Real Estate Market in Ghana

Dr. Wilfred K. Anim-Odame has over 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. He is a Senior Technical Advisor at the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana. He served as the Director of the Land Valuation Division, an analogous role of the Valuer-General of the Republic of Ghana, from September 2010 to May 2012, and later as the Executive Secretary (Chief Executive Officer) of the Ghana Lands Commission between 2012 and 2018. He strategically transformed the Land Valuation Division and Lands Commission, and also championed the automation of land services delivery. He has been an external examiner for undergraduate and graduate studies as well as PhD research at the Department of Land Economy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, since 2011. He is a Chartered Valuer with a diverse background in land economy, property investment and finance. He is also a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) and Fellow of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (FGhIS). He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and delivered presentations at many international platforms, including the American Real Estate Society; World Bank/IMF/LSE/GWU policy workshop; International Growth Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science; European Real Estate Society; African Real Estate Society; and International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). Dr. Anim-Odame serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Banking, Risk and Intermediation (BRI) Research Group of Durham University Business School, United Kingdom, and is a Commonwealth Secretariat scholar.

• 1 Introduction 11.1 Background 11.2 Brief country profile 21.3 Motivation 31.4 Real estate market performance 41.5 Existing works on real estate markets in emerging economies 51.6 Objective of the book 71.7 Structure of the book 8References 82 Land administration 122.1 Background 12Land as nature 12Land as a resource 12Land as a factor of production 12Land as a commodity 12Land as a physical space 13Land as a deity 13Land as a community 13Land as a human right 132.2 Land administration systems 13Repository of credible data 14Safeguard state and vested lands 15Functional mortgage market 15Security of title 15Reduced land disputes 15Sustainable management of the environment 15Planning and infrastructure development 16Facilitate land reform and market development 162.3 Antecedents to current land administration systems 162.4 The National Land Policy 17Inadequate policy and legal framework 17Undeveloped land registration system and inefficient land market 18Fragmented institutional arrangements and weak capacity 192.5 Specific land administration project interventions 202.6 The path ahead 29Establish Continuous Operating Reference Stations to serve as the framework for base maps production 36Undertake nationwide orthophoto mapping to provide up-todate base maps for national development 37Determine boundaries and record interests and rights of all customary owned lands 37Prepare and enforce planning schemes nationwide 37Deploy the Ghana Enterprise Land Information System nationwide 37Build human resource capacity and provide competitive remuneration for the land sector 38Build a sustainable capital base for land administration 38References 383 Legal perspectives 403.1 Introduction 403.2 Land ownership 403.3 Securing your interest in land 463.4 Defective land title and actions needed 473.5 Processes of land registration 48Processes for title registration 48Processes for deeds registration 493.6 Regulatory framework 50References 504 Market dynamics 524.1 Introduction 524.2 Residential market 534.3 Office market 584.4 Retail market 604.5 Industrial market 614.6 Mortgage market 64References 675 Investment potentials 685.1 Introduction 685.2 Performance measurement 695.3 Transaction-based property indices 71Methodology 71Empirical findings 73Implications and relevance 78References 826 Market competitiveness 846.1 Introduction 846.2 Understanding the fundamentals of investment vehicles 846.3 Benchmarks for comparison 856.4 Comparison of sub-Saharan African markets 88References 937 Valuation and compensation 957.1 Introduction 957.2 Traditional methods of valuation 99Comparative method 100Profits method 101Investment or income capitalisation method 102Cost or contractor’s method 102Residual method 1037.3 Valuation guidelines and standards 1037.4 Electronic real estate database 1067.5 Computer-assisted valuation system 1077.6 Real estate research and development 1077.7 Compulsory acquisition and compensation 108Acquisition procedures 109Compensation assessment 110Involuntary resettlement 112Rural and urban case studies 113References 115