The Real Estate Market in Ghana

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.

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