The State Housing Company Limited (SHCL) is to partner the private sector to make homes affordable to workers and the general public.
The acting Managing Director of the company, John Bawah, said his outfit would prioritise the construction of low-cost houses to enable more people to acquire homes in the country.
He said making housing units affordable was non-negotiable, adding that SHCL would vigorously explore modern construction technologies such as the use of prefabricated materials to reduce the cost of building.
Mr Bawah said such a measure, coupled with other interventions such as accessible mortgage financing, could go a long way to create sustainable but truly affordable housing for low-income and middle-income earners in the country.
Advertisement
The acting MD made the pledge when he led the Minister of Works, Housing and Water Resources, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei, to inspect the SHCL site earmarked for an Affordable Housing project at Pokuasi in Accra.
Observations
Mr Bawah explained that SHCL’s role as a state-owned institution was not “to become an overly profitable institution or real estate company like the others, but rather to be one that stands up for the average citizen who is intimidated by the entry requirement into the real estate market which is loosely termed affordable”.
He said that the current prices of homes in the real estate market were not affordable to the average citizen, hence, the need for a redirection to satisfy the needs of the general public instead of a few of the people who were able to afford them in the current overly priced real estate market.
Context
The company is a participant in the sector ministry’s Affordable Housing projects, modelled on a public-private partnership strategy where the government provides on-site infrastructure such as access roads, drains and electricity for developers to build at scale to ensure that prices of the housing units were set at truly affordable rates for citizens to own.
Despite such interventions by the sector ministry, owning a decent housing unit remains a challenge in the country, as they are priced at dollar rates, making them unaffordable for many people.
Mr Bawah, however, gave an assurance that his outfit’s vision to deliver truly affordable housing would lead to bold and innovative approaches which would include unlocking public land banks for SHCL to undertake more of such housing projects.
Confidence
The Works, Housing and Water Resources Minister, Kenneth Gilbert Adjei expressed confidence in the capabilities of SHCL under Mr Bawah to provide high-quality affordable homes for citizens.
“Having known my brother in the real estate industry for a long time, I have no doubt he will bring his expertise in the industry to bear on his tenure and turn the fortunes of the company around,” he added.
The minister further assured SHCL of his support to provide affordable homes to the general public to help achieve the vision of the government to provide low-cost housing to the people.
