A bill to make housing affordable ready for Cabinet Approval – Housing Minister

The Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye has said there is a Ghana Housing Authority bill put up by the government to make housing affordable and accessible to Ghanaians who are low-to-middle-income earners.

According to the Minister, the bill is ready to be sent to cabinet and subsequently to Parliament for consideration and approval.

The said this while speaking as a guest at the Real Estate Experience Housing Fair organised by the Graphic Communication Group and the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association at the Silver Star Tower in Accra on Thursday, December 1, 2022.

In his address, the Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Bantama in the Ashanti Region indicated that the Ghana Housing Authority will help complement the operations of the newly created Home Ownership Fund which is to stimulate the demand side of the housing market to make housing accessible to the low-to-middle income earners.

He said the authority when established will lead the supply side of the housing market and will not only serve as a regulator in the sector, but also plan, develop and manage public housing in Ghana.

The lawmaker noted that the objective for setting up the Ghana Housing Authority is to decouple the planning, development and management of public housing of the Ministry from its core mandate of formulating, coordinating and monitoring the implementation of housing policies.

Mr Asenso-Boakye added that this will streamline the transition from policy formulation, coordination and monitoring through to the successful implementation of government led housing programmes.

“In recent times, most implemented government-led housing projects have not achieved the desired outcomes and impact for which they were conceived, primarily because the feasibilities, conception, planning, development and management of these projects are not handled by professionals, and as a result, were influenced largely by political considerations”, he concluded.