A cross-section of Ghanaians are appealing to government to intervene in issues relating to the housing sector to enable workers afford accommodation.<\/p>\n
Some callers into the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> on Tuesday lamented over how they are fleeced by real estate developers.<\/p>\n This comes on the back of a new report by the Housing Data Center which suggests majority of Ghanaian workers may not be able to buy a house.<\/p>\n The report suggested that salaried workers who plan to buy a home but whose income fall below GHC 4, 000 may have to find a way to increase their salaries or switch to jobs that will boost their income.<\/p>\n Ghana, according to the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji\u00a0Collins Dauda has a social housing problem, with a deficit of 1.7 million units.<\/p>\n He stated that spreading it over a 10-year period, a minimum of 170,000 housing units would have to be built annually.<\/p>\n Government is therefore partnering some private and international companies to help solve this deficit.<\/p>\n Although there are a number of real estate and mortgage companies in the country, many have argued that the houses they construct are not affordable and the prices are way above the pay grade of most Ghanaians.<\/p>\n A lot of Ghanaians have also complained about the stress they have to endure looking for an affordable apartment or house to rent or buy.<\/p>\n A caller into the show said: \u201cWhen it comes to salary levels, I think the man really has to re-check because I work with one of these insurance companies and we don\u2019t earn around GHC 2,000 and then again, when it comes to these real estate people, the materials they use, I doubt if they really import them.\u201d<\/p>\n Another also stated that \u201cI am looking for a building to rent; just to rent, but the way I am suffering and all I could get was just one self-contain and it\u2019s being priced at GHC 450. Can you imagine?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey asked me to do a down payment of 15 percent and the cost of property is $150,000. Now they are getting back to me and saying that they have to increase the price of the property due to the cost of materials. I know my payment is in dollars and so if you look at the dollar to the cedi rate and I am paying it in dollars, why should the inflation and the escalating of prices in materials affect the price?\u00a0Now that they have increased the price of the property, I want my money back but how do I get my money back?\u201d asked another caller.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the leader of the research team who came out with the report, Kelvin Kwaku Yeboah, in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> explained the findings in the report.<\/p>\n According to him, \u201cone bedroom facility is around GHC 120,000 and the monthly payment of that is about GHC 1,820. The qualifying income is around GHC 12,000 so if you earn below GHC 12,000, I\u2019m telling you, you won\u2019t be able to have access to a decent one bedroom facility.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that the price requires an individual \u201cto make a necessary contribution of not less than 20 percent of the cost of the facility and you can decide to make that contribution to the estate developer or to some of these mortgage firms.\u201d<\/p>\n He insisted that persons who earn below GHC 4,000 will find difficulty in accessing a one bedroom facility.<\/p>\n Regarding the salaries of civil servants, Mr. Yeboah mentioned that public sector workers who earn less than GHC 1,000 \u201cand are spending one third of that per the UN [United Nations] standard as your monthly payment for mortgage and it\u2019s about GHC 330.<\/p>\n Obviously, you can\u2019t get any facility in Ghana that will enable you to be paying GHC 330 a month. You are just out of the bracket.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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