Land disputes slow down real estate development- HFC

Accra, June 26, GNA - Mr Joseph Nketia, General Manager of HFC Investment Services Limited, on Friday noted that land disputes and increasing prices of building materials are the major challenges facing the growth of the estate development sector. "Ownership of lands has become a problem in this country because people posses land title certificates but others go to court to challenge its authenticity and this has resulted in slowing down the development of the real estate sector" he said. Mr. Nketia made this known to the Ghana News Agency at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the HFC Real Estate Investment, Equity and Unit Trust shareholders.

He said the practice of buying lands from chiefs generated a lot of disputes, adding that the only way to avoid such rows was to buy lands from government.

Presenting the 2008 report, Mr. Nketia said the HFC Real Estate Investment Trust (HFC REIT) witnessed the construction of two- bedroom semi- detached and four bed-room two storey houses as well as a four bed room duplet houses. He said the HFC REIT would work towards the completion and sale of 32 bedroom semi-detached houses and the acquisition of other residential properties for rental.

Mr. Nketia said the management of the HFC Equity Trust would embark on a holistic restructuring of the current investment portfolio held by the fund in order to minimize the effect of the downward movement, in the prices of stocks on the capital market. He said the HFC equity yielded 38.89 per cent representing an all time high returns since 2005 which was comparable with other schemes in the country.

He said this year would proof exceptionally difficult for both developed and emerging economies but government's commitment to achieve set macro- economic targets had led to strong and positive expectations by both business and consumers about the prospects of the economy. "The gross fund value of the HFC Unit Trust increased from 14.9 million Ghana Cedis in 2007 to 19.267 Million Ghana cedis in 2008", he said.

Mr. Nketia said government's policy of curbing spending in the economy through tightening its monetary policy would hold interest rates high throughout the year and would enable HFC Unit Trust to achieve higher returns than last year.