Sammy Amegayibor, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association, (GREDA) has specified that the absence of continuity among preceding and incumbent governments in the country will affect the housing sector.
He believes that the changing faces of policies by these governments does not augur well for the stability of the housing sector.
The GREDA Executive Secretary’s comments come on the pack of the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s pledge of establishing a Ghana Housing Authority and a National Housing and Mortgage Finance Company to superintend the establishment of housing complex on re-election.
Mr. Amegayibor expressed his misgivings about the implementation of the pledge as there are backlogs of pre-existing policies yet to be implemented.
“While there are programs and discussions that have taken place in the past, which we have to take a look at, and see how we can follow it through, and begin to benefit from the results that are expected, we keep going round in circles and try to assume to be doing new things yet it is the same things that we are recycling. Is this a national housing policy or it is NPP’s housing policy?”
Suggesting a national agenda to tackle the problem of housing instead of leaving it to the political parties to plan, he trusts, “we need to maintain continuity that is why I don’t believe in politics for housing. We cannot use manifestoes to run housing issues. It cannot be. Our population keeps increasing and housing will never get away,” he added.
Housing in Ghana is bedeviled with its own challenges from land acquisition, spanning to construction of the buildings and access to basic services and infrastructure as well as financing.
Currently, it remains one of the critical development challenges because of the vast gap between the supply and demand for housing.
Speaking at the party’s manifesto launch in Cape Coast, the Vice president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said the NPP will pay a lot of attention on the housing sector on their next term.
The scheme, according to the Vice President, will serve as a loan allowance for payment of rents to bridge the gap between tenants and landlords.
“There is a market failing between what the tenants want and what the landlord wants, and this is why government has decided to come in and bridge this market failure by setting up a national rent assistance scheme. Under the National Rent Allowance Scheme, we will give you a loan to pay your rent allowance, not directly to you but the landlord and then we will deduct monthly as you will normally pay”.
According to the government, the Ghana Housing Authority will improve the legal and regulatory framework, create land banks, and provide infrastructure, while the National Housing and Mortgage Finance Company will establish financial arrangements for the demand and supply side of housing markets.
