Minsiter Tours Housing Project

Accra, (Greater Accra) 9 Sept.,

The Ministry of Works and Housing is drawing up guidelines to enhance the performance of estate developers and to protect customers from exploitation. The sector Minister, Mr. Isaac K. Adjei-Mensah, said the exploitation is in the quality of houses offered for sale and the nature of title handed over to the buyer by the developer. Mr. Adjei-Mensah was speaking during a visit to the Donkunah Housing Project, a SSNIT-financed project being undertaken by Ghana Real Estate Developers' Association (GREDA), near Weija in Accra. The first phase of the project involves the construction of 6,000 low and medium income housing units with associated infrastructure at a cost of 67 billion cedis over a two-year period. The Minister said his Ministry attaches much importance to this project because it is the largest single housing project at one location after the Dansoman Estates and because " we believe it will ease the housing pressure in Accra''. Mr. Adjei-Mensah said though the houses are to be sold, the developers should explore means of putting up some rental units for workers. " On our part, we are exploring ways of finding appropriate incentives that could be provided for such rental sector developers''. Dr. Austin Asamoa Tutu, the Chief Consultant, said the project, about one month behind schedule, was due to changes in the basic design. He said the cluster system is built with all the facilities of a modern city which make it look like a city within a city. "Everything being equal, the first phase should be completed in two years to house about 15,000 people, He said. Mrs. Stephanie Baeta-Ansah, Managing Director of Home Finance Company (HFC), said the project would be ''an estate with a difference'' and called on the developers to come out with something that ''will meet the pockets of all income earners''. She advised that all utility service providers should contribute to the project since they stand to benefit from it.