Francis Asenso-Boakye, the Minister of Works and Housing, has hinted of government’s plan to allow prospective home buyers to use their Tier 2 and Tier 3 Pension funds as initial deposit to support mortgage.

Mr Asenso-Boakye speaking at the “2021 Business 24 Real Estate Conference” in Accra, stated that it is about time government started thinking about sustainable policies and programmes to make affordable housing accessible in the country. He thus, noted that, using the pension scheme to fund mortgages will help address the current housing issues bedevilling the country.

“Despite the enormous economic impact associated with the housing sector, successive governments have not been able to provide housing that meet the needs and financial capacities of majority of Ghanaians. This initiative may well be the answer to that problem.”
Mr Asenso-Boakye

Mr Asenso-Boakye averred that there is a great disparity between housing cost and income level of people, which raised the question of access and affordability.

The Works and Housing Minister, therefore, called for deeper collaboration between government and the private sector to create the needed opportunities for majority of the citizenry to have access to decent, safe, secure, quality, and affordable housing.

“The government’s new affordable programme will involve an appropriate mix of public and private sector investments to meet the financial capacity of the average Ghanaians, as well as, our urban population to access safe and secured affordable housing.”
Mr Asenso-Boakye

Mr Asenso-Boakye further disclosed that, the ministry would collaborate with appropriate authorities to scale up the National Housing and Mortgage Fund that was piloted in 2020 to create more access to affordable housing for the low-to-middle income earners.

The minister iterated the importance of housing to the Ghanaian economy, noting that, “housing is an important instrument for economic development, since it could create employment through the production of building materials.”

Mr Asenso-Boakye appealed to stakeholders in the housing sector to embrace government’s affordable housing framework and partner financial institutions to invest more to reduce the prevalent housing deficit.

“It is only through this that we can reach out to majority of our citizens and positively affect the lives of the larger population.”
Mr Asenso-Boakye

It can be recalled that, Dr Freda Prempeh, Minister of State in-charge of Works and Housing, also made a similar call. She indicated that the government had sought to create an enabling environment by organizing the real estate industry, acquiring, and regulating land and housing developments, rationalizing housing subsidies, developing mortgage finance as well as facilitating tax exemptions and holidays for the industry.

“We are strengthening property rights and developing policy and institutional framework to govern housing delivery, especially for private housing developments,”
Dr Freda Prempeh

Dr Freda Prempeh indicated that major aspects of the housing delivery system, including the institutional capabilities, provision of serviced land, finance, infrastructure, materials and skilled labor, have experienced severe constraints resulting in the very acute housing problem especially in the regional capitals.

The maiden edition of the Real Estate Conference, brought together key industry players and professionals to discuss challenges facing the housing sector.