When they moved into their new home at Adenta New Site, Adoley—not her real name—and her sister had no idea how unbearable their one-year stay would be.
The landlord demanded a one-year advance of GHS 14,440 for a two-bedroom apartment or they would risk losing their room to another potential tenant. This meant that the landlord received 1,200 GHS from their earnings each month as rent.
They were required to pay a security deposit of 1,200 cedis per year in addition to the initial payment of GHS 14,400 cedis. The landlord said that the money was given to cover things like maintenance, renovation, and other possible costs for their new place to live.
Even though he didn't have to pay Ghana Water Company for water, the landlord insisted that the tenants pay 350 cedis for water from his well.
They didn't like living in the apartment at all. She stated that it was always "from one issue to the other."
According to the apartment's tenancy history, no tenant had lived there for more than a year. They either left after a year because the landlord's discretion and decisions made it harder for them to live than the financial hardship, or they left to keep their sanity.
This is not unique to Adoley. When trying to find a place to stay, many Ghanaians face similar challenges. When you rent, sometimes the problems and discomfort start before you even move in.
Ghana's housing deficit Rent issues are just one aspect of Ghana's housing shortage, which is a troubling socioeconomic issue.
Over 10 million (10,661,421) structures were listed in the Ghana Statistical Service's 2021 Population and Housing Census.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the housing deficit has decreased for the first time by 33% (1.8 million units). Despite the fact that a reduction sounds good, as our teachers pointed out, there is always "more room for improvement." Because it does not translate into the affordability of housing, the 33 percent has little significance for ordinary Ghanaians.
The housing shortage of 1.8 million for a nation with 30,792,608 people has made rent unbearable and regulation challenging. The majority of homes are owned by individuals who choose their own rent and payment schedule.
Rent for a House in Ghana According to Abraham Maslow's Theory of Needs, a person's psychological needs, like having a place to live, should come first, before any other needs. Therefore, a person cannot perform at their highest level if their psychological needs are not met.
If this country's optimal functioning is any indication, there must be a significant number of dysfunctional individuals as a result of rent and housing issues.
Ghanaian rents can be shockingly high. Many individuals, youthful and old, are battling with over the top lease that definitely ascends regardless of a valid justification.
Finding a good place to live is one thing in Accra, but finding one that is affordable and free of landlord-tenant drama is an exception. Additionally, you can only count yourself among the fortunate when you are unable to pay your rent.
As a result, despite the fact that Anna-Liza Afiba Arthur's Facebook comment did not surprise me, I still find it worrying that rent is a problem we haven't solved. She penned: My predicament, as a single mother of three, is that I currently pay 800 per month, but my landlord has increased that to 1,400. Because I am unable to pay, he requested that we leave because someone has taken it. Hmm, I'm even looking for a perch to collect rent money. The rent in Accra is insane.
Rent has taken a toll on many people's finances, draining them more quickly than other necessities.
Source: Tell everything, Facebook page
Notwithstanding the current difficulties with lease, there are the brokers, or specialists, as they are prevalently called. Additionally, they have seized the chance to earn money from prospective tenants.
They are not only making more money, but some of them are also making people's lives more difficult by defrauding potential tenants. The terms and conditions under which these unregulated housing agents operate are their own.
The Landlord, the Tenants, and the Law Image Rent Control Department public education material I cannot even begin to count the number of people whose experiences with landlords and tenants I have heard, seen, or read about—the unfortunate ones, the dramatic and sad ones, the legitimate issues, and the irrelevant ones.
One of these is Enam, whose story I will never forget. She and her husband only spent three years in their Odorkor apartment.
They performed the same song as Adoley: It was dependably from one issue to the next" then again, actually they needed to visit the Lease Control Office with their landowner to settle their "matter" which was regardless of by any stretch of the imagination. It was neither weighing anything nor deserving of space in the Rent Office.
They only requested an extension to remain in his apartment three months prior to their eviction date in a letter. The lease regulation makes arrangements for this course of action.
But in a letter, the landlord said that they should write to the Rent Control Department and tell them why they didn't want to move out. The remainder of the story consisted solely of drama and frequent trips to the Rent Office. After searching for a place to live for several days in Accra, they eventually left.
The Ghanaian rental market is governed by Act 220 of the Rent Law of 1963. It is against the law for a landlord to take more than six months' worth of rent in advance for a place of residence.
Despite the fact that the Rent Law forbids such conduct, neither the landlords nor the caretakers do so. They receive their "illegal" advance rent payment with joy.
Despite the reality of the situation, this law has remained in effect in the legislative archives. The force of the landowners is just all around as solid as the framework permits them, making them some way or another, more impressive than the law.
Types of Houses in Ghana - Meqasa Blog Finding affordable housing is a major problem for Ghanaians. Credit: Meqasa What has happened and been said?
Since the frontier time, a few endeavors including strategies and drives have been made by progressive states to address the lodging hole in the country.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) both pledged to address the problem of the housing deficit during the 2020 general elections.
“A National Rental Assistance Scheme (NRAS) will provide eligible Ghanaians with low-interest loans to enable them to pay rent in advance,” the NPP promised. To ensure sustainability, these loans will be insured and repaid on a monthly basis to match the rent. The scheme will receive 100 million Ghana shillings from the government, which will be used to attract additional private sector funding.
The NDC stated that it wanted to "engage landlords, real estate investors, and tenants to review the Rent Act to provide tax incentives to landlords and real estate investors to reduce the cost of rent advance for residential and commercial purposes." This would be accomplished by lowering the cost of rent advances.
Ghanaians expect every government to address issues that have an impact on our standard of living, including drastic rent policy changes.
Therefore, I concur with Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister of Works and Housing, when he stated in a recent Daily Graphic article that "over the years, one of the reasons our public housing programmes have lagged behind and failed is that we don't have an implementing agency whose responsibility it is to manage housing developments in Ghana."
AUDIO: The Saglemi Housing Project was one of the interventions to address the country's housing deficit. However, it has taken the Akufo-Addo administration six years to audit the contract awarded by the Mahama administration in order to complete the project. Credit: A policy that will ensure the formation of the Ghana Housing Authority (GHA) to carry out the public housing programs is said to have been approved by the Graphic Cabinet, but I doubt it will produce anything significant.
Additionally, the NPP stated that it would "implement the necessary regulatory, institutional, and operational reforms of the Rent Control Department, including the digitization of their operations." We will not see the effects of that digitization until November 2022.
When they have the authority to do so, governments, in my opinion, do not treat issues related to rental housing with any seriousness.
In the years to come, I foresee a dire state of lawlessness and power abuse by the few who have the resources to control the rent market, as government housing projects that have been abandoned continue to rot.
The Way Forward Over the years, population growth, migration, and urbanization have all had a big impact on the high demand for housing, which can get out of hand if we don't deal with it all.
The government and investors need to come up with more affordable housing projects that will not only be affordable in name but also fit the budgets of Ghanaians.
To meet the gap between demand and supply, more homes are required. Individuals cannot be solely responsible for this. A national program to provide loans to tenants may not be sufficient, in my opinion, to address the issues we face in the housing sector. A surefire way to control the problem is for the government to actively participate in home ownership.
Act 220, the Rent Law of 1963, is out of date and unable to keep up with the demands and mishaps of today. The Lease Regulations ought to be evaluated right away, and I'm learning another Lease Control Act has been drafted for audit by Bureau toward this path. This is even further past due and cannot be postponed any longer.