affordability won’t be a problem.

“Government is the biggest spender when it comes to construction and so all we are saying is that can government give policy directive for MMDAs and all those who build for the state to use some percentage of some of these local materials that have been identified so that the rest of us will follow. If government will build houses for the police, doctors or teachers these are opportunities to show and use some of these local materials so they can be accepted.”

He mentioned factors such as loans, availability of utility and landguards issues inflates the cost of building in the country. He added that although some works are being done in that regard, they were still the major challenge.

“The comparison the President made is good for me because if you go to America to borrow money to build a house the maximum interest rate you will be paying is about 3%, but in Ghana I borrow on the local currency around 24% and on the dollar around 13%. You cannot compare my environment with America. The American goes to a site that services have been provided; water, electricity has been sent to the site. How many water and electricity have you seen sent to sites in advance by government here? It has to be borne by the real estate developer. Even land ownership, which is the basic thing any real estate developer must have, he has to pay two, three owners before he owns it because of the terrible land tenure system.”