By Nyarko Francis:
Many of our courts are choked with land litigations. These usually arise out of the multiple sales of lands to different people at the same time. Unfortunately, it is a canker that has not only affected individuals but various bodies such as educational institutions, financial institutions, recreational centers, etc. One of such affected bodies is the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association whose members continue to fall victim to these treacherous people who engage in these habits.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Mr. Samuel Amegayibor has therefore called on Government to come up with drastic policies to prevent people including chiefs from selling lands to multiple buyers. This he said will spare Estate Developers the headache of land litigations and grant them the peace of mind to build enough to reduce the housing deficit in the country.
According to him estate developers suffer bitterly in the hands of these fraudulent people where they sell a piece of land to different people thereby resulting in the unwanted scenario of people employing land guards.
Mr. Amegayibor in an interview with Rite news explained that, another huge challenge facing the housing industry is the inability of the developers to access long term financing from the Commercial Banks in the country, adding that interest rate on the loan facilities are so huge that “we cannot pay and the only option we have is to pass the cost onto the consumer”.
He noted that, about 70% of materials they use are imported into the country which he said is collapsing the local industry and therefore called on the government to put measures that will increase the production of local materials in the housing industry to provide jobs for the youth as well as help developers to reduce the prices of houses in the country.
Source: ritefmonline.org
