Support us to bridge housing deficit : GREDA Prez tells gov't

The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) has challenged the government to support estate developers with soft policies and interventions that would boost their fight against the housing deficit.

While acknowledging the government's support to the industry in the past, the President of the association, Mr Kwakye-Dopoah-Dei, said in Accra that such interventions needed to be reactivated to help cushion estate developers from some of the challenges facing the sector.

He mentioned taxes on inputs and finished products, access to land, lack of social amenities on project sites and multiple sale of lands as some of the challenges that needed government intervention.

The Manet example

The GREDA president made the call at the inauguration of a US$200,000 police station built by the Manet Group, a member of GREDA, for the Ghana Police Service.

The building, which is on the Spintex Road in Accra, will house the Batsona Divisional Police Headquarters and Manet Police Station, which would serve the various divisions in the police administration.

It will serve as a contact point between residents and the police personnel who would help protect lives and the properties of the various businesses around the area.

Until its inauguration by the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, the President of the Manet Group, Dr Theresah Oppong-Beeko, and the GREDA President on October 2, there was no such facility around the Spintex Road and Batsona area and that compelled people with police-related issues to seek redress from the Airport and the Sakumono stations, which are a distance away.

Mr Kwakey-Dopei said Manet's gesture was commendable and called on other estate developers to emulate the example.

"I wish to urge other estate developers to emulate this gallant example and to also ensure that provision is always made in their project plan layouts for police stations among other amenities to be provided," he said.

He, however, added that the government needed to reciprocate such laudable gestures from estate developers by supporting them in their strive to construct houses for the populace.

Police maintenance culture
The IGP lauded the Manet Group for the kind gesture and called on other private institutions to emulate the example.

He said the expansion in population and urbanisation had made it virtually impossible for the government to provide for the police administration, hence the need for corporate bodies to come on board.

As a result, he lauded the government for extending its public private partnership (PPP) initiative to the police administration and thus invited members of the GREDA to take advantage of it to provide more facilities for the service.

Mr Alhassan further charged the personnel to be stationed at the facility to take proper care through routine maintenance.

"The general perception is that there is a general lack of maintenance culture in the police administration and we need to portfolio that wrong by taking good care of this facility," the IGP said.

The Manet Group currently comprise an estate company and allied service providers.

It has been in the business for about 27 years and has won several awards, including the Best Architecture (Commercial), Best Office Developer of the Year – 2011 and the Ultimate Award in 2013 from the Ghana Property Awards.
— GB