Controversy over Low-cost houses sale

Kumasi, Aug. 6, GNA - The government has been called upon to clear the air on its decision to sell Low-cost houses constructed by state housing institutions such as the State Housing Corporation (SHC) and the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to their occupants.

A spokesman for the occupants of the Ampabame Low-cost Housing estate at Bantama in Kumasi, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said this would help end the controversy the decision was generating over its interpretation by the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council. According to the occupants, for some unknown reasons the Council was claiming that the eight-unit semi-detached houses at Ampabame were not included in the directive even though a letter from the Ministry of Water Resources Works and Housing in February 2007 to the Council indicated that the Ampabame Low-cost houses were to be sold.

He said in spite of their willingness to buy the houses the Council would not allow them even though similar houses of the TDC and SHC in other places had been sold to their occupants as a result of high maintenance cost.