Minister identifies gap in housing industry

Accra, June 15, GNA - Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Minister of Works and Housing on Tuesday acknowledged the huge gap in the housing delivery industry and challenged real estate developers to collaborate with the Government to address the discrepancy.

"There is a huge gap between what is and what should be in housing delivery."

He observed that together, "we have not done much in the housing delivery business".

The Minister told Executives of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), who called on him in Accra to introduce their Regional Executives to him.

Alhaji Idris, therefore, challenged GREDA to improve their capacity for developing more houses in the respective regions to alleviate the suffering of the people.

The situation is particularly grave in the Greater Accra Region where issues of population explosion and lack of access to land with good title have compounded it.

He said endless land litigations also made it difficult to accelerate housing development in the Capital.

Alhaji Idris also identified lack of capital, high cost of building material, cumbersome and time consuming approval processes for building plans as the problems hampering sufficiency in housing.

The other problems are, unfavourable banking arrangements for Estate Developers and the high cost of infrastructure, which were also inhibiting the growth of the real estate development industry. Mr Brandford D. K. Adu, President of GREDA, said the establishment of regional braches aimed at broadening the scope and capacity of Real Eestate Developers towards meeting the Government's target of improving the housing sector.

The regional executives are from Greater Accra, Volta, Western, Ashanti, Central, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions. The Northern Region represents both the Upper East and Upper West Regions.