Land guards are threat to Re-Estate development - GREDA

The Ghana Re-Estate Developers Association (GREDA), on Saturday called on the government to regulate land acquisition in the country to ensure sanity in re-estate development.

Mr. Togbor Mensah, former President of GREDA said the greatest threat to real estate development in the country is the role of land guards and greedy chiefs who employ them to cover up their dubious activities in land adjudication and administration.

"The government's intention of developing and promoting low cost housing through the private sector and 'Golden Age of Business' policy would be a mirage if land administration is not streamed lined."

Mr. Mensah told GNA in Accra after an Executive Meeting of the Association to plan the swearing ceremony of a new eleven-member executive committee, headed by Mr. Branford Adu, MP for Okere and Executive Director of AWET Company. Others are; Commander C. Addo of Jupiter Re-Estate as vice president and Ms. Mina Arthur of VIRKAM, Secretary.

The Former President welcomed the intended restructuring of the Land Commission and urged the government, traditional authorities and the National House of Chiefs to assess the current policy thoroughly and institute measures to strengthen regulating bodies of land administration.

Mr. Adu said his projections for the housing industry would be to revamp GREDA, through education of its members on new construction techniques and overcoming structural defects.

He stressed that his administration would set up a strong lobbying force to deal with government on housing policies and to implement housing policies that would favour employees. The GREDA would research into low income housing for the benefit of workers, review existing information, update and incorporate into housing programmes.

He said GREDA would also study other low cost housing technologies of other countries and "select the best that suits our conditions or modify to meet the nation's peculiar circumstances."

He said regional interest of concentration of new developments would be enforced to encourage business to spread out beyond Accra and other major cities. The new executive members would be sworn into office by the end of February.