PM Express: Is the housing deficit in Ghana the case of “unimaginable affluence” or a death trap?

Statistics have it that over thousand Ghanaians are roaming in the urban areas in the country without a place to sleep.

Another by the Ghana Real Estate Development Association (GREDA) pegged the nation’s housing deficit at 1.7 million.

This, therefore, means the country has to be putting up over fifteen thousand housing units each year for the next ten years before the issue could be addressed.

Both the two leading political parties in the country namely, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the New Patriotic Party have made several promises to Ghanaians so far as the housing issue is concerned.

In its 2012 manifesto, the NPP promised to build affordable housing units for rent across the country.

The NDC, on the other hand, promised to use local materials such as bricks, tiles, and pozzolana cement to help raise some accommodation structures for Ghanaians.

However, several years on many of those promises by the governments of the two parties have either been forgotten or were a political gimmick as usual.

Today as ever, the housing issue of the country is getting worse by the day as more children are delivered to a society which lacks a socially, politically and architecturally engineered settlement.

With six months to the much anticipated Presidential and Parliamentary elections in November, matters relating to Ghana’s housing deficit are yet to attract the attention of the presidential candidates.

Tenants in the country are filled with stories which bother around their maltreatment by some landlords, landladies, and rent agents.

A resident of Odorkor in Accra revealed, “The lack of toilet in this [her house] is a big problem especially when you are hard pressed in the night.”

She said, “Here at Odorkor, it is difficult to find a room.”

And when you do, she said, “The only means to get the room is through an agent who sometimes end up absconding with one’s money.”

Some landlords and ladies have been reported charging two years rent advance from potential tenants which contradict the law of the land. The complaints are countless.

According to the Rent Control Department, it receives about 30, 000 complaints every year from tenants.

On the MultiTV news analysis programme, PM EMPRESS, Joy News’ Raymond Acquah walked the entire country through what appears to be a bubbling problem bidding time before it explodes in the faces of Ghanaians.

Mr Acquah did not mince words when he disclosed “housing is one of Ghana’s biggest development challenges.”

He revealed the housing challenge has divided the urban areas into two segments namely, the urban rich and the urban poor.

The standard definition of a rent is the one which will absorb 30 percent of your income, however, the right kind of housing provided in this country is expensive for the low-income Ghanaian.

Mr Acquah believed this poses a huge problem for the country in the foreseeable future if it is not reversed.

Reacting to the rising prices of some urban buildings, M Acquah questioned who the intended tenants for those structures are.

“Who are the real customers?” he asked adding “If we [Ghanaians] do not solve the problem now, the issue will explode in our face.”

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