About 15% of Ghanaians can afford to buy a house. This has been revealed by a real estate research firm following its recent survey report. Housing Data Centre reveals that prices of houses started soaring in the year 2013 all through to the first quarter of 2014.
The report found that the reason for their inability to afford houses was because of the worsening economic conditions, whereby most Ghanaians earn a salary of below 4,000cedis (US$1,412), making it impossible to buy a one bedroom house outside Accra.
During the first quarter of 2014, housing prices experienced an overall hike of between 18.5% and 25%, for buying a one and two bedroom houses respectively. A year ago a two bedroom semi-detached and three bedroom-detached houses were sold for US$66,500 and US$ 87,000, in the Dawhenya District of Tema, compared with the first quarter of 2014, where the houses sold at a price of US$85, 000 and US$ 105,000, an increment of 23.5% and 19% respectively.
According to the research firm, the tough economic conditions are due to lack of direction from the government in managing the various aspects of the economy, especially the depreciation of the local currency and the introduction of the 17.5% VAT on the Real Estate.
