This book seeks to fill the information gap on a key emerging real estate market and demystify the perception that the market in Ghana and indeed, across sub-Saharan Africa is opaque. Drawing on decades of experience from within the market, the author presents a detailed examination of the real estate market in Ghana and its existing regulatory framework. In doing so, he provides a justification for its relevance in the subregion. It focuses on seven thematic areas – land administration, legal perspectives, market dynamics, investment potentials, market competitiveness, valuation and compensation. This book will be a useful resource for students, academia, practitioners, real estate developers, investors and professional advisors such as valuers, surveyors, lawyers, accountants, bankers, architects, planners and engineers. An important feature of this book is the way in which chapters are self-contained, and yet follow logically one from another. With this approach, readers can choose a reading path appropriate to their own specific needs without a loss of continuity.

As urbanization of the world’s population grows at an ever-increasing pace, the need to understand the effects of globalization on cities is at the forefront of urban studies. Traditional scholarship largely employs a framework of analysis based on the globalizing experience of Western cities. In Globalizing City, Richard Grant draws on ten years of empirical research in Accra, Ghana’s capital city, to show how this African metropolis is as deeply transformed by globalization as the cities of other world regions. Grant reveals the ways in which international, transnational, and local forces are operating on the urban landscape of Accra, from elite gated communities to the poorest slums. Through interviews and extensive fieldwork, he examines how foreign companies, returned expatriates, and native Ghanaians foster globalization on multiple levels. Globalizing City offers an excellent case study of the complex social and economic dynamics that have transformed Accra, providing an essential guide for studying globalizing cities in general.

There is a lack of international comparative housing studies, possibly because it requires thorough knowledge of the real estate market in question. This book brings together scholars with knowledge of different national markets in order to facilitate comparisons for real estate and housing and urban studies scholars and practitioners. By studying international markets using new data as well as new analysis of existing data, the chapters in this book present insights into the institutional constraints on national housing markets. Specifically, the contributors seek to examine the role of institutional factors and their influence on transaction costs in these markets. Exhibiting a diverse range of geographical, legal, and economic perspectives, the countries are grouped together based on legal institutional similarities, and each group includes an introduction and a conclusion highlighting similarities and differences from the institutional perspective. The book is divided into 3 parts: Part I sets the theoretical context and the reasons for writing a book focusing on national housing markets. Part II presents national markets from the perspective of the transaction process and covers Europe, North and South America, East Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. Part III contains conclusions with a critical discussion on how to compare national housing markets and a reflection on future directions of housing markets in an increasingly competitive international environment. The Routledge Companion to International Housing Markets is essential reading for academics and professionals in housing studies, real estate, economics, and urban studies.

This book brings together a broad range of research that interrogates how real estate market analysis, finance, planning, and investment for residential and commercial developments across the African continent are undertaken. In the past two decades, African real estate markets have rapidly matured, creating the conditions for new investment opportunities which has increased the demand for a deeper understanding of the commercial and residential markets across the continent. The chapters consider issues that pertain to formal real estate markets and the critical relationship between formal and informal property markets on the continent. With contributing authors from South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, the book considers the achievements of African real estate markets while also highlighting the complex central themes such as underdeveloped land tenure arrangements, the availability of finance in both the commercial and residential sectors, rapidly growing urban areas, and inadequate professional skills. This book is essential reading for students in real estate, land management, planning, finance, development, and economics programs who need to understand the nuances of markets in the African context. Investors and policy makers will learn a lot reading this book too.

This book brings together a broad range of research that interrogates how real estate market analysis, finance, planning, and investment for residential and commercial developments across the African continent are undertaken. In the past two decades, African real estate markets have rapidly matured, creating the conditions for new investment opportunities which has increased the demand for a deeper understanding of the commercial and residential markets across the continent. The chapters consider issues that pertain to formal real estate markets and the critical relationship between formal and informal property markets on the continent. With contributing authors from South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, the book considers the achievements of African real estate markets while also highlighting the complex central themes such as underdeveloped land tenure arrangements, the availability of finance in both the commercial and residential sectors, rapidly growing urban areas, and inadequate professional skills. This book is essential reading for students in real estate, land management, planning, finance, development, and economics programs who need to understand the nuances of markets in the African context. Investors and policy makers will learn a lot reading this book too.

The economy has a history of strong government involvement and a legacy of socialist policies in the 1960s and 1970s, with statist companies involved in both energy and agriculture; yet, the country’s market is now among the more liberalised in the region. Ghana has a strong export profile, although it is somewhat dependent on commodities. It is the world’s second-largest exporter of cocoa, behind Côte d’Ivoire, and one of the continent’s largest gold producers, while new reserves of oil and gas have helped further expand its resource wealth. The economy saw expansion of 7.1% in 2013, while inflation reached 14.5% in March 2014. Although inflation and balance of payments remain the country’s biggest economic challenges, measures have been taken to strengthen the cedi and curb inflation.

These include a more stable macroeconomic environment through the fiscal consolidation programme, a more favourable balance of trade buttressed by expanding oil exports and an increasingly sophisticated financial system, as evidenced by a soon-to-be-launched com­modities exchange and increased integration with regional and international securities markets. Risks remain, however. High interest rates, inflation and public debt in the face of stubbornly low levels of private sector lending and insurance penetration will likely remain through 2017. Nonetheless, the govern­ment has demonstrated a commitment to undertak­ing the structural reforms that are necessary to bring down interest rates, stabilise the currency and get Ghana’s fiscal house in order.

Investments are widely accepted as the matchless path to development. Real estate is as much a prerequisite for investment as are capital and labour. Nonetheless, relative progress in ensuring that arrangements concerning real estate are compatible with desired magnitudes of investments in Africa remains far from satisfactory. Treatment of real estate in the development literature remains tangential and incoherent. This volume explores why real estate policies in Africa have not worked well and examines how they can or should be more organised for efficient and successful outcomes. This book is essential reading for all interested in development economics, real estate economics and African studies.

This open access book utilizes new data to thoroughly analyze the main factors currently shaping the African housing market. Some of these factors include the supply and demand for housing finance, land tenure security issues, construction cost conundrum, infrastructure provision, and low-cost housing alternatives. Through detailed analysis, the authors investigate the political economy surrounding the continent’s housing market and the constraints that behind-the-scenes policy makers need to address in their attempts to provide affordable housing for the majority in need. With Africa’s urban population growing rapidly, this study highlights how broad demographic shifts and rapid urbanization are placing enormous pressure on the limited infrastructure in many cities and stretching the economic and social fabric of municipalities to their breaking point. But beyond providing a snapshot of the present conditions of the African housing market, the book offers recommendations and actionable measures for policy makers and other stakeholders on how best to provide affordable housing and alleviate Africa’s housing deficit. This work will be of particular interest to practitioners, non-governmental organizations, private sector actors, students and researchers of economic policy, international development, and urban development.