Published on 28 February 2006 at 04:24 pm
Filed in Property News for Ghana » Property Market in Ghana Receiving Recognition
As Ghana prepares to host the 2008 African Cup of Nations, two non-governmental organizations have begun a series of initiatives designed to recognize and boost the property market in Ghana, to raise the country’s profile with tourists and foreign investors and also to protect local involvement in a rapidly developing real estate market.
Property Express Ghana is the first body to raise the profile of the property industry in Ghana. They have created the ‘Ghana Property Awards’ which are taking place in October of this year and which will allow peer recognition of contributors of excellence in all sectors of the property industry.
According to a member of the Architects’ Registration Council in Ghana, the property industry has played a significant and critical part in boosting the economy of Ghana and even though it continues to provide the government with constant and sustained income, the industry has not received any form of recognition to date which is why the ‘Ghana Property Awards’ have now been devised.
The award ceremony will allow local and international buyers interested in investment property in Ghana to assess which firms, companies and individuals in the real estate sector have achieved excellence in their particular sphere of expertise. Furthermore, the deliberate promotion of the property sector in Ghana will raise international awareness about the ongoing and significant demand that exists in the country for residential real estate and tourism facilities and accommodation.
The fact that there is so much potential for investors in Ghana needs to be promoted and Property Express Ghana, a non-governmental body, have taken it upon themselves to promote the potential of their country’s real estate sector in an effort to attract sustained foreign direct investment.
The second non-governmental body currently committed to furthering the progress of the property sector in Ghana is the Ghana Real Estate Developers’ Association which is in the process of lobbying the government for the creation of a formal national institute that will buy up and secure swathes of land for future residential and commercial property development.
The Real Estate Developers’ Association is advising the government on the future housing requirements of the nation, the complications developers have to face when it comes to buying and registering land for development, the difficulties local companies face in financing land purchase and property development in Ghana and on the fact that it is highly likely international interest in Ghana will begin to surge which may price local real estate related companies out of their own local market.
The Association believes it would be in Ghana’s best interests if a national institute was established to buy land today for the future resale to local development companies and also to finance the future success of the country’s property market and protect the country from aggressive overseas intervention and the selling off of precious land to international investors.
Without the government’s direct assistance the Association fears for the sustainability of local involvement in the evolution of an investment property market that is rapidly gaining international recognition.
