Providing shelter can make a vast difference in the lives of many Ghanaians as housing is more critical for overall national development. The nation is currently grappling with the perennial housing deficit due to excess of demand over supply of the housing stock.
A critical analysis of the situation shows that the housing deficit is mainly at the level of lower-income homes, which is considered as requiring major government intervention.
The private sector, for its part, has generally skewed its interest towards the provision of high-quality, high-value residential estates for the high-end and middle class markets, because of the high returns-on-investment.
In other words, developers pay too much attention to providing for the upper class at the expense of low cost housing for the average income earner.
Many players in the housing market argue that the level of rents that people can afford to pay in Ghana is also relatively low. Hence it does not encourage developers to go into long-term rental units. That’s why we have such a huge housing deficit at the social level.
Evidence suggests that it takes between five and 15 years for an individual to build a house and this time frame increases construction cost in an unstable macroeconomic environment. Therefore, the hope of Ghana’s housing demand is hinged on the capacity of the private sector to alleviate the housing situation.
Banks in Ghana today have seldom been able to provide finance for non-elite housing: their administrative costs are too high. Consequently, the cost of housing has spiral out of control to the point that in a developing country like Ghana even a senior government employee would have trouble finding an affordable house to buy. It is only wealthy Ghanaians, and the foreigners that can afford to buy a house in the urban centres in the country.
Even the outskirts of town have become very expensive for most hopeful homeowners, leaving newcomers to the city. The overcrowded slums continue to grow and nothing seems to stop the tide of migrants moving to the city in the hopes of finding jobs.
Shack developers have taken advantage of the situation to build houses in slums and charge high rental fees and while landlords are breaking decades-old rules by charging two to three years rent upfront.
It is undeniable fact that man’s most basic needs in life are food, clothing and shelter. Though these necessities have not come to all in same proportions, the one that is most deficient in Ghana is shelter.
