The real estate sector has the potential to contribute significantly to the economic growth of Ghana however, there are issues that threaten the survival of the sector, a Senior Lecturer at the Real Estate Faculty of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Dr Frank Gyamfi-Yeboah said.
He said the issue of affordability is a main factor that can threaten the sector.
He accordingly, cautioned estate developers to prioritize building homes that are affordable.
Building affordable houses will open the door for more customers to make a purchase and make the developers stay in business.
Speaking to 3news.com on the sidelines of a real estate and management training workshop organized by the Laweh University College in Accra Dr Gyamfi-Yeboah said “I see a number of threats that can derail the contribution that the sector is making to the economy, it is a key sector that should be properly nurtured but there are threats.
“One of them is, excess supply of building to certain segments of the market…one of them is high earning apartment where we see a lot of vacancies.
“That, to me, is not a way to utilize our scarce resources, when people need houses and we are building houses that no one will live in because people who can afford those houses are not that many.”
“This is threat because capital is limited and for the nation to benefit from this sector we need to be able to utilize that capital in the best way possible,” he added.
He cautioned that “Developers must be careful only to build what they know that there will be demand for it not just any building.”
He further appealed to the government to support developers to put up affordable houses.
“I know developers have challenges doing that, it is not their making, government has to help them build affordable housing but the solution to not being able to build affordable houses shouldn’t be building houses that will not be used, having houses that are empty.
“We need to find ways to be able to supply housing that people will need because there is a deficit and that deficit has to be met, that capital for houses that nobody will live in should be deployed either with the government’s support, to build houses that people can live in, that is what is needed, that will create jobs.”
The workshop, which took place from Wednesday April 26 to Friday April 28, brought together together participants from various fields to be equipped with knowledge in the real estate sector.
Topics including Real Estate Investment Management and Finance in Ghana’s Economic Transformation, the law of Real Estate Agency in Ghana and the Global Economic Transformation, were discussed at the workshop.
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