Ghana introduces Real Estate Authority Bill to regulate sector

Works and Housing Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, has told Parliament government intends to inject professionalism into the country’s real estate sector with the introduction of the Real Estate Authority Bill, 2016.

The Bill, he noted, seeks to regulate the Real Estate Agency practice and commercial transactions in real estate including the sale, purchase, rentals and leasing of real estate and related fixed assets as well as real estate agents and practitioners.

Moving the motion for the second reading of the Bill, the Minister further told Parliament that the Bill also seeks to prohibit cash payments for real estate transactions and also provides for a detailed trail of record keeping that will help track transaction and persons involved in real estate businesses for ease of taxation and to check money laundering.

Chairman of the Committee on Works and Housing, David Tetteh Assumeng, presenting the Committee’s report to Members for consideration and adoption on the floor of Parliament, Wednesday, said the Bill when passed into law will not only ensure improvement in the real estate sector but also provide positive externalities (jobs) in other sectors and serve as a catalyst for increased economic activities for the benefit of the entire nation.

The Committee, he noted, is also convinced that the registration in the Bill would enable the Agency to introduce a high degree of integrity and sanity into the Real Estate agency practice, which would help reduce fraudulent and unfair practices such as multiple sales and artificial pricing which have been the bane of the industry.

“When passed into law, the structures therein will help mobilize and optimize revenue collection on real estate transactions which will inure to the benefit of the government”, he added.

MP for Ofoase-Ayirebi, David Oppong-Kusi contributing to the motion told the House that a Bill of such nature is long overdue.

He said over the years the sale and transfer of property from one person to another has become a huge industry where in some economies in the world, it is their main source of revenue.

According to him, if an industry such as the real estate sector goes unregulated and is done at the wrong side of the law, it gives room for a lot of malpractices, a situation he noted, robes one off his hard earned money.

He said most people, including himself, have fallen victims to double land sales and other dubious transactions in the real estate business.

Therefore, the Bill when passed into law will help curb such malpractices in the real estate sector.

“The benefit of capturing and keeping trail of records will go for all, be it a land owner or the individual landlord who seeks to sell or lease his property for income. The vulnerable buyer will then benefit as well as others in the sector”, he noted.