Sustainable urban development and the challenge of unauthorized buildings: assessing demographic drivers in peri-urban areas of Ghana

This study examined socio-demographic factors that account for the construction of authorized houses in peri-urban areas of Ghana. Using Bamahu, a rapidly growing suburb of Wa in Ghana as a case study, the paper contributes to the position that a holistic understanding of the demand side factors accounting for the growth of illegal housing in today's emerging cities is a prerequisite to achieving sustainable urban development. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study whilst a multistage sampling process was used to identify respondents. Questionnaires were administered to 270 homeowners. Descriptive statistics and the Chi square test of independence were used to analyze the data. With the exception of site plans, majority (53.0%, 53.3%, 52.2% and 50.4%) of homeowners did not obtain indentures, building plans, building permits and land title certificates respectively before building. The tendency to construct an unauthorized building was greatly influenced by the mode of land acquisition and the highest level of education attained by the homeowner, whilst gender of the homeowner had no significant (p>0.05) influence on the acquisition of such documentations. A mix of relationships was however identified between occupation, house type and the acquisition of land and building documentations. Policy reforms and intensifying sensitization exercises for prospective homebuilders and customary landholders on procedures and processes in land acquisition and its subsequent development is recommended.