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Ghana is still grappling with the perennial housing deficit due to the excess of demand over supply of the housing stock. With the fiasco of the STX deal, it appears that the only hope now is the private sector developers, who also have their peculiar challenges to confront. For almost two decades, governments of Ghana have made significant strides in stabilizing and advancing the Ghanaian economy to better the lots of its people. Although, significant gains have been made in turning around Ghana�s economy, some areas in the economy, such as the housing sector, have borne the brunt of receiving inadequate attention. The housing situation is dire and the country needs an urgent answer, which is likely to require the concerted responsibility of all stakeholders. At year-end 2010, the slum population of Ghana as a result of the shelter dearth had hit 5.8 million, nearly a quarter of the national population. According to survey findings, about 8.7 million people share a house in urban areas owing not only to population increase, but also to the rural-urban drift. At the moment, the majority of Ghana�s 25 million people are living in sub-standard homes. This dire situation has enabled landlords of rental units to charge exorbitant and inflexible rents to the displeasure of most Ghanaians, thereby making abnormal profits. (i.e. profits over and above which the owners could have earned by renting their properties) The resultant action has been the creation of slums, shanty and illegal and indiscriminate constructions in waterways, flood-prone areas and project-designated areas. The poor planning of many neighbourhoods have enabled them to serve as safe havens for hoodlums and other social deviants. Year after year, the housing deficit keeps gravitating towards ominous dimensions, with the low income folks suffering the greatest neglect. Even though factual information on the exact magnitude of the problem is piecemeal and sometimes disputed, the gravity of the problem is widely recognized. Ghana is estimated to have a 1.5 million housing deficit, and housing experts say that it would take not less than 15 years to meet the demand, if the real estate industry and the government as the lead player work closely together to even deliver 100, 000 housing units per annum. Currently, the combined efforts of Public-Private Partnerships and private developers are able to deliver less than half of the annual housing demand. The question remains whether the housing industry and its related stakeholders have the capacity and the impetus to construct the number of housing units needed to overturn the situation. It seems that the crux of the housing problem lies in the lack of conspicuous commitment and a sense of direction of past and present governments. To be sure, the Nkrumah and Rawlings Governments are on record as having constructed some respectable housing units for the lower and medium-income earners. Yet, industry analysts are of the view that Ghana has deployed predominantly direct intervention policies for the housing sector instead of a comprehensive, sustainable and transcending housing programme or policy road map to set the nation on a course to overturn the current situation. According to them, direct intervention policies did not yield the needed results, neither did they provide an impetus for the sector�s development due to prevalence of adverse and unstable macroeconomic environments at the time. The situation argues for the expeditious adoption and implementation of the long-awaited National Housing Policy, which according to sources at the Ministry of Housing, has been at the draft stage for the past seven years. At the time of going to press, the source said, the Housing Policy was still on the table of the Cabinet, and was yet to reach Parliament for deliberations. Tied to the lack of political commitment is the lack of a sense of policy direction which has bedeviled governments in the last decade. Interestingly, governments have also lacked the political will to continue programmes and projects instituted by preceding governments. A typical case in point is the abandonment in 2009 of the Affordable Housing Project commenced by the former government for reasons of lack of funding for completion, only for an eight-member committee to be constituted in April 2012, to explore ways to reactivate the projects. Again, the absence of a transcendental national policy on housing has contributed to the situation. The Kpone flats scheme continues to lie fallow, more than three years after construction came to a standstill. The fiasco of the STX deal seems to be last straw that has broken the camel�s back, considering the huge housing deliverables it could have offered to the nation. Reading the 2012 Budget Statement and Government�s Economic Policy before Parliament in November last year, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, assured that; �Government will ensure that the objectives of the National Housing Policy are achieved to support the private sector to increase housing delivery in the country and to improve mortgage affordability�. 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.