Financial Prospects For Housing - Expectations from The New Ghana Government on Housing - Part III

To wrap up on the series about housing in Ghana and the new government’s promises, finance is crucial to this discussion. The cost of housing forms a greater percentage of most households’ expenditure. And since housing is a necessity, it is very dear to most Ghanaians.

The source of funding a home has, in the past in Ghana, generally been limited to borrowing from friends and family and savings, until home financing institutions and banks started providing mortgage services to prospective house owners. Though this has brought relief in the housing sector, the Majority of homeowners in Ghana over the years contend with the growing cost of interest charged by banks on home loans. This is said to be one of the reasons accounting for the huge deficit in housing in Ghana.



To show commitment to the real estate industry in helping financial institutions provide financial assistance to ordinary Ghanaians, the current government outlined some interventions in its 2016 manifesto.

Accordingly, the new government seeks to facilitate the development of an active mortgage market to expand the mortgage loans to Ghanaians. Also, they will fully implement section 103 of the National Pensions Act 2008 (766) which stipulates pension benefits for housing of workers that, “A scheme may allow a member to use that member’s benefit to secure a mortgage for the acquisition of a primary residence.” This means that a person living on pension income can use that benefit to qualify for or obtain a mortgage.



New Ghana Government also added that they will work with identifiable groups like the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Ghana National Association of Teachers, Farmer’s Groups, etc. to facilitate the construction of homes for their members through the provision of the appropriate financing guarantees. These approaches will form part of the means to achieving the aim of developing funding schemes to assist home buyers in acquiring units and ultimately solve the rising fear of high cost of building or purchasing a home by the average Ghanaian.