Real Estate Company Targets Public Sector Workers

A real estate company, Land and Space Properties, in collaboration with some local developers, plan to build affordable houses for workers in both the formal and informal sectors. The price of the homes range from GH�40,000 to GH�65,000, and they comprise of one bedroom expandable to two bedrooms, and two town houses at Danfa in Accra. The move is to complement the government�s effort to enable most Ghanaians own their own houses. It is estimated that there is a housing shortage of over one million houses and the country needs to build about 100,000 units per year to catch up. Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Marketing Director of the company, Mr Charles Acquah, gave an assurance that the company would customise the houses to meet every budget, adding that the homes would be of superior quality despite the perception that affordable houses were of low quality. He said housing loans given to government workers and those in some private institutions were not adequate to purchase houses currently on the market and so the company would use all its resources to provide affordable houses to Ghanaians. "We want to focus all our resources on providing real affordable houses for workers to enable them direct their energies and time towards uplifting the economy of the country,� he added. According to Mr Acquah, at a recent housing show by Ghana Real Estates Developers Association (GREDA) in Accra, the prices of the houses that developers displayed were beyond acquisition. For example, he said a two bedroom terrace house cost GH�100,000 and with that types of prices, majority of workers had given up the idea of ever acquiring a property in their life time because those prices could also rise in the future. Mr Acquah said even the government�s prices of flats which it intended to build for workers were out of the range. A two-bedroom was priced at GH�60,000, with land and other infrastructure value at GH�100,000. �We are in for the sake of the Ghanaians so they should embrace the concept to own their house before they retire,� he urged.