From Rent Advance to Homeownership: Ghana’s Renewed Push to Tackle the Housing Crisis

Ghana’s long-running housing challenge is entering a new phase as the country seeks to combine affordable housing construction, mortgage financing and rental assistance into a more coordinated national response.

With the housing deficit estimated at about 1.8 million units, access to decent accommodation remains a major concern, particularly in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions. Rapid urbanisation, rising construction costs, limited access to affordable mortgages and the widespread demand for large rent advances have made housing increasingly difficult for many low- and middle-income households.

The renewed national housing approach seeks to address these challenges from several directions. Rather than concentrating solely on constructing new houses, the strategy combines increased housing supply with affordable financing, rent-to-own arrangements and assistance for tenants struggling with advance rent payments.

One of the most visible components is the revival of the long-delayed Saglemi Affordable Housing Project in the Greater Accra Region. The government has partnered with the private sector, including LMI Holdings, to complete the development in phases.

Under the current programme, the first 700 housing units are expected to be completed and commissioned by March 2027, with the number projected to reach 1,500 units by the end of 2027.

The importance of Saglemi extends beyond the number of houses involved. After years of delays, its completion could demonstrate how stalled public housing investments can be brought back into productive use through new financing and development arrangements.

However, building houses alone will not solve Ghana’s housing problem if ordinary workers cannot afford to buy them. This is where the National Homeownership Fund has an important role to play.

The fund is intended to expand access to affordable, cedi-denominated mortgages, particularly for workers who would otherwise struggle with the high cost of commercial mortgage financing.

Through the National Mortgage Scheme, the fund works with participating financial institutions, including GCB Bank, Republic Bank and Stanbic Bank, to provide mortgage products with longer repayment periods and more affordable financing arrangements.

Long-term mortgage financing is particularly important because housing affordability is not determined only by the selling price of a property. Interest rates, repayment periods, household income and the size of the initial deposit can determine whether an otherwise suitable house is actually within the reach of a prospective buyer.

Another important intervention is the rent-to-own model. This provides an alternative for people who may not immediately qualify for a conventional mortgage or cannot raise the deposit required to purchase a house outright.

Under the arrangement, beneficiaries occupy a property as tenants while working towards eventual ownership. Such schemes could provide an important bridge between renting and homeownership, particularly for teachers, nurses, public-sector employees and other workers with regular incomes but limited savings.

Yet homeownership cannot be the immediate solution for everyone. Millions of Ghanaians will continue to depend on rented accommodation, making reform of the rental market equally important.

For many tenants, one of the greatest obstacles is the widespread demand for one or two years’ rent in advance. A worker may have sufficient monthly income to afford accommodation but still be unable to raise a large lump sum before moving into a property.

The National Rental Assistance Scheme seeks to address this problem by acting as an intermediary between landlords and qualified tenants. Instead of requiring the tenant to provide the entire advance, the scheme pays the landlord and allows the beneficiary to repay the amount through manageable monthly instalments.

The programme targets low- and middle-income earners who can demonstrate a stable source of income but lack the savings required to meet substantial advance-rent demands. It has been extended to several urban centres, including Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Koforidua, Tamale and Techiman.

This approach recognises an important reality about Ghana’s housing crisis: some households do not necessarily lack the ability to pay rent. Their difficulty is the structure of the payment system. Converting large advance payments into monthly obligations could therefore make formal rental housing accessible to a much wider group of workers.

The State Housing Company also remains an important part of the national housing framework. Through the development of residential estates and other housing projects, the company can complement private-sector construction while providing additional opportunities for Ghanaians seeking homes through formal channels.

The broader significance of the emerging housing strategy is that it attempts to address three interconnected problems simultaneously: inadequate housing supply, expensive home financing and an inefficient rental system.

Increasing supply without affordable financing could result in houses that remain beyond the reach of the intended beneficiaries. Affordable mortgages without sufficient housing supply could intensify competition for a limited number of properties. Similarly, expanding homeownership programmes without addressing the problems faced by renters would leave a substantial proportion of the population behind.

The success of the programme will therefore depend on implementation.

The completion of the first 700 Saglemi units by March 2027 and the targeted 1,500 units by December 2027 will be important indicators of progress. Equally significant will be the number of ordinary workers who are actually able to obtain mortgages, participate in rent-to-own arrangements or benefit from rental assistance.

Affordability must also remain central to the programme. A house may officially be described as affordable, but what ultimately matters is whether its purchase price and monthly repayment obligations correspond with the incomes of the households for whom it is intended.

There is also a need to expand housing development beyond Greater Accra and Ashanti. Secondary cities and rapidly growing municipalities require planned housing, infrastructure and financing before shortages become as severe as those experienced in Ghana’s largest urban centres.

The housing deficit of approximately 1.8 million units cannot be eliminated overnight. It has developed over decades and will require sustained investment from government, private developers, financial institutions, pension funds and individual households.

Nevertheless, Ghana now has an opportunity to move away from treating housing simply as a construction problem. Housing policy must encompass land, infrastructure, financing, construction costs, mortgages, rental arrangements and household incomes.

If the Saglemi revival is delivered according to schedule, affordable mortgage financing becomes accessible to more workers, rent-to-own programmes are expanded and the National Rental Assistance Scheme reaches more eligible tenants, Ghana could begin making measurable progress towards reducing its housing deficit.

The ultimate test will not simply be the number of housing projects announced or buildings constructed. It will be whether teachers, nurses, civil servants, artisans, entrepreneurs and ordinary working families can obtain decent accommodation without being overwhelmed by mortgage repayments or years of rent demanded in advance.

That is the transformation Ghana’s housing programme must deliver: turning decent housing from an aspiration beyond the reach of many citizens into an achievable pathway from renting to secure, affordable homeownership.