Francis Asenso-Boakye, Minister of Works and Housing
The Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, has disclosed government’s plan to reform the existing laws on rent, in the face of rapid urbanization, to breathe new life into rent administration in the country.
This, according to the Minister, is aimed at promoting a delicate balance between the needs of landlords and tenants.
He said the efforts by the Ministry to address problems associated with rental housing had received a major boost as stakeholders undertook the review of the existing Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220), meant to, among other things, bring sanity in the administration of rental housing, and remove inherent constraints on housing supply in the country.
Speaking at a colloquium to review the existing Rent Act and the Bill for the establishment of the Ghana Housing Authority, Mr Asenso-Boakye indicated that the relevance of the existing law, as amended and passed by Parliament some 59 years ago, had been outlived by the current population growth, urbanisation and demand and supply imbalance.
The situation, he indicated, had saddled the rental housing industry with huge challenges, with landlords demanding years of advance rent.
The reform
Acknowledging the importance of housing provision, the Minister noted that the reforms would help increase access to housing by the ordinary Ghanaians. He said the new Act should be able to “safeguard the rights of vulnerable tenants who have been out priced by the uncontrollable hikes in the cost of rental accommodation.
He stressed the need to put in place institutional architecture to drive the housing sector, saying the “the establishment of the proposed Ghana Housing Authority will help the country to regulate, plan, develop and manage housing development”.
“There must be concerted efforts to address the current precarious situation in the housing sector where home ownership has become a very complex and expensive venture for most Ghanaians,” the Minister noted.
The Chairperson and Vice-Chancellor of the KNUST, Prof. Rita A. Dickson, described the meeting as a national assignment that would open avenues to set up key priorities, develop concrete plans of actions based on detailed international comparative analysis.
She entreated the panelists, who were carefully selected among policymakers, academicians, landlords, tenants, rent control officers, lawyers, judges and experts in the building industry and other key interest groups to be objective in their submissions.
Prof. Dickson further stated that the efforts would produce stimulating and invigorating inputs necessary for the reforms in the Rent law as well as the Ghana Housing Authority Bill.
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