{"id":387022,"date":"2016-04-27T12:29:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T12:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=387022"},"modified":"2017-12-28T12:40:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T12:40:00","slug":"the-monster-in-ghanas-dollar-mortgages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/04\/the-monster-in-ghanas-dollar-mortgages\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018monster\u2019 in Ghana\u2019s dollar mortgages"},"content":{"rendered":"
A very good friend who works with one of the housing companies told me about a heartbreaking story of a young couple who lost their home within just 3 years.<\/p>\n
With one kid, this young family was thrown out of a house they believed their daughter would grow in and they would not worry about moving from one rented apartment to another.<\/p>\n
How did it happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n
The Cedi fell sharply against the dollar, their salaries remained the same and their mortgage repayment which was in dollars grew past their salaries. They couldn\u2019t keep up. Everything came tumbling down!<\/p>\n
Ghana\u2019s housing deficit has hit 1.7 million now.<\/p>\n
To make it easier to understand, it means spreading it over a 10-year period, a minimum of 170,000 housing units would have to be built annually, according to the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing to make sure accommodation in Ghana is no longer a jungle for the survival of the fittest.<\/p>\n
It certainly will be a dream to think we can achieve a fraction of this as a country. It won\u2019t happen because the government is busy with something else it considers priority. In fact the scary and ever-increasing housing deficit has never been a priority for many governments over the past 3 decades or so.<\/p>\n
As a friend put it, government has been \u201cblowing its dead horns of affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prices for government\u2019s new State Housing flats at Adenta in Accra is around GH\u00a2300,000 for a 3 bedroom house.<\/p>\n