Housing affordability and stock do not meet demand – Tenants Union

The National Tenants Union of Ghana has raised red flags over the housing deficit in the country.

According to the Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs at the union, Reindolph Afrifa-Oware, Ghana’s housing affordability and stock do not meet demand.

He said: “Ghana’s housing affordability crisis is the result of deliberate policy choices and chronic underfunding that have persisted for decades by successive governments.”

He also added that research from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) indicates that the country’s housing deficit in the last 50-year period continually witnessed an upward trend which now stands at 1.8 million and needs deliberate action and commitment to affect a maximum change.

He added, often, homeownership is the preferred housing choice for Ghanaian families because it builds wealth; but due to difficulty in land acquisition and many unresolved land issues in the law court, most families are then forced to remain in the rental market, adding upward pressure to rental prices while driving those with less income and less wealth into more insecure and unstable rental housing.

He further commended the government for introducing the National Rental Assistance Scheme which he says will mitigate the difficulty in housing accessibility but stressed that it isn’t the real solution to Ghana’s housing crisis.