Govt backs efforts to establish housing fund

 The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Samuel Atta-Akyea, has backed plans to establish a national housing fund to provide decent and affordable mortgages, slum upgrading and support for small-scale local building material producers.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration launched a National Housing Policy in 2015, with a recommendation to establish a national housing fund; and Mr Atta-Kyea, responding to questions from Parliament’s Appointments Committee, said he was in support of the idea.

He said the establishment of such a fund could be leveraged to provide long-term financing for both investors in the sector and home buyers.

Mr Atta-Akyea complained about the lack of a dedicated bank in the country to support the housing needs of the populace.

He, therefore, gave an assurance that he would ensure that the housing fund was established and also hinted of the possibility of leveraging the seed money of the housing fund to establish a bank for the housing sector.

The housing minister expressed the hope that this would inject professionalism into the administration of the fund.

Housing deficit

As part of his strategy to deal with the housing deficit in the country, he said he would encourage multiple streams of mortgage financing schemes to provide long-term financing to the buyers.

He said the housing deficit, which currently stood at 1.7 million housing units, was a concern to the government.

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Mr Atta-Akyea said the difficulties in land acquisition and high cost of building materials were the bane of the housing sector.

“The inability of investors to make good returns on their investments in the real estate sector has also been a major disincentive to private sector investors even though most of them have capital to invest,” he noted.

He, therefore, advocated the improvement in income levels of Ghanaians in order to enable them to purchase houses at prices that would enable investors to make good returns on their investments.

Affordable housing projects

Mr Atta-Akyea also lauded the efforts of the previous government at completing some of the affordable housing projects commenced under the erstwhile Kufuor administration.

He said he would, therefore, make a case before Cabinet for the completion of the remaining affordable housing units before initiating any new housing projects.

He cited the current fiscal constraint as a challenge to the completion of the remaining projects, but gave the assurance that he would use the private sector as a vehicle to achieve his objectives for the sector.