Ghana's 'Affordable' Housing Mirage: Why Middle-Income Workers Are Priced Out
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An analysis of Ghana's affordable housing programmes argues that government-built 'affordable' homes remain out of reach for most middle-income workers.
A new analysis of Ghana's affordable housing programmes argues that government-built homes branded 'affordable' remain out of reach for the vast majority of middle-income workers they are intended to serve.
The analysis traces attempts by successive administrations under the Fourth Republic to deliver worker housing. SSNIT expanded its mandate from managing pensions into mass housing during the Rawlings era, while the Kufuor administration launched the Affordable Housing Programme in 2005 with a goal of constructing 5,000 low-cost units across six sites, including Asokore Mampong in the Ashanti Region and Borteyman and Kpone in the Greater Accra Region.
The Atta-Mills and Mahama governments delivered the Saglemi Housing Project at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region, on about 300 acres of land, while the Akufo-Addo administration ran housing projects in collaboration with the National Home Financing Fund, including complementary projects in Asokore Mampong and housing for security personnel.
The analysis describes the affordable housing programme as an irony to both its name and purpose, noting that the open secret is that affordable housing has become unaffordable to a vast majority of government workers in the middle-income group. Middle-income government workers with university degrees reportedly retire with lump sums of between 50,000 and 90,000 Cedis, while workers earning between 4,000 and 6,000 Cedis monthly who retire this year after about three decades may receive up to 3,200 Cedis monthly as SSNIT pension, with a Tier 2 payment of about 100,000 Cedis.
It notes that when the National Home Financing Fund announced mortgage facilities for houses at 140,000 Cedis over a 20-year period, follow-up checks revealed discrepancies in actual prices, five to seven times higher. Government-built 'affordable' housing is reported to range between 170,000 and 1.2 million Cedis, comparable to prices offered by private developers, with two- or three-bedroom detached houses on a quarter plot costing between 550,000 and 800,000 Cedis.
The analysis concludes that bridging the gap between Ghanaian pensions and housing costs is a necessity, arguing that a reasonable 'affordable' price should be equivalent to the pension of a middle-income earner who wants to own government affordable housing by retirement.