1st Edition
The Real Estate Market in Ghana An Emerging Market in Sub-Saharan Africa
This book seeks to fill the information gap on a key emerging real estate market and demystify the perception that the market in Ghana and indeed, across sub-Saharan Africa is opaque. Drawing on decades of experience from within the market, the author presents a detailed examination of the real estate market in Ghana and its existing regulatory framework. In doing so, he provides a justification for its relevance in the subregion. It focuses on seven thematic areas – land administration, legal perspectives, market dynamics, investment potentials, market competitiveness, valuation and compensation.
This book will be a useful resource for students, academia, practitioners, real estate developers, investors and professional advisors such as valuers, surveyors, lawyers, accountants, bankers, architects, planners and engineers.
An important feature of this book is the way in which chapters are self-contained, and yet follow logically one from another. With this approach, readers can choose a reading path appropriate to their own specific needs without a loss of continuity.
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Brief country profile 2
1.3 Motivation 3
1.4 Real estate market performance 4
1.5 Existing works on real estate markets in emerging economies 5
1.6 Objective of the book 7
1.7 Structure of the book 8
References 8
2 Land administration 12
2.1 Background 12
Land as nature 12
Land as a resource 12
Land as a factor of production 12
Land as a commodity 12
Land as a physical space 13
Land as a deity 13
Land as a community 13
Land as a human right 13
2.2 Land administration systems 13
Repository of credible data 14
Safeguard state and vested lands 15
Functional mortgage market 15
Security of title 15
Reduced land disputes 15
Sustainable management of the environment 15
Planning and infrastructure development 16
Facilitate land reform and market development 16
2.3 Antecedents to current land administration systems 16
2.4 The National Land Policy 17
Inadequate policy and legal framework 17
Undeveloped land registration system and inefficient land market 18
Fragmented institutional arrangements and weak capacity 19
2.5 Specific land administration project interventions 20
2.6 The path ahead 29
Establish Continuous Operating Reference Stations to serve as the framework for base maps production 36
Undertake nationwide orthophoto mapping to provide up-todate base maps for national development 37
Determine boundaries and record interests and rights of all customary owned lands 37
Prepare and enforce planning schemes nationwide 37
Deploy the Ghana Enterprise Land Information System nationwide 37
Build human resource capacity and provide competitive remuneration for the land sector 38
Build a sustainable capital base for land administration 38
References 38
3 Legal perspectives 40
3.1 Introduction 40
3.2 Land ownership 40
3.3 Securing your interest in land 46
3.4 Defective land title and actions needed 47
3.5 Processes of land registration 48
Processes for title registration 48
Processes for deeds registration 49
3.6 Regulatory framework 50
References 50
4 Market dynamics 52
4.1 Introduction 52
4.2 Residential market 53
4.3 Office market 58
4.4 Retail market 60
4.5 Industrial market 61
4.6 Mortgage market 64
References 67
5 Investment potentials 68
5.1 Introduction 68
5.2 Performance measurement 69
5.3 Transaction-based property indices 71
Methodology 71
Empirical findings 73
Implications and relevance 78
References 82
6 Market competitiveness 84
6.1 Introduction 84
6.2 Understanding the fundamentals of investment vehicles 84
6.3 Benchmarks for comparison 85
6.4 Comparison of sub-Saharan African markets 88
References 93
7 Valuation and compensation 95
7.1 Introduction 95
7.2 Traditional methods of valuation 99
Comparative method 100
Profits method 101
Investment or income capitalisation method 102
Cost or contractor’s method 102
Residual method 103
7.3 Valuation guidelines and standards 103
7.4 Electronic real estate database 106
7.5 Computer-assisted valuation system 107
7.6 Real estate research and development 107
7.7 Compulsory acquisition and compensation 108
Acquisition procedures 109
Compensation assessment 110
Involuntary resettlement 112
Rural and urban case studies 113
References 115
Biography
Dr. Wilfred K. Anim-Odame has over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. He is a Senior Technical Advisor at the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana. He served as the Director of the Land Valuation Division, an analogous role of the Valuer-General of the Republic of Ghana, from September 2010 to May 2012, and later as the Executive Secretary (Chief Executive Officer) of the Ghana Lands Commission between 2012 and 2018. He strategically transformed the Land Valuation Division and Lands Commission, and also championed the automation of land services delivery. He has been an external examiner for undergraduate and graduate studies as well as PhD research at the Department of Land Economy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, since 2011. He is a Chartered Valuer with a diverse background in land economy, property investment and finance. He is also a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) and Fellow of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (FGhIS). He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and delivered presentations at many international platforms, including the American Real Estate Society; World Bank/IMF/LSE/GWU policy workshop; International Growth Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science; European Real Estate Society; African Real Estate Society; and International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). Dr. Anim-Odame serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Banking, Risk and Intermediation (BRI) Research Group of Durham University Business School, United Kingdom, and is a Commonwealth Secretariat scholar.
