Houses and residential neighbourhoods as work places in urban areas: The case of selected low income residential areas in greater Accra metropolitan area (Gama), Ghana

House-based enterprises (HBEs) as well as small enterprises located in resi dential neighbourhoods are common to all urban areas of developing countrie s, especially low-income residential neighbourhoods. In Accra, the capital city of Ghana, there is an increasing use of houses and residential neighbo urhoods as places of work. A survey of small-scale production and service-o riented enterprises located in three low income residential areas in Accra examines three issues: space use, growth patterns, and health and environme ntal effects. The study found that although HBEs derived some advantages fr om being sited in houses and in residential neighbourhoods, half of the sam pled operators would have preferred to locate their business outside the re sidential neighbourhood in order to attract more customers, overcome the pr oblem of inadequate workspace and to expand their enterprises. Most of the sampled enterprises had no appreciable growth over time. Enterprises had un intended negative health and environmental consequences on the operators, t heir workers and also on the house and residential environment in general. These effects tended to compound the already serious household environmenta l conditions in low-income residential neighbourhoods. The paper offers som e suggestions to improve the accommodation of HBEs in order to promote busi ness growth and ultimately to reduce the health and environmental impacts.