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 small town. The sample of over 1600 households is divided into renters, recent owners, and longer established owners. The last group is divided into those who have and those who have not extended their home in the previous 6 years. The data provides an insight into who is supplying houses (and extensions), what sort of housing they are building, their reasons for building and the problems encountered in achieving ownership. The study shows that house ownership is available to much lower income households than expected, especially when traditional compounds are built; that owners are relatively old, 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 currently inappropriate for collateral against a building loan. Research is needed to develop a means by which land could be used as collateral for a loan without unravelling the customary non-marketability of land. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.