Should the Diasporan Build or Buy?

I have often heard from friends and family in the Diaspora how difficult it is to build a house in Ghana whilst abroad. Some have sent money home to their relatives only to have it siphoned away. Not to mention Chiefs selling a piece of land to multiple groups of people. So the question is, should a Diasporan buy or build in Ghana? With the current prices going as high as $550,000USD( www.ghana-estate.com/adjiringano-east-legon-trasacco-valley-area.html) and other prices being quoted by the various real estate companies in Ghana, the Diasporan is in a real dilemma. ????

My story is different, luckily we did not have to send funds to any friend or family member, we found an architect who was kind enough to build the house, however our problem started when we decided to engage the services of certain companies. First was to ask for quotes for windows and doors fittings. We shortlisted three Ghanaian companies from the web and two others sourced locally. We soon realized that most of the companies quote a lower amount and then weeks/months later inflate the quote based on the flimsy excuse that they made a mistake with measurements. This leads me to a regrettable experience with one, Walk On Wood Ghana Limited, the company that won the contract for the windows. They started work on April 2009 and to date; Sept 2011 have yet to complete the contract despite full payment. I have provided evidence in the trail of emails in the link below so advice yourself as to whether it is a good idea to build or to buy. www.walkonwoodgh.net. I can’t post the long email trail here so please refer to the above link for more evidence against Walk On Wood Gh Ltd.

We need to bring all these Ghanaian scam-bag companies to book. To all Ghanaians or Ghana residents who have been aggrieved, duped, bamboozled by a Ghanaian company (s), Contractor (s), Architect (s), Lawyer(s) Hotel(s) Restaurant(s) etc in the provision of goods and/ or services you can report your case at www. ghanabetterbusinessbureau.blogspot.com.

Source Kofi Nti ntimo2001@gmail.com