Nana Odeneho Kyeremateng
The establishment of a National Housing Fund has been suggested to help finance affordable housing programmes in the country, particularly for low income earners.
Executive Chairman of Comet Properties, Nana Odeneho Kyeremateng, who made the recommendation, said that would offer the needed seed funding for the government to lend to real estate firms to undertake developments for low income workers.
Nana Kyeremateng was speaking on Pm Express Business recently.
According to him, such a fund would also help the banks regarding the provision of mortgage for persons earning below some salary levels in the country.
The Executive Chairman of Comet Properties called on all stakeholders to show commitment to providing decent housing for workers.
He emphasised that, “we need to find a lasting solution to the housing challenge thing, otherwise we will be going, round and round the issue and not address anything.”
Furthermore, he recommended that the provision of affordable housing in the country must be championed by the private sector.
He advised that it will be prudent for the provision of affordable housing in Ghana to be led by the private sector and not the government as has been the case lately.
Commenting on how this fund could be financed, Nana Kyeremateng advised the government to consider using revenue from the rental tax, even though he parried arguments that introducing new taxes might be a more sustainable way of financing the proposed fund.
Also, he disclosed that a prospective homeowner would need between $40,000 and $50,000 to own a two-bedroom house in the non-prime areas adding commercial banks could not be blamed, since getting long term financing in Ghana for financial institutions presented a major challenge.
“That is why mortgage is very expensive and does not favour a lot of people with low incomes in the country,” he posited rejecting arguments that most of the properties provided by the real estate firms in Ghana were very expensive.
By Samuel Boadi