2.7 million people occupy single rooms in Ghana

The UN-Habitat Housing profile on Ghana has indicted that about 2.7 million
in urban Ghana occupy single rooms. It says Many households are likely to be caretakers of semi-completed buildings.

 The report suggested that ′it is important that compound or similar means of living cheaply are not simply removed from the palette of acceptable housing because the middle class think they are outmoded.

The relationship between housing cost and income is a contentious issue in Ghanaian urban studies. Many authors quote the typical labourer’s wage, or the minimum wage, or that of a junior civil servant, or a new graduate, and compare it with the cost of a small dwelling built by State Housing Company.

Through this, some really high house cost to income ratios can be detected.
The UN-Habitat housing profile reports that a well-researched work on Accra has examined the cost of housing against incomes and found them so expensive that it declares Accra to be a “superstar city” one in which a high demand for housing is not met by supply and housing remains in short supply and expensive.

They find that housing market constraints imposed by policies drive prices up. Such policies as minimum plot size that most people cannot afford, or the insistence on self-contained housing by the formal sector, carry welfare costs that are high and regressive.

Furthermore, the policies prevent such measures as easier finance or remittances from increasing the growth in housing supply as much as they should if they were not driving prices up.

In addition, although the research found that mean and median incomes are much higher in Accra than  Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa, housing conditions are considerably worse. In other words, policies impede the improvements in housing conditions that would be expected from higher incomes.

In addition, policies on plot sizes and plot coverage create land parcels that are too expensive for most people to afford, impose a tax on renters and redistribute the money to home owners, and so set an artificially high threshold price on self-contained dwellings.

The GLSS (Ghana Statistical Service, 2008) shows that, out of a total mean urban household expenditure of GHC3,620, urban households spend a mean of only 9 per cent or GHC325 per annum on housing, water, electricity and gas. In per capita terms, the mean is only 8 per cent or GHC115 spent on housing, water, electricity and gas.
GLSS 528 shows that households in Accra spend only 4.5 per cent of their household expenditure on housing and urban households elsewhere spend only 2.2 per cent on housing, giving an urban total of 3.2 per cent.

The housing sector profile’s survey in 2010 shows very different house costs between Accra and the rest and between the highest cost sectors in each city and the lowest.

The highest cost sector in Accra has a mean rent of GHC326 per month plus GHC200 for maintenance, giving a total of about 19 per cent of expenditure on housing.

In the lowest cost areas of Accra, however, the monthly payment has a mean of only GHC42 with GHC5 on maintenance, a total of only 10 per cent of expenditure. In the other cities, highest mean rents range from GHC97 in Kumasi to only GHC25.5 in Sekondi-Takoradi. In the lowest rent areas, means are only GHC16 in Sekondi- Takoradi to GHC13 in Tamale.

By: Samuel Mantey
Property Express
Email: Sammyoo3@yahoo.com

State owes only 20 percent of all land in Ghana

Most land in Ghana is communally owned by the indigenous tribal groups which operate through their traditional social structures, which can be matrilineal or patrilineal, and their customary hierarchies of governance.

These systems affect who can own land and how customary land transactions are conducted. By extension, they affect who is building and where housing will be located. Although the land is communally owned by entire indigenous groups, the management of the land is customarily vested in the traditional chiefs and elders of the principal families of these indigenous groups.

The state currently owns about 20 per cent of all land in the country; its activities are handled by the Lands Commission as the sole agency for administering public land, including expropriation and assignment on behalf of the state.

However, the 1992 constitution Chapter 20 Clause 257 indicate that public lands are vestment of in the President. All public land in Ghana is vested in the President on behalf of, and in trust for, the people of Ghana. Public land includes any land which has been vested in the Government of Ghana for the public service of Ghana, and any other land acquired in the public interest. All vested lands in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions revert to the original owners.

Exclusion of foreigners from freehold leases
Constitution of Ghana Chapter 20 Clause 266 – Non-Ghanaians are excluded from freehold interest in land in Ghana and any existing freehold held by non-Ghanaians is deemed to be leasehold for fifty years from 1969 reverting to the state upon the expiry of the lease. Non-Ghanaians cannot hold leases of and beyond fifty years.

Stool and Skin Lands and Property
Constitution of Ghana Chapter 20 Clause 267 indicates that all land belongs to the indigenous settlers and is vested in the appropriate stool or skin on behalf of, and in trust for the subjects of the stool in accordance with customary law and usage. No stool or skin land can be disposed off unless the intended development is in compliance with the development plan of the area.
No person(s) shall hold a freehold interest in, or right over, any stool land in Ghana. The Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands shall be responsible for safe administration of rents, dues, and royalties. revenues or other payments and their disbursement as follows; 10 per cent to the office of the Administrator of Stool Lands to cover administrative expenses, and of the remaining amount, 25 per cent to the stool, 20 per cent to the traditional authority; and 55 per cent to the District Assembly.

 Compulsory acquisition of land by the state
State Lands Act, 1962 (Act 125) The President (acting on behalf of the state) has the power to acquire the absolute interest in any land for use in the “public interest”. However, the Act did not define the definition of “public interest”. Provision is made for payment of compensation, estimated at the open market value, or land of equivalent value may be offered as compensation.


By: Samuel Mantey
Property Express
Email: Sammyoo3@yahoo.com