There are many houses available in the country but most are unaffordable, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Freda Prempeh, has said.
Speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3FM on Thursday, 17 August 2017, she said the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government will revisit the affordable housing project started by the erstwhile John Kufuor government.
She told show most Moro Awudu: “We’ve been touting that we have a housing deposit of 1.7 million but I believe that if we really do a comprehensive scientific research, we‘ll be heading towards about two million housing deficits. But when you drive around Accra, Roman Ridge, Labone, Cantonments – the prime areas – you’ll see a lot of apartments, a lot of houses, a lot of units, and most of them are crying for buyers. There are lots of houses around but people can’t afford to buy.
“So the issue to me is not really the fact that we don’t have the houses. The fact is, it’s not affordable. So what the ministry is trying to do… The Kufuor administration set the pace and started the affordable housing project. We started one in Koforidua , Borteyman, one in Kpong, Kumasi, Wa and Tamale and unfortunately we left office in 2008 and in Ghana they do politics with everything forgetting the fact that we are all the same people so whatever party A started, party B should be able to continue but it didn’t happen.
“However, my minister, during the vetting, said whatever project was started by the NDC, he is going to continue. Unfortunately, the housing project in Koforidua is still as we left it in 2008, the Ashanti region one is the same, Wa, Tamale and Kpong, the same. It’s Borteyman that they did something with SSNIT but unfortunately, when we were leaving office, one bedroom was selling for $15,000 and the dollar was one dollar one cedi. The two bedroom apartment was $25,000.
“Unfortunately, when SSNIT took over and constructed the same two bedroom, they are selling for GHS 220,000 which to me is just too much. So we intend looking into the MoU and find out exactly why they’ve increased the price of the unit so much from GHS25,000 to GHS220,000. So the issue is not with the fact that the houses are not there. There are lots of houses around but the point is they are not affordable.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
