Housing supply in Ghana: A study of Accra, Kumasi and Berekum

This is a study of housing supply in three urban areas in Ghana: Accra the capital city, Kumasi, the most important provincial city, and Berekum, a sm all town. The sample of over 1600 households is divided into renters, recen t owners, and longer established owners. The last group is divided into tho se who have and those who have not extended their home in the previous 6 ye ars. The data provides an insight into who is supplying houses (and extensi ons), what sort of housing they are building, their reasons for building an d the problems encountered in achieving ownership. The study shows that hou se ownership is available to much lower income households than expected, es pecially when traditional compounds are built; that owners are relatively o ld, have large households and occupy considerably more rooms than renters, and build houses larger than they need and let the remainder to tenants or relatives. There is a great need for housing finance because land is curren tly inappropriate for collateral against a building loan. Research is neede d to develop a means by which land could be used as collateral for a loan w ithout unravelling the customary non-marketability of land. (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.