Accra, Sept. 8, GNA - Stakeholders at a preview of a documentary on

Ghana's housing deficit have called for the adoption of a multi-pronged approach to address issues of financing, land acquisition and the use of local building materials, to address problems in the sector.

They contended that estate developers needed to reduce the cost of construction through the use of local materials and assistance of government in building some of the infrastructure such as roads and electricity.

The documentary was initiated by the management of Channel Two Communications.

It is estimated that the country has a housing deficit of about 1.6 million units and currently, public and the private sector combined to deliver 25,000 new housing units onto the market each year.

According to the Government, 160,000 housing units are needed annually to address the deficit over the next 10 years.

Mr Edward Effah, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, said the deficit cut across all sectors and market segments.

Currently, real estate developers quote at least $50,000 for a semi-detached house and in the absence of long-term mortgages most Ghanaian workers are priced out of the market.

While the stakeholders agreed that the houses built by real estate developers were beyond the pockets of many, the developers said the difficulty in the acquisition of land, including the multiple sale of land, was seriously affecting the industry.

Such development, Mr Effah said, affected the industry because apart from the legal contest that developers had to undergo before acquiring land, it also did not encourage the banks to give loans to real estate developer.. "Before you are able to get a land free from all encumbrances to use,

if you don't take care you will be paying about three different people; especially with stool lands," Mr Timothy Barnes, Managing Director of Lakeside Estate said.

Real Estate Consultant, Mr Peter Tsikata attributed the problem partly to the delays in acquisition of land tittles.

"You buy a piece of land today and it takes forever to get your land title. I don't understand why. It's like a deliberate effort by government officials at these departments and divisions to delay the process, frustrate Ghanaians, so that Ghanaians pay them money over and over and over again. How is that?," he quizzed.

Dr Odame Larbi, Executive Secretary of Lands Commission, said successive governments had failed over the years to deal with the land issue, arguing that even Ghana's shared growth and development agenda, the country's development plan did not address the issue adequately.

He said the Lands Commission had now begun computerizing its operations to enable them to move away from the manual environment, which created a lot of delay, caused a lot of problems with records keeping and sometimes manipulation and mutilation of records.

On land tenure, Dr Larbi said outside Accra and Kumasi, there was currently no law that compelled the people to register their lands.

"So when you come to the Lands Commission, it is those who have chosen to register their lands that we have records on. If the person has not registered his land, we have no information at all on such lands," he added.

Mr Torgbor Mensah, Former President of GREDA, called for collaboration between government and real estate developers to reduce the deficit.

He said the private sector had not been provided with the needed encouragement in overcoming the deficit in housing.

Mr Alban Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, said government would team up with local developers to meet the country's housing needs.