By J. K. Nabary
Winneba (C/R), Oct. 19, GNA-Mr Kwame Kwaasi Danso, an Architect and Urban Planning Researcher, has called for repositioning of the State Housing Company (SHC) as Ghana’s flagship institution for inclusive and affordable housing delivery.
He said Ghana’s real challenge was not the absence of housing policy but the widening gap between housing supply and what low-and middle-income households could afford.
“Ghana’s problem is not lack of housing policy, the challenge is the growing shortage of affordable homes,” Mr Danso said in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency at Winneba.
He said rapid urbanisation had turned Ghana’s housing shortage into an affordability emergency, with demand for decent homes rising faster than supply in places like Accra, Kumasi, Kasoa, Amasaman and other expanding urban areas.
Ghana’s national housing deficit is estimated at more than 1.8 million units, while affordability constraints continued to exclude many low-and middle-income earners from formal housing markets.
He noted that rising land values, high rents, overcrowding, informal development and widening spatial inequality were increasingly defining the urban landscape and more than half of Ghana’s population now lived in urban areas, increasing pressure on housing, infrastructure and public services.
Research also indicates that about 31 per cent of Ghana’s urban population lives in informal settlements, underscoring the scale of the affordability challenge.
Mr Danso described SHC, established in 1956 as the Gold Coast Housing Corporation, renamed the State Housing Corporation in 1965, as one of Ghana’s oldest public housing institutions with a national presence and extensive experience in residential development.
The proposed a housing directorate to focus on low- and middle-income households, set measurable affordability targets and pilot innovative housing programmes in rapidly urbanising areas.
He recommended collaboration with metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, transparent beneficiary-selection systems, digital allocation platforms and stronger research into affordable construction technologies.
According to him housing finance reform was essential because conventional mortgage systems largely favoured formally employed workers with stable incomes, excluding many informal-sector workers, saying without financing reform, affordable housing would remain out of reach for most Ghanaian households.
Mr Danso advocated for rent-to-own arrangements, cooperative housing schemes, micro-mortgages, shared-equity programmes and flexible payment systems designed for people with irregular incomes.
He stated that government agencies, financial institutions and development partners should support the effort through concessional financing, affordable-housing funds, risk guarantees and targeted subsidies.
The National Homeownership Fund has already piloted mortgage and rent-to-own schemes, an approach Mr Danso said should be expanded and aligned with public housing delivery.
He cited Singapore, Morocco and Rwanda as examples of countries where strong public housing institutions, backed by clear mandates and sustainable financing, had improved housing affordability.
He called on government, Parliament, local authorities, financial institutions, development partners and civil society to work together to make SHC Ghana’s flagship institution for inclusive, affordable housing delivery.
GNA
Edited by Alice Tettey/Bertha Badu-Agyei/Linda Asante Agyei