“How much time will AI save me?” is the wrong question. But it’s overly popular.

When I got my first washing machine, I knew I had finally solved the dreaded Saturday. “More time for fun stuff,” so I thought.

But I was wrong. Like many people, that was short-lived. Not that I should revert to handwashing. Not that washing machines don’t save time. If you have a family, aren’t your Saturdays still consumed by laundry?

The time savings are real. But something fundamentally changed that’s easy to miss.

Society’s standards about cleanliness increased dramatically as washing machines became household items.

Even daily showering became the norm. It historically wasn’t the case.

Should we avoid gen AI? Yes. Should we use gen AI? Yes. There are good reasons for both. And for weeks, I was trapped, caught in both scenarios.

‘Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way.

— Søren Kierkegaard

Whether you agree with Kierkegaard or not, each option has trade-offs. It sounds grim. I know. But it’s also liberating to know that you have a choice. So I chose.

I love tech. Prompting Claude and ChatGPT and getting a response is exciting. Many people stay at this stage — using LLMs as a glorified search engine. Looking for ways to automate stuff.

However, if you join the time-and-cost-savings game, you may soon realise this. Finishing a report 3 hours earlier doesn’t mean you get 3 hours free. Instead, it’s 3 more reports you must complete within the same time. If that hasn’t happened yet, wait until everyone has a washing machine.

So, I shifted.

And that made a huge difference.

What can AI enable me to do that I couldn’t previously do, or that wasn’t economical to do?

Instead of trying to save time, that’s the question that opens the possibility to create new value.

I built ProvenStreet and went through the entire opportunity discovery process for less than $400. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time to help improve transparency in Ghana’s property market. This wouldn’t have been possible without gen AI.

I don’t wake up thinking about what in my job I could automate because of the trap. I’m concerned about the additional value we can create. How could I help improve property development practice and investment strategy for others?

📍That’s where the durable advantage lives — not in doing the same things faster, but in doing things that weren’t on the table at all.

Do you remember that most middle-income homes had domestic house helpers in the past? But they’ve mostly disappeared. Their employers took over many of the roles they played. Sometimes it’s KFC that replaces it. The time savings from using generative AI are real. But they’re unlikely to be yours to keep.

If you’re the latter, great! Otherwise, you could also just be wasting your time.

For the rest of us, I’ll attempt to convince you, in this letter, that turning yourself into a paper factory is a 90s game that’s no longer an effective strategy.

In a world where information is scarce, attention is cheap. You can reasonably expect that your great idea or insight would eventually be discovered and translated into impact. This is the world most academics still live in. The person who doesn’t need to chase attention is powerful. But waiting also signals purity. “I’m not self-promoting or trying too hard to sell my work. Since it’s the truth and it matters, it will be found.”

If you do great work, the world will find you.

So everyone is almost exclusively focused on doing great research and waiting.

• Wait for 6 months for the peer review

• Wait for permission from the journal to share your knowledge

• Wait for algorithms and search engines to distribute your research

• Wait for the media to invite comments on an important issue

• Wait for seniority → to be a prof in 15 years so you can speak to issues, be respected and attain recognition.

• Wait for government and industry partners to invite you to the table

Is that an effective strategy?

In a world where information, insights and expertise are scarce, productivity in itself is valuable. That’s basic economics.

Ideas, insights and expertise aren’t scarce anymore. In the abundance of information, getting eyeballs becomes the bottleneck. Indeed, we’re overwhelmed.

In the 1990s, ~ 800k research papers were published annually. By 2022, we crossed 5.2 million/year. That number isn’t going to slow down. The velocity is accelerating fast.

Productivity is becoming cheap!

In the first year of YouTube’s launch, about 20k videos were uploaded daily. Today, it’s 20 million per day. That’s 7.3 billion uploads per year.

Anyone with a phone can create a YouTube video today. And for academics, anyone with an LLM can write a paper. In one study, LLMs increased researcher productivity by 89%. The point I want to emphasise is that this is still in the early days. ChatGPT only showed up in 2022. Imagine 15 years from now!

There are, of course, lousy YouTube videos, just as there are already AI-slop publications. But that’s not the point. Distinguishing your work from the sea of publications isn’t getting any easier. That arms-length signal of your expertise and credibility is getting noisy.

Last year, a colleague reached out. He was shortlisted for a fantastic industry job. “Congratulations”, I said. He was sceptical. The employer wanted to interview his referees. It’s a strange. But after an hour of interviewing his referees, the 3-member panel made its decision. He wasn’t even interviewed. That’s not normal. But it’s revealing. Arms-length trust is losing credibility, and employers are adapting.

This takes me to my main thesis of this letter. Trust-building and distribution have become the new currency.

This is what you get when you combine transaction cost economics with Herbert Simon.

Publishing without distribution is the quiet new graveyard for research. And this is worsening fast. The unit economics are particularly detrimental to PhD students and ECRs. If anyone with AI can generate 20 papers, the old mantra of becoming a productive researcher becomes a noisy signal.

The context has changed.

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If you’re an ECR and PhD student who wants more impact, you have to play a different game.

You can either play the 1990s game today (the “waiting game”) or strategically evolve. You can wait to be invited to the media, industry, or government to share your knowledge and create impact. But that invitation queue is extremely long. All your professors and beyond are in that queue. When will it be your turn? You can wait for permission from journals to distribute your work. But the volume of publications means yours might be found. Who navigates to pg. 5 of Google Scholar to find a paper?

Roughly 3% of PhDs become professors. If you’re waiting to become a professor first before your knowledge translates into something tangible, it’s going to be a long wait that you might not be able to afford. You may never get the invitation to the table to share your expertise because insights aren’t scarce anymore. So, your greatest work could go unnoticed.

Maybe that bus may never arrive in time, leading to frustration.

The alternative is not waiting for stars to align in your favour.

Not doing great research only and hoping that it’ll magically translate into jobs, income, impact, prestige, and freedom. The profs will likely receive invitations to the few seats at the table.

Don’t get me wrong. Waiting is still culturally prestigious in academia. It’s institutional ideology. But if your entire strategy is to “publish and hope”, you’re betting your career on being discovered and trusted in a world where the sea is extremely crowded.

The real cost of waiting is that your best work goes unnoticed. Years of genuine insight quietly buried. You don’t get invited to the table, and your work doesn’t turn into opportunities.

The old metrics are still crucial. But in themselves aren’t enough anymore. In the emerging environment, deliberately building distribution and trust is also crucial. Once you realise this, thriving also requires owning a direct channel to the people your work is supposed to serve. I have been building mine—not relying solely on journals and Google Scholar to distribute my work, but something I can control.

Distribution + trust makes you an amphibious car.

Publishing is typically a black box. People only see the final output - the published paper, not the hard work and judgments. As AI use intensifies, having a great paper doesn’t necessarily mean you did the work or that it reflects your expertise. You must also build visible proofs of expertise and work to show your competence to those who matter to your career progress. By so doing, you’re making it cheaper for people to trust you.

The final point, and probably the most crucial, is this. If impersonal trust is noisy, personal trust takes centre stage. If you have no one willing to be interviewed for an hour on your credibility and expertise, you have some work to do. Someone must be willing to defend your work to strangers.

I’d instead point to the nature of the institutions for property transactions.

Exclusive vendor-real estate agent contracts to sell/ rent homes are rare.

The same property is given to 10 agents (even non-agents!). Whoever brings a buyer first wins the commission.

The competition becomes about speed.

But they also collaborate —sharing listings via social media and splitting commissions.

On the surface it looks efficient. But creates an incentive problem.

There is have no guarantee of a commission even if you invested heavily in relevant SAAS/tools. That’s an appropriability problem.

Romano puts it this way: “In the frictionless perfectly competitive market, with no barriers to the use of information, the market will provide no R&D investment.”

That’s why even MLSs struggle to take root. Who’ll pay to list the property when the value can be captured by anyone? You can’t educate people to list. The sunk cost can’t be recouped.

The investment cost is private. But the benefits are not.

Even a buyer can swerve the listing agent and deal directly with the owner - it’s common.

Underinvestment and low adoption of SAAS becomes a rational choice to weak institutions.

Free, cheap or ubiquitous SAAS like WhatsApp is widely used. Not because they’re free. On the contrary, it’s because the no/little sunk cost is easy to recoup without exclusive contracts.

But it’s not as if exclusivity is widely desired. It’s not!

I have spoken with real estate agents who don’t like the exclusivity - “it puts unnecessary pressure on you to sell!”

Non-exclusivity of contracts is a solution to another problem - a market problem.

Anyway, if you’re thinking about SAAS, you must consider the inherent institutional problems and engineer with them in top on mind.

In 2019, I was looking for a rental property in Accra. I asked a friend if she knew any agents in the neighbourhood I was interested in.

This agent will say, “Let’s meet at 4 p.m. at the property.” At 4:30 p.m., he’s still not on site. In frustration, you call him, and he’s now coming from Tema.

Eventually, I politely told him we would look elsewhere.

I know people who have lost good money because of agency-related fraud.

If an agent tells you they’re the best, whether in Accra or Nairobi, how can you trust them?
Months of due diligence do not guarantee you’re safe from scams and poor service. 
Personal recommendations help aren’t always sufficient.

In recent years, I have worked with some incredible agents.
But they’re hard to find.

Ethical and honest professionals struggle to cut through the crowd. 

We can change this!
We can build a fair and easy-to-navigate market for everyone, where ethical and hardworking professionals also get rewarded.

I’m developing the infrastructure that enables you to impartially find that real estate agent, property manager, or developer who has your best interest in mind and empowers individual property professionals to truly build and showcase their performance and reputation.

Sign up below to gain early access and help shape a more trustworthy African property market!

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The post Transforming property transactions in Africa appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

How affordable are house prices in Ghana?

The cheapest newly built house by a formal real estate developer was US$20,573. Only 23.3% of households in urban areas can afford such a house. Such a house is typically far from any central business district, elevating transport costs and commuting time.

I think housing affordability should always be defined to include transportation costs. It will be a more realistic measure since housing decisions are typically not independent of transport costs.

Compared to Cote D’Ivoire, 54.2% of households in urban areas can afford the cheapest house by a formal private developer priced at US$15,364.

Cost build-up for a house

Let’s examine the breakdown of the cost components of homes developed by private developers.

Available research shows that materials and labour costs are the most significant cost component in building a home in Ghana.

On labour costs, it is not just the wages of tradespersons. There is a lot of dishonesty—you get charged for no or little work done. Building materials get stolen. Getting an honest person can be a tough challenge.

Author’s construct based on (CAHF, 2017; Karley, 2008; UN-Habitat, 2011)

The higher costs are building materials. Prices of iron rods, roofing sheets, and cement have persistently increased. Earlier in 2021, prices of iron rods increased by over 40% to reach GH$5,450.00 from GH$3,880.00 per ton. Cement prices have similarly witnessed persistent increases. Price instability of building materials worsens the probability of cost overruns.

These income sanitary wares, paint, clinker, doors, cement, iron rods, padlocks, among many others. Indeed, apart from sand, stones, timber and water, nearly everything else has some imported elements.

One must pay taxes (duty, VAT and several levies), freight charges, insurance, and bank transfer charges on building materials imported into the country. It simply means that a substantial proportion of the house price is taxes on building materials used in its construction.

The cost of financing is also a big part of why houses are so expensive.

But why are houses so wickedly expensive in Ghana?

I am not in any way justifying the prices of real estate in Accra. I will actually like to know the mark-up of developers. Could the opaque real estate market allow developers, agents, and investors to charge high monopolistic rents?

Back to why house prices are so high, these can be summarised into four based on the factors of production needed to build houses (land, labour and capital).

1. High cost of finance

The interest rates banks charge on loans affect the costs of houses built. Developers use a combination of equity and debt to build homes. Suppose a developer borrows money from a financial institution to build. In that case, the final sale price includes the cost of the loan. The interest charge is transferred to the homebuyer, which means the homebuyer eventually pays for the interest.

How much is this interest on construction finance? In 2021, banks charged from 15.97% to 24.89% per annum. So, a developer who borrows 5 million Ghana Cedis to develop an estate will have to pay a total nominal simple interest of 4 million Ghana Cedis in four years at 20% per annum. The actual future value of 5 million Ghana Cedis borrowed today in 4 years is 10,368,000 Ghana Cedis at 20% p.a.

This amount will be priced into the sale prices of the houses. The developer may also price in the holding costs (the time it will take before the homes are purchased).

Because of the high cost of construction finance, many developers avoid bank loans.

Watch out for our upcoming paper on residential financing innovations by Ghanaian housing developers.

On top of the interest on the developer’s loan, the homebuyer typically needs a mortgage to buy a house. These costly mortgages averaged 23% per annum in 2020, worsening housing unaffordability.

For a 100% mortgage of 50,000 US dollars for 20 years at 20% p.a, one will pay over 200,000 dollars in interest alone. Crazy, isn’t it?. That is four times the loan amount.

Why are banks charging so much interest on mortgages and generally loans for property development? One primary reason is the insecurities in the land market, which makes the rights associated with landed property not very transactable.

The recently introduced government subsidised mortgages may help. These are going for 11-21.1% per annum and are accessible by only government workers.

2. Incomes are too low

You most likely receive a salary or wage. How much is it? Incomes are generally too low to afford houses. Level 25, one of the highest on the single spine, will earn you less than 7,000 Cedis per month.

Accra has the highest average income per family at 63,027 Cedis per year. Income inequalities are also vast, with 20% of households earning 58.6% of total income earned in the Greater Accra region.

The highest income per individual recorded in the Ghana Living Standard Survey 7 survey was 12,000 Ghana Cedis per month. Of course, it does not mean that people are not earning more than this figure.

But even for a family earning 16,000 cedis monthly (192,000 cedis gross annually), they will struggle to afford a house priced at 200,000 USD (house price to income ratio of 8.0).

Households who earn the average income in Accra of GHS5,252.30 (700 US dollars) gross monthly can’t even go near a house priced at 50,000 US Dollars (383,371 Ghana Cedis) (house price to income ratio of 6.1). Throw in the cost of mortgages at 20% per annum, and the unaffordability reaches critically low levels.

Incomes in Ghana are too low. And low income limits the space for technological innovation. Even if you use whatever technology, the opportunity to make housing affordable is determined by the meagre incomes.

As the director of Lakeside Estates, in an earlier interview, pointed out:

It is easy to build a million-dollar house. Building a 30,000-dollar house is difficult.

Salah Kweku Kalmoni (2020)

Graham concludes this way on housing unaffordability in Sub-saharan African countries. He worked as the international consultant on  five African National Urban Housing Profiles (Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Liberia and Lesotho) and did additional work in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

Do you disagree with Graham?

Can you afford affordable housing in Ghana?

3. Depreciation of the cedi against the US dollar

The other part of the problem is the depreciating cedi. Its effects cut across the cost of building materials, labour and bank loans. The crucial problem with the depreciating Ghana Cedi is that over 90% of building materials are imported as finished or semi-finished products. 

Importing most building materials exposes their prices to foreign currency exchange volatilities, import duties, and other taxes.

The depreciating cedi also increases the developer’s holding costs. If it takes a house 8 months to sell, its price must be revised upwards for the developer to stay in business by the time it does. Otherwise, the sale price will struggle to build again due to the cedi’s fall. That’s why houses are priced in US dollars.

In just 6 years (2016-2022), data from the Center for Affordable Housing Finance shows that the cedi’s depreciation caused the cost of building a 55 sq. meter house to increase by 88%. It grew from 156,000 Ghana Cedis to 293,895 Ghana Cedis. If the currency continues to fall against the US Dollar, it will worsen by the year’s end.

So we really need to talk about the impact of the falling cedi on housing affordability.

4. High transaction costs in housing development

Significant transaction costs plague building houses in the country. These are hidden costs. Try obtaining planning permits or registering your plot of land at the Lands Commission. The process is overly bureaucratic and time-consuming. It recently took me about 1 year to register my land deeds. I shouldn’t mention the facilitation fees one may have to pay to get things done in good time. Developers also face these challenges.

During construction, theft, dishonesty and poor craftsmanship abound. If it is not bags of cement that gets stolen, the quantity of paint needed is overestimated. Ask any developer, and they will tell you.

Godwin, you will be surprised to know that some workers steal even nails and put it in their hair when leaving the project site. That may not seem much, but if you have 4 or more staff doing that over a few weeks. . .it accumulates.

Says Mr Gabby Mattouk, former CEO of Paraku Estate, in my recent interview with him.

As a developer narrated to me recently, I was shocked at this trick sand and stone dealers use. Instead of a full tipper truckload of sand, they will only heap the sand as if the bucket is full. In essence, instead of the 3 trips, you needed, now you need 5 trips of sand because each trip is lesser than the usual.

I bet you didn’t know that!

As for poor craftsmanship, it is not only masons or carpenters who do shabby work. Anyone in the construction process can do messy work, causing you to redo the work.

“My biggest problem in this country on innovation in construction is not materials, it’s about labour and the labour skills. .. because it’s usually still the old hammer, look they’re cutting the timber over there. Go and see “chuku chuku.”. . .  come and see our carpenter here spend half a day to go take the measurements. Some don’t even know how to use the square.”

Says Mr Osei Baffour, CEO of GHS Estates, whom I interviewed in 2020 as part of PhD research.

Let’s turn to taxes on imported building materials and facilitation at the ports. A large part of the cost of importing building materials is actually that most building materials are imported. Compounding the problem is the depreciating cedi.

Why not follow me on Twitter for updates? 

Follow @housingafrique

Reducing the housing unaffordability in Ghana

I am reluctant to sound prescriptive or as if there is some bullet. Some strategies like increased government funding for affordable housing (incl. public-private partnership arrangements) state the obvious. I will skip such. See here if you’re interested in a wide range of affordable housing strategies.

1. Improving labour productivity and specialisation to increase incomes

Everyone is practically a jake of all trades. However, worthwhile incomes can not be realised if the Ghanaian labour remains underemployed, provides low-value services, and produces low-value products. Better incomes require high-value jobs. The economy needs to transition to this phase.

2. Improvements and standardisation of tradespersons’ skills

It is crucial to standardise the skills of masons, bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers, tilers, electricians, etc. One should not just get up one day and say he is a carpenter. The apprenticeship must have basic standards across the country and not be left to the caprices of the master. Poorly skilled masters train and transfer terrible skills and workmanship to others.

After training, each tradesperson should have compulsory insurance to cover their liabilities. You can’t ruin someone’s project and go scot-free. Compulsory insurance will help weed out unprofessional tradespersons.

A carpenter, for example, becomes riskier to insure because their insurer must pay for damages every time. Insurance premiums will increase where such persons are so expensive or no insurance company will insure them.

3. Land tenure security

We can’t talk about housing affordability without the insecurities in the land market. You’re most likely going to pay multiple times for the same piece of land and build an unnecessary fencing wall to protect it. Sometimes it is not even because you cannot afford the price of the land; it is that you fear losing it after the purchase. Property rights are highly insecure, even if you have a title or deed. It ties in with the cost of finance.

Banks are equally concerned about the insecurities in the land market. These risks are priced into those expensive interest rates they charge.

I think the process of land registration should be reversed. The seller (with alludial or freehold interest) has the legal responsibility to register the land. This means before any land can be sold, it must already be registered.

Anyone interested in a piece of land must contract a conveyancer with insurance indemnity to transact on their behalf.

If anything goes wrong, the insurance will compensate the buyer. In contrast, the insurance premium of the conveyancer increases accordingly to prevent collusive behaviour between the conveyancer and the landlord.

It will make land transactions more secure and safeguard the lessee’s interest.

4. Lower transaction costs and market transparency

Many masons are around, but try finding a good one and realise something. It is hard! Obtaining the necessary government permits is cumbersome. Those who abide by the rules are punished which all kinds of fees. Long bureaucracy and facilitation fees contribute to making housing expensive. Why can’t one apply for a permit and monitor its status online?

5. Currency stabilisation

This is easier said than done. Bawumia promised everything but with limited success. That notwithstanding, halting the rapid depreciation of the cedi is crucial to attaining affordability.

I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this post

References

1. Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa. (2017). Housing Finance in Africa: A review of some of Africa’s housing finance markets. South Africa

2. Karley, N. (2008). Ghana Residential Property Delivery Constraints and Affordability Analysis. Housing Finance International, 22(4), 22–29.

3. UN-HABITAT. (2011). Ghana Housing Profile. Nairobi

The post The 4 killer reasons for Ghana’s wicked house prices (what can be done?) appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

Nevertheless, it can be an expensive mistake. Clearing the HP BII+ memory will erase your results and data that could otherwise be easily retrieved.

The calculator has no undo button.

So how do you clear the calculator’s memory?

Well, it depends on the one you want to remove. This post will show you exactly how to clear the HP BII+ financial calculator’s memory and even reset it with examples of clearing specific memory types.

The video demonstrates all the examples discussed.

Understanding the use of the Special Shift Keys on the HP BII+

Before looking at the various information that the HP BII+ calculator stores, it’s essential to know how its Keys work.

To access the primary function, you simply press that Key. But accessing the secondary and tertiary functions on a key requires the Shift Key. 

The Shift Keys are two: Shift Up Key and Shift Down Key. These are coloured Blue and Orange (the orange colour looks more like pink on my way). You guessed it! To access the secondary function, you first press the Shift Down Key (orange coloured on the calculator) and then press the Key with the function required. Similar goes for the tertiary functions, where you must first press the Shift Up Key (blued coloured) and then press the Key with the necessary function.

Why is knowing the functions of the Shift Key? Well, it’s because clearing various memories use these keys.

Various Memories and How to Clear Them

1. How to clear time value of money (TMV) memory

The time value of money computes either the present value (PV) or future value (FV) of money using the number of payments, interest rate, periodic payments and the number of payments per year. In a subsequent blog post, I should teach how to do various time value calculations using the HP BII+ financial calculator. Let me know in the comments section if you are interested in that post. But let’s say you already did various computations of the time value of money and want to clear the calculator’s memory. Follow these easy steps.

• Press the Shift Up key

• Press the C key

• Press the numeric Key labelled 1

The current payment period P_Yr is displayed temporarily and disappears. This process also clears any depreciation data since that is also stored in the TVM memory.

2. Clear Cashflow Memory

What if you were doing some cash flow analysis and probably valuing properties with uneven cash flows? The Cashflow memory includes all data inputted using the Cash flows, IRR, NPV, and NFV keys. That memory can be cleared as follows.

Note that using the combination of Shift up and C keys would not clear the cash flow memory. Indeed, any subsequent cash flow entries will keep being appended. It is essential to clear the cash flow memory before any new cash flow calculations because of this situation.

To clear the Cashflow Memory, follow these steps

• Press the Shift Up Key

• Next, press the Clear Key (labelled C)

• Then press the 0 numeric key

On the LCD screen of the calculator, a message “CFLO CLR” will flash and disappear

3. Clear Statistics Memory

Clearing the statistics memory or registers does not use the Clear Key as demonstrated for other memory types explained earlier. It uses the M Key instead. Press the Shift Up Key and then press the Key.

If successful, STAT CLR will flash on your LCD of the calculator and disappear.

4. Clear the memory on Bonds

Follow these steps to clear the bond memory

• Press the Shift Up, once

• Next, press the clear memory key,

• Then press the numeric Key labelled 7 once
  
  BOND CLR (message flashes and then disappears)

5. Clearing the entire Memory

Occasionally, you want to clear all memory and do new calculations.

This process is simple. Keep in mind that the HP BII+ has no undo button, so this clearing the memory is not reversible.

Caution!! ERASED RESULTS CAN NOT BE RETRIEVED.

Write them down if you will need them subsequently.

This procedure is helpful if you do not want to clear individual memory sets.

• Press the Shift Up Key once

• Next, press the Clear button

6. How to soft reset the HP BII+ calculator

This soft resetting procure reverts the HP BII+ calculator to its default settings. It clears every entry, calculation, and any settings changes. The calculator will go back to the manufacturer’s default settings if the reset is successful.

There are two ways of doing this.

Caution must be exercised in doing a complete reset.

Option 1:

• Press and hold down the On Key

• While still holding down the On Key, press the N Key

• While holding down both ON and N keys, press the PV button.

Option 2:

This procedure requires you to open the battery compartment. Using a pin, insert and press the reset button within the reset hole. It is located at the top of the two batteries.

With a financial calculator, you can compute mortgage payments and interest rates in Ghana

Bonus tips

a. How do you change the number of decimal places on a HP 10BII+ calculator?

 Decimal numbers can always be rounded off to the nearest decimal as desired. Typical decimal places are 1, 2, 3, 4 decimal places. For example, 5.8626 can be rounded to 6 (nearest whole number), 5.8 (1 decimal place) or 5.82 (2 decimal places). Changing the number of decimal places affects all numeric entries and results.

Follow these steps to change the number of decimal places:

• Press the Shift down key,  (orange key, on some versions, this colour looks pinkish)

• Next, press the equal sign key once (notice that this key has “DISP” below the = sign. It stands for “decimal places”)

• Next, press the number of decimal places you want (e.g. 2)

Repeat the process anytime you need to change the decimals to something else.

b. How do I remove BGN from my financial calculator?

The BGN is used when commuting different types of annuities, switching from ordinary annuities to annuities due. Regular advanced payments are made at the beginning of the payment interval with annuities due. A helpful example is rent payments. For ordinary annuities (or simply annuities), the payments are paid at the end of the payment interval.

The HP 10BII+ calculator, by default, treats annuities as ordinary, and you don’t need to do anything. It is when the computation involves annuities due that a change is necessary.

Follow these steps to change BGN from the HP 10BII+

• Press the Shift down key, once

• Then press the key marked MAR (beneath is Beg/End in pink)

• Repeating this process either changes to BGN or removes it and maintains the default end.

• “Beg” will appear near the bottom edge of the screen if the change is to BGN. It will disappear once it’s set to End (that is the default setting)

• Always REMEMBER to remove the BGN on completing the specific computations, as this can affect subsequent calculations present values and annuities’ calculations.

I hope you found this quick guideline helpful. Leave a comment or question, and I will get back.

The post How to Clear 6 Memories and Reset HP BII+ Financial Calculator Explained appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

Plastic bricks can be are being used for housing construction . . . there are several prototype homes. It is an exciting idea. Using them for housing is an effective way for recycled plastic waste to become valuable products.

Suppose 30% of new houses were constructed with plastic bricks. In that case, we could save the planet from several million tons of plastic waste generated annually worldwide.

Environmental sustainability is a primary driver for using recycled plastic waste for construction.

Countries by estimated mass of mismanaged plastic waste (millions of metric tons) generated in 2010 by populations living within 50 km of the coast

Credit: Jambeck et al., (2015)

Recycling plastic waste could result in more affordable houses.

While many people (including you?) are enthusiastic about plastic bricks’ potential, it is not all roses and sunshine. Plastic bricks can release poisonous gases such as mercury and are inflammable . . . it is valid for repurposed plastic bottle bricks. What about the other types of plastic bricks?

Common types of plastic bricks used for home construction

Plastic sand bricks

Making plastic sand bricks requires heat to melt the plastic waste into a paste. Before heating, sand and other additives may be added.

The sand may be river sand. Others use foundry sand.

Some people add a portion of clay to the mixture. Of the different types of plastic, polyethylene terephthalate (often abbreviated as PET or PETE) is mainly used. Clearwater bottles, for example, are made of PET.

These are then mixed at a high temperature. The resulting paste is compressed into the required brick shapes and dimensions using moulds. The molten plastic acts as a binder like cement in making sandcrete blocks. Plastic sand bricks are different from plastic bricks, composed of mainly recycled plastic.

Advantages of plastic sand bricks

1. Plastics absorb water to a very negligible degree. Similarly, plastic sand bricks absorb very little water. Kumar et al.’s (2021) review of studies testing water absorption of plastic sand bricks observed that depending on mix ratios of plastic and sand, absorption rates ranged from 0 to 6.5%. Indeed, soaking the bricks in water did not compromise their compressive strength.

2. With low water absorption, plastic sand bricks are suitable for construction in waterlogged areas. These bricks are resistant to oil and acid. no lengthy period for curing

3. Recycled plastic bricks provide a cheap and better thermal comfort with good insulation properties compared with traditional brick blocks and prefabricated concrete blocks

4. Plastic sand bricks have a high compressive strength

The high compressive strength depends on the mix ratios of plastic and sand. At 5%, 15%, 25% and 35% plastic waste (by weight), the resulting bricks had a compressive strength of 9.86, 10.46, 11 and 10.63 N/mm2, respectively (Mohan et al., 2016).

With a compressive strength of 38.14 MPa, Aneke & Shabangu (2021) found that 70%:30% of foundry sand to scrap plastic waste ratio had the optimal compressive strength. These plastic bricks are twice stronger than clay fired bricks.

5. They are cheaper to produce than clay fired bricks.

Compared with conventional bricks, the energy requirements for making plastic sand bricks are much lower. Plastic melts at about 250 degrees Celcius. After about 10 minutes of melting, the molten paste reaches a viscosity suitable for mixing with the sand. On the other hand, conventional clay bricks are usually fired at 1100 degrees Celcius for 10-40 hours, depending on the volume of bricks and kiln design.

Plastic sand bricks are at least 16.5% cheaper to manufacture than fired clay bricks.

Aneke and Shabangu considered only electricity costs to produce plastic sand bricks and clay fired bricks. This comparative cost-effectiveness will undoubtedly change once other cost elements such as labour are considered. This favours plastic sand bricks since clay bricks require more man-hours.

6. Plastic sand bricks are an effective way of dealing with the plastic waste produced annually and reducing pollution. 

See here for Common mistakes people make using Hydraform

Disadvantages of recycled plastic sand bricks

The plastic sand bricks are still largely experimental and not widely used in construction, indicating practical challenges with the product.

1. There are uncertainties about the lifespan of recycled plastic bricks. Plastic degrades over time due to exposure to UV light from the sun through a process known as photodegradation. Degradation will eventually weaken the strength of the bricks and make them brittle.

2. Degradation of plastic could release harmful toxins and microplastics that affect home occupiers’ health or leech into groundwaters. From this standpoint, it can be argued that recycling plastics into bricks pushes forward the plastic waste menace.

3. Depending on the ratio of plastic to sand, these bricks may not be suitable for load-bearing walls.

4. Plastic is inflammable. If such a house should catch fire will release toxic gases harming any inhabitants and into the atmosphere.

5. If they are produced as interlocking plastic bricks, the material to be used for the mortar joins isn’t straightforward

Recycled plastic bottles for housing construction

This technique is the cheapest using single-use discarded plastic bottles such as water bottles. The empty PET bottles are used for construction without any modification. So it’s more like repurposing used bottles.

The retrieved bottles are simply filled with sand, earth or mixed inorganic waste. They could also be filled with other non-biodegradable plastics.

A stick can be used to compress the sand/plastics in the bottle. 

It is an innovative low-cost solution for construction and dealing with plastic waste in countries with low recycling capabilities.

The filled bottles replace the use of conventional bricks.

To build, the filled bottles can be stacked together using mortar (figure 1).

Credit: Kavaarpuo (2020)

An alternative is that the house’s structure is built using reinforced steel bars and wire mesh. The exact type of steel bars could differ. The bottles are then stacked together in-between the steel frames. The empty plastic bottles are basically used as infill. In other words, they replace the use of conventional bricks. Afterwards, the walls are plastered with mortar to conceal both the bottles and the steel structure. Covering the bottles is aesthetically more attractive. Isn’t it?

Credit: Plastic Bottle Village (2018)

A two-bedroom house requires about 14,000 bottles of uniform size to build

Plastic bricks are also termed Ecobricks. The construction technique, the EcoTec technique, is an effective way of recycling plastic bottles.

Advantages of constructing houses with plastic bottles

1. Saves the planet. Yes! It reuses waste bottles that would otherwise be landfilled or disposed of indiscriminately. So they are often termed EcoBricks.

2. Using plastic bottles is a low-cost housebuilding solution. Waste bottles are literally for free. Additionally, you use fewer construction materials than a typical housing construction project. They can reduce construction costs by 54%, at least in Bangladesh.

3. Easy to use in building with less professional training required
   
   

4. Plastic walls are earthquake resistant since they are lightweight.

5. Depending on the filler material, they have an impressive compression strength of up to 20 times that of conventional clay bricks.

6. With steal reinforcements, plastic bottle bricks can construct low-rise multi-family apartments.

Disadvantages of constructing houses with plastic bottles

1. The unplastered/unrendered plastic bottle houses are aesthetically weird, isn’t it? And they scream cheap. They are often associated with rural housing.
   
   

2. The construction process is labour intensive. The bottles must be gathered, filled with sand and stacked together. There’s no opportunity for using prefabricated parts. Unless in a DIY project, if labour cost in your community is expensive, the cost savings for using plastic bottles could actually be negligible.
   
   

3. Building and planning regulations may not accept it, depending on your jurisdiction.
   
   

4. The compressive strength, thermal shrinkage, and density of plastic bricks filled with inorganic materials depend on the filling material.
   
   

5. Repurposed waste plastic bottles may not provide adequate security from intrusion depending on the infill material.

How much does it cost to build a house in Ghana? Find out here

Fused recycled plastic blocks

This technique uses only plastic waste (and other non-recyclable waste). Except for Styrofoam, all different kinds of plastic waste can be used.

First, these plastic waste materials are collected and shredded. The shreds are then fused together using steam. The plastic waste is fused instead of heated into a molten paste. The resulting blocks can be customised to specific densities and have interlocking features. The blocks are dry-stacked instead of with mortar.

ByFusion is one of the first companies to develop the technique of fusing plastic waste to produce blocks called ByBlock.

Credit: ByFusion (2022)

Advantages of fused recycled plastic blocks for housing

• These blocks have interlocking features. No mortar or adhesives are required to build. Simply stack them.
  
  

• One need no specialised building skills aside from what is necessary to set out the dimensions on the ground and outline the walls.
  
  

• Absolutely no waste is generated in the process of manufacturing the fused blocks. So these blocks are environmentally friend
  
  

• Since specialised labour is not required, this translates into cost savings
  
  

• They are water-resistant. Of course, these blocks are made of plastic!

Disadvantages of fused recycled plastic blocks for housing

• The fusion of plastic waste into blocks requires proprietary technology. This situation limits accessibility to technology.
  
  

• These blocks are not more flammable than timber-frame houses. They are both Type 5 constructions. Many modern single-unit family houses with wood frames and roofs are classified as Type 5 Constructions. This means that such structures are not fire-resistant, with a risk of building collapse in case of a fire. Additionally, plastic releases highly poisonous gases when burned.
  
  

• Since ByFusion’s technology is patented, it is unlikely that researchers will examine it to provide peer-reviewed findings
  
  

• Making Byblocks have a substantial initial investment cost. The large blocker with the capacity to produce over 90 tons of plastic waste monthly reportedly costs $1.3 million rentable for $280,000 annually.

Key take aways

Plastic means many things. It could be plastic sand bricks, recycled plastic bottles, or fused plastic waste bricks. Other types of plastic bricks, aside from these, depend on their exact constituents. Therefore, people may be talking about different things while referring to plastic bricks.

Similarly, techniques and methodologies for making plastic bricks vary. These affect the qualities of the bricks. And since most are experimental, the comparison of brick quality is not straightforward.

Notwithstanding the composition and manufacturing techniques, plastic bricks are generally superior to fired clay bricks in terms of compressive strength, water absorption, tensile strength and efflorescence. They are also comparatively cheaper to manufacture and build homes with.

What do you think about homes built with plastic? Will you live in a house built with recycled plastic waste?

Research cited in this post

1. Aneke, F. I., & Shabangu, C. (2021). Green-efficient masonry bricks produced from scrap plastic waste and foundry sand. Case Studies in Construction Materials, 14, e00515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2021.e00515

2. Haque, Md. S. (2019). Sustainable use of plastic brick from waste PET plastic bottle as building block in Rohingya refugee camp: A review. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 26(36), 36163–36183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06843-y

3. Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R., & Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768–771. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1260352

4. Kumar, R., Kumar, M., Kumar, I., & Srivastava, D. (2021). A review on the utilisation of plastic waste materials in bricks manufacturing process. Materials Today: Proceedings.

5. Mohan, C. G., Mathew, J., Kurian, J. N., Moolayil, J. T., & Sreekumar, C. (2016). Fabrication of plastic brick manufacturing machine and brick analysis. International Journal for Innovative Research in Science Engineering and Technology

The post Are Plastic Brick Houses that Great? What Current Research says appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

But how much exactly does it cost to build a typical house in Kumasi?

A house with 46 sq. metres and a 9 sq. metres balcony will cost about 40,000 USD. In 2015/2016, this was equivalent to 156,000 Ghana Cedis. In 2022, it is 293,895 Ghana Cedis.

But these costs do greatly vary.

For further details, keep reading.

Description of the house used for the estimates

The cost estimates presented here were compiled by the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAFH). The house comprised of 46 sq. metres with a 9 sq. metre balcony (a total of 55 sq. metres). It was designed by an architect to be acceptable to mortgage finance companies. It has maxi block walls, steel windows, plastered and painted interior and exterior, with floor tiles and insulated ceiling. The kitchen is fitted with a sink unit and under-surface cupboards. The main bedroom has a built-in wardrobe. 

A detailed breakdown of costs of building a 55 sq. metre house in Kumasi, Ashanti Region

The CAFH survey was conducted between 2015 and 2016. So obviously, the data is old. But the costs were estimated in USD, making it still relevant today even with the currency depreciation against the US Dollar, inflation, and other price increases over the years. More importantly, this data indicates how expensive housing construction has become.

CostCost (USD, 2016)Cost (Ghana Cedis, 2016)Current Cost (Ghana Cedis, 2022)Land

2,632

10,291

19,345.2

Infrastructure 

2,410

9,423

17,713.5

Construction

28,825

112,706

211,863.8

Compliance

184

719

1,352.4

Other development costs

5,959

23,300

43,798.65

Total

40,010

156,439

294,073.5

Source: Based on CAHF (2016)

At the time, the US dollar was about 3.91 cedis. Currently, the US Dollar is trading for about 7.35 Ghana Cedis in the open markets. So in 6 years, that same house now costs 88% more to build in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

In 2016, a bag of Ghacem cement (50kg) was sold for 30 Ghana Cedis. Today, it sells for about 56 Ghana Cedis. 

Dzata Cement details revealed

These are nominal values as we have not accounted for inflation.

What do you think about these costs? 

Kojo also wants to build his house

The construction costs, the largest cost one incurs in building a house in Ghana, consist of materials (US$14,227), labour (US$7,636) and other indirect costs (US$6,967).

In building a house, materials, labour, and other indirect costs are where most of your finance will be spent on.

The Major cost categories

Click here for the cost of building a house in Ghana

The cost of building a house grouped into four main components above are explained here. Grouping the costs makes monitoring cash outflows easier and can help optimise the delivery costs. For instance, will using a particular construction technology reduce your costs on labour and materials?

1. Land

   The size of the plot and its location crucially determine its price. The typical plot in Kumasi has dimensions of 70*100 feet or size of 7000 sq. ft

   The cost estimates presented here are for a greenfield comprised of 20 housing units. So this unit takes up a fraction of the space and not an entire plot of land. The actual exact space occupied by this generic house is 120 sq.m. Brownfield land will obviously be much more expensive.

2. Construction costs

   The main cost items are materials, labour, and other indirect costs. Labour costs can easily exceed estimates due to shabby work that tradespersons must be redone or dishonesty (such as stealing building materials).

3. Compliance cost

   These include drafting the house plan and obtaining the building permit from the local planning authority.
   Facilitation fees to get a permit is common. Many people built their homes without permits. This is illegal and can get you in trouble with district assemblies. The house could even be demolished later. So get a permit!

4. Infrastructure cost

   Energy, water and sanitation and the cost of site preparation are captured.

Find the CAFH building costs dashboard here. 

Do you own or recently built a house in Kumasi and its environs? How much did it cost you? Please share in the comments section.

The post What the US Dollar did to the Cost of Building a House in Kumasi (2016 Vs 2022) appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

Expected returns on land sales

Long term data would have been the best to reveal the historical returns on land investments. Such data is not publicly available. Meqasa provides a good snapshot, albeit for only the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (table 1). On average, land prices appreciated by 22.7% in Accra between 2018 and 2019.

Notably, North Ridge, Roman Ridge, Cantonments, Labone, East Legon and Airport Hills are Ghana’s prime real estate submarkets with very high land values. While land values increased by an average of 19.3%, an outlier was Airport Hills, where values tripled relative to the mean of other prime submarkets. It is unclear exactly why land prices rose astronomically there in a year.

At this writing, five advertisements were listed on Meqasa located at Airport Hills. Prices ranged from a low of GH$350,000 to GH$882,000 per plot. The average listed price per plot was GH$661,036.60. These prices suggest that current listed land prices have not significantly increased relative to 2018. Obviously, past performance does not always guarantee future price performance.

Average prices of land in Accra

Table 1: Average prices of a plot of land at selected locations in Accra

2018

2019

Percentage Increase

North Ridge

  3,949,652.00

  4,400,385.00

11.4%

Roman Ridge

  2,211,869.00

  2,833,958.00

28.1%

Cantonments

  2,371,126.00

  2,787,653.00

17.6%

Labone

  1,940,625.00

  2,403,350.00

23.8%

East Legon

     675,390.00

     781,481.00

15.7%

Airport Hills

     634,906.00

  1,041,607.00

64.1%

Spintex

     590,000.00

     752,800.00

27.6%

Oyarifa

       75,400.00

       83,000.00

10.1%

East Legon Hills

     110,742.00

     133,168.00

20.3%

Aburi

       62,800.00

       68,000.00

8.3%

Source: Meqasa (2020)

Oyarifa, Aburi and East Legon Hills are located in peri-urban Accra and rapidly developing.

Is buying land a good investment?

To judge if buying land is a good investment, let’s compare land value increases with the treasury bill rates of the Government of Ghana, the safest investment option in the country (also known as risk-free rate).

From table 1, all the percentage land price increases of all localities (except Aburi and Oyarifa) exceeded the 364-Day Treasury Bill Interest rate of 15% in 2019. That implies buying a plot at East Legon Hills could have yielded a nominal profit of 22,426 Ghana Cedis. Investing that same amount (110,742 Ghana Cedis) in treasury bills would have generated an upside of 16,611.30 Ghana Cedis.

Even for Aburi and Oyarifa, some people certainly made upsides exceeding the treasury bill rates. The challenge is comprehensive data to track land price trends.

I bought some plots of land in Wa in the Upper West Region at 3,500 cedis in 2019. Plots of land currently sell for between 6,500 to 7,500 cedis within the same area. That would be an upside potential of 86%-114% if I were to sell today.

Contact me if you require more thorough analysis.

Your ultimate guide to buying land in Ghana

Ehwi (2020) provides data on land prices over a longer time horizon below. The annual percentage growth in value for all suburbs suggest that speculative land purchase is lucrative. Even for East Legon where the annual price growth was 21.25%, it exceeds the average 365-day treasury bill rate of 16.5% for the same period.  

Average prices of land 2007 and 2017 for selected locations in Accra

Based on the above nominal figures, buying vacant land in Ghana is arguably profitable.

Also, there are currently no land holding costs. This situation means if one held a vacant land for several years, there aren’t taxes to be paid (at least not yet). But there have been discussions to introduce land holding taxes to reduce speculative land acquisitions. Additionally, some land developers and landowners expect you to build within two years of purchasing a plot from them.

A crucial question is whether the expected returns on land investments justify the risks in the land market. This decision must be a personal one. If one can minimise the risks involved in acquiring land, it may be a good investment alternative. Otherwise, stay away far from land. The risks premiums are very high. To give you an idea, the risks in the land market are so high that banks reluctantly accept titled landed property as collateral (Domeher et al., 2016).

One also needs to factor in inflation which in 2019 was about 9%. 

I would, however, not make investment decisions based on such limited data. Long term data is required to understand how Ghana’s land market behaves and to predict future behaviour. If you have such data, kindly share it with me. The possibility that speculative land purchases in Ghana and particularly Accra can be profitable is not a solicitation or reason to jump into the Ghanaian land market.

Many have been burned buying parcels of land, including me. You can lose your plot even if registered. What is probably not highlighted enough is that buying a plot of land in any part of the country is a hazardous venture and litigation prone.

Can you afford the affordable housing in Ghana?

How to improve the value or selling price of your plot(s) of land

 1. Register the plots and obtain a title or deeds of registration

The Lands Commission registers and issues deeds or title certificates for land. As expected,  registered plots attract a premium price over unregistered prices. The reason is, among others, the relative certainty of ownership. Multiple sales of the same parcel to other persons and litigation are prevalent in Ghana’s land market.

2. Fence the plots or some introduce other physical markers

Fenced plots are secured from encroachment. They also show your physical presence on-site and reduce other charlatanic behaviour towards your properties.

3. Service the plots

This strategy may not be for everyone, but serviced plots (with paved roads, access to water) enjoy significantly higher prices.  

Like if you liked this post, share if you loved it.

The post Up 505.6%? the Truth About Buying Land for Investment in Ghana appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

Usually, in slum neighbourhoods, rents of kiosks are about 50 cedis per month. These are some of the cheapest rents people pay within the city.

You’re most likely not here for kiosks and properties in slums.

What is the average house rent in Accra?

Let’s look at data from four sources: North Court, Broll, Numbeo and Meqasa. Aside Numbeo, we only get an idea of market performance once these brokers publish their respective resports. 

State departments and agencies neither systematically collect nor publish rental data: a situation the affects renters and investors decisions.

According to NorthCourt, rents for a furnished 2-bed apartment averaged US$2,400 monthly in 2020.

Visiting Ghanaians from abroad and foreigners typically patronise these properties. Homes affordable to most Ghanaian households are located in peri-urban areas of Accra. 

Households tend to relocate out of the city to cheaper accommodation as their family sizes increase.  

Broll Ghana provides the range of rents to expect in Accra. Average prime rents for a new fully furnished 2-bedroom apartment ranged from US$2,700/month to US$3,000/month in 2021. The lowest rent for an excellent 2-bedroom apartment in 2021 was US$2,200/month.

The prime residential properties are typically located in Airport Residential Area, Cantonments, Labone, Roman Ridge, and Ridge.

Prime rents are however thought to be falling. For furnished 2-bedroom apartments, for example, average prices fell by 14%, from $2,800 to $2,400 between 2020 and 2021.

Average monthly house rents in Accra based on Numbeo data

Numbeo crowdsourced data are more realistic of Accra’s general residential rental market. This situation is because brokers such as Broll and North Court operate in the formal real estate market. The majority of Ghanaians rent in the informal market.

• Average rent of a 1-bedroom apartment within Central Accra               GH₵4,693.14

• Average rent of a 1-bedroom apartment outside of Central Accra        GH₵561.54        

• Average rent of a 3-bedroom apartment within Central Accra              GH₵12,009.56

• Average rent of a 3-bedroom apartment outside of Central Accra        GH₵2,045.00

Average rent

Range

1-bedroom apartment within City Centre                        

GH₵4,693.14

2,500.00-10,471.68

1-bedroom apartment outside of City Centre                 

GH₵561.54

400.00-800.00

3-bedroom apartment within City Centre                        

GH₵12,009.56

6,000.00-21,555.92

3-bedroom apartment outside of city centre    

GH₵2,045.00

1,500.00-8,000.00

Top 10 most expensive suburbs to rent in Accra

1. Cantonments

2. East Legon

3. Dzorwulu

4. Roman Ridge

5. Airport Residential

6. Ridge

7. Airport Hills

8. Labone

9. East Airport

10. Spintex

Apartment in the Ghanaian context does not necessarily mean accommodation in a medium or high-rise apartment block. It could imply accommodation in a terrace-like house.

Average rent in Accra by suburb or area (furnished)

Apartment rents in major suburbs of Accra are based on Meqasa data 2019. Meqasa is one of the largest real estate classifieds website in Ghana.

1bedroom

2bedrooms

3bedrooms

3bedrooms

Airport

GH₵13,200

GH₵17,850

GH₵22,781

GH₵29,533

Cantonments

GH₵10,600

GH₵13,250

GH₵18,315

GH₵20,222

Labone

GH₵4,435

GH₵9,444

GH₵16,659

GH₵22,042

Osu

GH₵6,406

GH₵12,332

GH₵15,086

GH₵18,730

Spintex

GH₵3,672

GH₵5,896

GH₵8,463

GH₵10,195

East Legon

GH₵3,358

GH₵12,086

GH₵14,744

GH₵24,300

Average rent in Accra by suburb or area (unfurnished)

1bedroom

2bedrooms

3bedrooms

3bedrooms

Airport

GH₵10,600

GH₵13,250

GH₵18,315

GH₵20,222

Cantonments

GH₵8,109

GH₵11,160

GH₵16,659

GH₵22,042

Labone

GH₵1,374

GH₵3,850

GH₵6,261

GH₵10,470

Osu

GH₵2,825

GH₵6,635

GH₵13,409

GH₵12,654

Spintex

GH₵751

GH₵1,810

GH₵3,554

GH₵7,467

East Legon

GH₵3,040

GH₵6,264

GH₵14,141

GH₵21,335

Both Meqasa and Broll reports on rent are based on their respective datasets and do not cover the informal rent housing market, the largest rental market segment.

Amitedly, the data from Northcourt, Broll, Meqasa and Numbeo are not easily comparable since they represent potentially different market segments. Brokers’ reports are based on properties they have handled. 

More data is needed provide a clear picture of Ghana’s real estate market performance. 

The post Cheap? House Rents People Pay In Accra (2019-2022) Revealed appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

Data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) Survey 7^th round show that households in Accra on the average earn[ed] 63,027 Ghana Cedis per annum. Average household incomes in Accra are the highest in the country and among urban areas. The mean per capita income for the same period was 23,532 Ghana Cedis for households.

These figures may be underestimated, though. The tendency is for people to underreport their earnings. People may also not know how much they earn in monetary terms genuinely. This situation may be the case, especially if their incomes are inconsistent or they receive some benefits in kind. While the GSS tries to account for these issues, these challenges cannot be disregarded.

In general, data on incomes in Ghana are scarce. The majority of Accra’s labour force is employed in the informal sector. Even in the same industry, it can be challenging to know the earnings of employees. Employers and employees alike can be tight-lipped about salaries.

People will say incomes are low, which is valid for the majority of the population. But how low? Publicly accessible income data is sparse. The Ghana Living Standard Surveys (GLSS) provide one of the best ways of knowing.

Mean household incomes and per capita incomes by localities

Locality

Mean annual household

income (GH₵)

Mean annual per capita

income (GH₵)

Urban

46,902

16,373

Accra

63,027

23,532

Other Urban

44,583

15,344

Ghana

33,937

11,694

Ghana’s daily minimum wage

For 2021, the national daily minimum daily wage (NDMW) is 12.53 cedis as the National Tripartite Committee set. It implies that someone earning the minimum daily wage will make about 300.72 Ghana Cedis per month, assuming a 6-day workweek (approximately US $50).

Relative to the NDMW, households in Accra earned on average 187.6 Ghana Cedis per day, assuming a 6-day work week (most incomes are from self-employment).

According to the National Tripartite Committee, the daily minimum wage for 2022 will be 13.53 cedis (US$2.23).

See here for housing rents in Accra.

Monthly incomes

Now let’s see how much cash people earn[ed] monthly in the Greater Accra Region. The Ghana Living Standards Survey 7 question 45 of the questionnaire asked: 

How much is [NAME’s] payment for this job? IF [NAME] HAS NOT YET BEEN PAID, ASK: What payment does [NAME] expect?  What period of time does this payment cover? INCLUDE ONLY CASH PAYMENTS

By analysing this question and adjusting the responses to monthly payments, we can indicate how much cash Accra’s workforce earned.

As the table show, the median cash income in Accra was 600 Ghana Cedis. The average cash income was nearly 1,000 Cedis (970.96 Ghana Cedis, to be exact). Income inequality is quite significant. The top 1% of the population (99^th percentile) earn disproportionately more than everyone else. These incomes are, however, individual than household incomes and are cash only. The highest cash income was 12,000 Ghana Cedis.

Average incomes are affected by outliers

Generally, discussing incomes based on averages masks a lot of issues regarding earnings.  Meagre and extremely high salaries can shift the average either downwards or upwards. People working in petrochemical and mining, finance, insurance, telecommunication, and aviation industries generally earn some of the highest incomes in the country. Expat salaries tend to be significantly higher than salaries of locals.

So, let's look at household incomes quintiles

An income quintile divides the population into five equal groups. Each group constitutes about 20% of the population. So, the first quintile is the lowest 20% of the people and so forth. In the case of Accra, the lowest quintile (1^st) contributed only 1.1% of total income. The highest quintile (5^th) contributed 58.6% of incomes earned in the region. In other words, the top 20% of the population made 58.6% of the total income earned in the region.

                                 Quintile                                 

Mean annual household income

(GH¢)

Mean annual per capita income

(GH¢)

Region

1

2

3

4

5

All

Greater Accra

1.1

3.6

9.7

26.9

58.6

100.0

64,701

21,592

Ghana

12.4

15.4

17.9

22.5

31.7

100.0

44,042

21,819

In Ghana, the highest quintile earned 54,371 Ghana Cedis per annum on average. Those in the lowest quintile made 7,783 Ghana Cedis per annum on average.

See Housing Statistics in Ghana

Sources of household income

Data from the GSS show that Accra’s largest source of household income was not from waged employment but nonfarm self-employment. Nonfarm self-employment contributed 85.8% and 82.3% of household income in Accra and the Greater Accra Region, respectively. Rental income contributes minimally to household income.

Across the country, those in nonfarm self-employment earned an average of 19,485 Ghana Cedis (gross) per annum compared to 5,172 Ghana cedis (gross) for wage earners―a difference of 277%.

Households’ sources of income by locality and region (%)

Wage income

from employment          

Household agricultural income

Nonfarm self-employment    income        

Rental income (actual and imputed)    

Remittance

Other income

 Total

Urban

13.5

1.4

79.6

3.4

1.3

0.7

100.0

Other Urban

14.1

1.7

78.4

3.8

1.4

0.6

100.0

Greater Accra

12.6

0.5

82.3

3.1

0.9

0.7

100.

Accra

10.8

0.0

85.8

1.9

0.7

0.8

100.0

Regional distribution of households by quintile, average (mean) annual household and per capita income

Quintiles

Mean Annual Household income

Per Capita Income

Region

1

2

3

4

5

All

(GH¢)

(GH¢)

Western

11.4

20.9

21.2

24.2

22.2

100.0

30,862

9,058

Central

7.9

16.6

22.6

22.1

30.7

100.0

32,564

12,189

Greater Accra

1.1

3.6

9.7

26.9

58.6

100.0

64,701

21,592

Volta

22.9

24.7

21.0

17.8

13.6

100.0

31,612

7,394

Eastern

6.0

17.9

23.4

23.8

28.9

100.0

21,592

7,718

Ashanti

5.1

11.9

18.2

26.4

38.5

100.0

72,491

56,664

Brong Ahafo

15.0

19.9

22.1

22.0

21.0

100.0

30,710

12,606

Northern

41.1

22.7

14.6

11.1

10.6

100.0

22,919

5,748

Upper East

45.7

24.3

13.4

6.9

9.7

100.0

16,130

3,372

Upper West

56.6

20.6

9.0

8.0

5.7

100.0

12,958

3,604

Ghana

12.4

15.4

17.9

22.5

31.7

100.0

44,042

21,819

It is unclear how the Ashanti Region had a higher average income than the Greater Accra Region. Maybe it is the nature of sample distribution.

Notes 

All data sourced from the GSS7

All incomes are gross

Ghana Statistical Service. (2019). Ghana Living Standard Survey Round 7 (GLSS 7). Accra

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Dzata Cement is Portland Cement bagged in Ghana by Dzata Cement Company Ltd. The company is touted as the first fully Ghanaian-owned cement processing factory. It is a new entrant into the Ghanaian cement market.

Dzata means lion in twi, a Ghanaian language that suggests the company’s brand and product quality.  

Construction of the factory commenced in 2011 in Tema.

While the company plans to build a grinding plant, it currently has a cement bagging plant.

2. Who owns Dzata Cement?

The Dzata Cement is associated with Ibrahim Mahama, who is also the CEO of the company.

Details of the exact ownership structure are scarce. Ibrahim Mahama is a brother of ex-president, John Mahama of Ghana. Ibrahim is also the founder of Engineers and Planners Company Ltd.

3. What is Dzata cement’s production capacity?

The first phase of the company is a cement bagging plant with a capacity of 1.2Mt/yr. The second will increase bagging capacity to 2.4Mt. At the entire operation, the company expects to produce 3Mt/year of cement. Its current bagging capacity is thought to be about 120 bags of cement per minute.

In comparison, available data shows that the West African Cement (WACEM) has a total of 4.2 Mt/year installed capacity ― 1.8Mt/yr integrated cement plant (Buipe) and three grinding plants at Volta (0.8Mt/yr), Takoradi (0.6Mt/yr) and Bokro (1.0Mt/yr). Ghacem (now also known as Heidelberg Cement) has a total grinding capacity of 3.4Mt/year ― Tema (2.2Mt/yr) and Takoradi (1.2Mt/yr). The Dangote Cement, on the other hand, has an installed capacity of 1.5Mt/year. The total established cement production and supply capacity as of 2018 was 8.6million Mt/year.

See here for recommended room sizes in Ghana according to the Building Regulationss

4. Cement products offered

The company bags Portland cement. Three cement products are planned: Portland 42.5R, Portland 42.5N and white cement. Currently, images of bagged Dzata cement show CEM II/A-L 42.5R. The bag is 50kg.

5. What does 42.5R cement mean?

The 42.5 refers to the strength of the cement under appropriate conditions after 28 days. This is measured in Newtons per square mm. So a cement of 42.5 can develop a strength up to 42.5 N per sq. mm. Technically, a grade 42.5 cement must have a strength of between 42.5 N per sq. mm and 52.5 N per sq. mm. ‘R’ stands for rapid and means the cement attains these strengths early. R graded types of cement are used in situations where the cement must achieve early high strengths.

6. What is Dzata Cement's Website?

The company’s official website https://www.dzatacement.com/ as at the time of this writing, has only a static page with information on their social media handles and pages. It also cautions people about fraudsters who are falsely representing the company and defrauding people.

7. Where is Dzata Cement’s factory located?

The factory is located on Habour Road, Tema, within the Greater Accra.

See here for cost of building a house in Ghana​

8. Where can one buy Dzata Cement?

According to official communication from the company, as of 7th June 2021, the company had no cement products on the Ghanaian market. Recent checks suggest promotional sale has commenced although limited.

9. What are the prices of Dzata Cement in Ghana?

Unconfirmed prices of 30 cedis per bag (50kg) for 42.5R are circulating on various social media.

10. Alleged fraud?

In June 2021, the company issued a disclaimer to advise the public about fraudulent publications and advertisements complaining to originate from the company about sales and prices of Dzata cement.

There you have it, 10 questions about Dzata cement answered.

The post Dzata cement: 10 essential questions answered appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

There are relatively few real estate developers in Ghana in this affordable housing segment.

Real estate companies that consistently develop housing that can be considered affordable in the country include Adom City Estate, Blue Rose, Kings City Real Estate, Rehoboth properties, and Yabah Estates.

These developers operate within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. Their housing developments are also mostly greenfield developments located in peri-urban areas of Accra. In Kumasi, J. B. Aboagye Developers and Danywise, Angel Estates and Construction can be mentioned. But in this post, I will focus on Accra.

To be clear, these developers also develop homes for other market segments.

Criteria for including a real estate developer on this list

• Must be a private property developer

Quasi-state developers such as Tema Development Corporation and State Housing Company were not considered. But they also offer homes for $50,000 or less.

• Be a member of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association

An additional criterion was that I should have known the developer in some way: visited them, engaged with some company staff, or interviewed a staff or CEO.  So, this list is not internet-based research. That notwithstanding, it is still a subjective list.

An exception is Yabah Properties which I neither know personally nor have visited their site before. They are also not listed on GREDA’s website. I have included them in my list because they are part of the Public Sector Home Loans Scheme by the Government of Ghana to provide affordable homes to public sector workers. The scheme partnered with selected developers to develop tailor-made housing units for the project are specified price points.

Mortgage Interest Rates in Ghana (all major banks)

Lowest prices of a newly built house by real estate company in Accra

As of 2019, the cheapest freshly built one-bedroom (55 sq. m) house by a private developer on the Ghanaian residential market was 20,000 USD from Damax Properties. Their website at the time of this post was inactive. So, it’s unclear if they have any current projects.

In 2020, Rehoboth offered a home for $27,500.

Real Estate developers offering homes for $50,000 or less

The real estate companies are not listed in any order.

1. Yabah Estates

Founded in 2017, Yabah Estates and Investment Gh Limited is a new entrant into the Ghanaian residential property market. But its history goes back to 2000 when it was involved in the sale of service plots, microfinance, and farming. Yabah is not listed on the GREDA website as a member. It is developing its first 90 acres, comprised on 1, 2, and 3-bedroom houses.

Yabah Estates is part of the Government Public Home Finance and Mortgage Scheme, developers building customised homes for the scheme. One can also access a conventional mortgage from the Republic bank to buy their homes. 

Price: 2bedroom semi-detached houses start from GH$ 170,000.00 (about USD 28,000)

Location: Kasoa

A 2-bedroom semi-detached house offered by Yabah 

Photo credit: Yabah

What You Should Know Before Buying a House Using Mortgage

2. Blue Rose Ltd

Blue Rose operates mainly in the affordable housing market segment and prides itself on delivering affordable houses for the masses. What they mean by affordable is, of course, an open question. But developments have mainly targeted the low- and middle-income households over the years.  Since 2005 when it started developing homes, it has built over 900 housing units. Blue Rose housing developments are primarily in the Kasoa-Buduburam enclave (about 36 km West of the Accra Mall).

House prices typically range from 23,500 dollars to 100,000 dollars, with many below 50,000 dollars

Prices: start 23,000 dollars

Location of properties: Kasoa

A 4 bedroom house by Bluerose

Photo credit: Bluerose

3. Rehoboth Properties

Rehoboth is a wholly own Ghanaian developer established in 2012. The company’s homes are priced for middle- and high-income households. Rehoboth’s develops gated chiefly communities in and around Kwabenya, Oyarifa, North Legon. Several developments by Rehoboth are also Edge certified.  Rehoboth offers what they term the Africa’s Affordable Luxury Housing  Gated Community. Rehboth has by far the most diverse house offers priced at less than $100,000.

Prices: $30,800 – $65,00 for 1-3 bedrooms

Location of properties: Kwabenya-Oyarifa-North Legon-Ayi Mensah

Artist Impression Rehoboth Palm

Photo credit: Rehoboth

4. Adom City Estate

Adom City started in 2015, transitioning from Obolo Real Estate and Construction Company. The developer has properties at locations including in Kasoa and Tema Community 25. Its business model is aligned with affordable housing, with prices typically below 70,000 dollars. Some of the developer’s projects include the Adom Hills, Adom Court and the Adom City Estate Community 25 project.

Prices start: 23,000 dollars

Location of properties: Tema

A Gated Community by Adom City Estate

Photo credit: Adom City Estate

Goverment’s Affordable in Kumasi: Can you afford?

5. Lakeside Estate

Per the adopted definition of affordable, Lakeside Estate does not precisely fit into that category and would not be considered operating in the affordable housing market segment. Lakeside Estate is one of the oldest real estate developers in the country. Their homes in recent times are priced usually between $60,000 – $210,000. But to provide affordable housing, they have been experimenting with innovative building technologies – a type of Expanded Polystyrene System. The result is dubbed the super affordable housing scheme and consist of apartments.

Prices start: $33,000

Location of property: Adenta

Other developers also providing homes for less than 50,000 dollars, Greater Accra Metropolitan, Ghana

Gyapansa Properties Ghana Ltd

Kings City Real Estate

Bijou Homes

Bonus: Real estate Companies offering homes up to 80,000 USD

UT Properties

GHS Housing

Salem Investments Ltd

Payment options

• Properties can be acquired in by paying the agreed sale price in full outrightly. All developers also offer the possibility to pay for their houses in instalments. The duration for instalment payment varies. One to two years are common, depending on the sale price of the property.

Rehoboth offers one of the most generous payment plans ― five years interest-free

• Mortgages with partner banks

Republic Bank, Stanbic Bank and FNB Bank (Ghana Home Loans is part of FNB) are popular mortgagees in Ghana who provide mortgages to qualified clients.

All dollars are US dollars

Do you know any developers with cheaper housing offers? Share in the comment box below.

Disclaimer: This post is neither sponsored nor a recommendation for you to buy a house from any of the listed developers.

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The 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) will provide the most updated data on housing.

Until the analytical reports are available, the 2010 census, though dated, remains the most comprehensive data source on housing in the country.

1. Current population (2021)

Preliminary data from the 2021 PHC released by the Ghana Statistical Service show that the country’s total population is 30,792,608, of which 50.7% are females and 49.3% are males.

The number of households reported in the country was 3.4 million.

2. Number of houses and regional distribution in Ghana

The 2010 PHC reported 3,392,745 as the total number of houses in the country. Most homes (16.9%) were located within the Ashanti Region. The region also had the second-highest number of households living per house in Ghana (2.0), behind the Greater Accra region (2.2). The Upper West region had the least number of families living in a house (2.4).

Preliminary data from the 2021 Population and Housing Census released by the Ghana Statistical Service are not yet comparable with the data from 2010. This situation is because the initial data reports enumerated structures. According to the report, 10,661,421 structures were listed, of which 57.0% were used for residential purposes only. Another 2.6% were used for other purposes in addition to residential.

About 78.7% (9,837,153 structures) were conventional structures, 8.0% were metal containers, 9.7% were wooden structures, 2.8% were kiosks and 0.9% others.

When the Analytical Reports of the 2021 PHC are published, this post will be updated accordingly.

3. Types of houses in Ghana

For census purposes, the Ghana Statistical Services reports ten types of dwelling. These are; separate houses, semi-detached houses, flats/apartments, compound house (rooms), huts/buildings (same compound), huts/buildings (different compound), tents, improvised homes (kiosk/container etc.), living quarters attached to office/shop and uncompleted buildings.

Dwellings or living quarters are the spaces occupied by a household and does not necessarily refer to an entire house. A house occupied by two families would be counted as two dwellings.

Most dwellings (51.5%) in the country were rooms in compound houses (formally single-storey tenement houses). This was followed by separate houses (28.7%), semi-detached houses (7.1%), flat/apartments (4.7%) and huts/buildings (same compound) (3.1%). The remaining typologies constituted 4.9% of dwelling units.

The compound house is also the primary housing type across all regions. The share of compound houses as a proportion of the total stock of dwelling units ranged from 41% in the Volta region to 63.7% in the Northern Region. Even in urban areas, 58.7% of dwellings were compound houses.

Ghana’s housing deficit is not 1.7 million

4. What are Ghanaian houses made of?

Across the country, 57.5% of dwelling units in the country have cement blocks /concrete walls. Another 34.2% have mud, mud brick or earth-based walls. For roofs, most (71.4%) of dwellings have aluminium metal sheets, while 13% have slate or asbestos roofs. The rest have wooden, roofing tiles, thatch and bamboo roofs, among other materials.

5. Housing tenure types

Most households in Ghana own their houses, but this number is reducing in favour of renting. Families who owned their homes reduced from 57.4% in 2000 to 47.2% in 2010. On the other hand, households renting increased from 22.1% in 2000 to 31.1% in 2010. Rental tenure is expected to increase further over time.

Rental tenure appears as a predominantly urban phenomenon—the more urban a region, the greater the share of renting households. Most households in the three northern regions (as of 2010), primarily rural, also recorded the highest proportion of homeowners―Upper East (86.8%), Northern Region (83.2%) and Upper West (82.5%).

6. Room occupancy

Room occupancy is indicative of the space available per person. According to the Ghana Planning and Zoning Standards, the recommended maximum number of persons per room is two persons or two persons plus a child per room. Where there are more people per room than the recommended, that room is overcrowded. The average household size was 3.8 persons in 2010. In 2021, it reduced to 3.6, according to the 2010 population and housing census.

Most households in Ghana either occupy one room (44.5%) or two rooms (24.6%). Families in rural areas have more rooms available to them than those in urban areas. About 51% of households in urban Ghana live in single rooms (51.4%). In rural areas, this proportion is 35.9%.

There are also regional differences in room density. For instance, within the Ashanti region, 57.8% of households occur single rooms, although the average household size in the region is 4.1. In the Upper East Region, which has the most negligible share of families living in single rooms (14.3%), 6.8% of households occupy nine or more rooms, the highest in the country.

References

Unless specified, all data is from the 2010 PHC

Ghana Statistical Service. (2014). 2010 Population and Housing Census Housing in Ghana—National Analytical Report. Ghana Statistical Service.

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There are comparatively few universities offering real estate related programmes in Ghana. These are the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, UBIDS, University of Professional Studies, Kumasi Technical University and Central University. Indeed, for several decades it was only the KNUST that ran a BSc. Land Economy programme in the country. In total, five universities are covered in this post.

The relatively few existing programmes and diversity could be because Ghana’s real estate market is still underdeveloped. And formal real estate development and investment are relatively recent phenomena. As Grant (2005) observed, from 1983-1988, there were 50 real estate adverts or less per year in the Daily Graphic, Mirror, and the Ghanaian Times combined. The Ghana Real Estate Developers’ Association (GREDA), for example, was also formed in 1988, which tells you that the industry is relatively new.

Before proceeding with the programmes available across universities in the country, let’s look at the career options for persons with the relevant qualifications in real estate.

Career options in real estate

• Property Valuers

• Property Fund Management And Portfolio Managers

• Property Developers

• Property Analysts Or Researchers

• Facility Managers

• Asset And Property Managers

• Investment Analysts

• Land Economists

• Etc.

If you want to be a real estate agent or broker, a bachelor’s degree is unnecessary. It will be overkill.

Ghanaian Universities offering courses in Real Estate

Neither are universities nor programmes offered ordered

1. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Undergraduate programmes

Both courses are 4-year programmes

BSc. Real Estate

Admission prerequisites

• For West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) certificate applicants, at least credit passes in the core subjects and three relevant electives

• Electives can include Geography, Economics, Elective Maths, Government, Business Management and Accounting.

• Mature applicants must be at least 25 years of age. Must possess at least five O’ level credits (including English and Maths) or at least credit passes in core and relevant electives at the WASSCE.

• Mature applicants can possess HND in Estate Management

BSc. Land Economy

This is the arguably oldest real estate related programme at a Ghanaian University. Programme established in 1965. The Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) has accredited the programme, which means upon successful completion of the programme, one is eligible for membership of the institute and practice professionally as a Valuer.

Admission prerequisites

• Similar to those for BSc. Real Estate

Postgraduate programmes

MSc. Land Governance and Policy

Admission prerequisites

• A relevant bachelor’s degree (with a minimum of 2 Class Lower Division)

• Relevant degrees include Land Economy, Real Estate, Planning, Law,

• Geomatic/Geodetic Engineering, Geography, Construction Management

• Must pass an admission interview

• At least two years of industry or research experience recommended

MSc. Facilities Management

The programme runs two years full time or three years part-time.

Admission prerequisites

• Same as for the MSc. Land Governance and Policy

• Preference for candidates with B.Tech qualifications.

PhD. Land Management and Governance

Admission prerequisites

• Candidates must submit a research proposal on a relevant Land management related topic

• A master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field including real estate, planning, urban management, facilities management and Economics.

• Candidates must pass an admission interview

2. Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies

This university was previously the Wa Campus of the University of Development Studies. It is located in Wa, the Upper West Regional Capital. Since 2019, it has become an autonomous university and renamed the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD UBIDS). Aside the undergraduate degrees, it has a certificate programme.

BSc. Real Estate

Course duration: 4-years

Admission prerequisites

• For applicants with WASSCE or SSCE certificates, minimum grades of C6 or D respectively in both core and relevant elective subjects

• Relevant electives include: Economics, Geography, Government, History, Literature in English, Christian Religious Studies, Cost Accounting, Business Management, Mathematics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry

BSc. Land Management

Course duration: 4-years

Admission prerequisites

• Similar to the BSc. Real Estate programme

Certificate programme

Diploma in Estate Agency

Admission prerequisites

• A minimum of three credit passes in relevant elective subjects

• At least grade D7 (for WASSCE applicants) or D (for SSCE applicants) in both English Language and Mathematics

3. University of Professional Studies, Accra

BSc in Real Estate Management and Finance

Course duration: 4 years

UPSA offers the most diverse pathways to their programmes

Admission prerequisites

• For applicants with WASSCE minimum grades of C6 in both core and relevant elective subjects

• SSCE certificates, minimum grades of D in both core and relevant elective subjects

• Appropriate electives include: Economics and Geography (compulsory), plus any other subject

• Admission not available to Level 300

• See for further details

4. Kumasi Technical University

Formerly known as Kumasi Polytechnic, the university offers two relevant programmes.

Both programmes are offered at the Department of Estate Management, the Faculty of Built and Natural Environment.

2-year BTech. Estate Management (top-up)

The programme has three options: regular, evening or weekends

Admission prerequisites

• At least Second Class Upper division in HND Estate Management

• Applicants with Second Class Lower division must pass a selection interview

HND Estate Management

Course duration: 3-years

Admission prerequisites

• For applicants with WASSCE certificates, grades A1-D7 in both core subjects (Mathematics and English Language compulsory) and three relevant electives

• For SSCE certificate holders, grades A1-D7 in both core subjects (Mathematics and English Language compulsory) and three appropriate electives

• Holders of Diploma of Business Studies must have four credits in either WASSCE or SSCE, and at least three DBS passes.

• Matured applicants need to be at least 25 years old, with two years of work experience and must pass a written exam

5. Central University

Central is probably the only private university offering an undergraduate programme in Ghana. The university is located in Accra. Notably, the BSc Business Administration degree at Ashesi University has some real estate courses,  which introduce students to real estate.

1. BSc. Real Estate

Course duration: 4 years

Admission prerequisites 

• At least credit passes (A1-C6) in three core subjects (Mathematics and English Language compulsory) and three electives, including either Economics or  Geography or both.

• For SSCE certificate holders, at least grades A1-C6 in three core subjects (Mathematics and English Language compulsory) and three electives, including either Economics or  Geography or both

• Graduates of HND in real estate related programmes with at least 2^nd class lower are admitted to Level 200. In addition, candidates must have the minimum WASSCE/SSCE or GCE O’ Level grades.

• Mature applicants must be at least 25 years and pass an entrance examination and selection interview. A letter from your employer is mandatory.

Postgraduate programmes

Only the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology offers specific postgraduate programmes in real estate/property.

Many universities may have real estate submerged into some of the Business School courses, including Marketing, Finance, Psychology, and Business Administration. An example is the BSc degree in Business Administration at Ashesi University, Accra.

Do you know of any relevant course or programme at a Ghanaian University not included in this post? Please send us an email or comment below.

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But more importantly, I have been digging for data on the average rents’ people pay in Accra for a project on Ghana’s rental housing market. This blog post summarises some ofmy findings. I present and compare rental data from multiple sources. You can see them as general statistics of the rental housing market in the Greater Accra Region.

The Ghana Statistical Service (2019) reported that the average annual cash expenditure on housing, water, electricity and gas was 1,643 Ghana Cedis. In urban areas, to be specific, the mean cash expenditure on housing, electricity, water and gas was 2,163 Ghana Cedis per year. Cash expenditure of actual rentals for housing was 854 Ghana Cedis on average per year.

The average gross annual household income according to the same report was 33,937 Ghana Cedis.

Left on these averages, rents in Ghana can be said to be cheap. The average rent to income ratio will be 4.8%. Anything less than 30% is often considered affordable. To be fair, we need medians for these computations. 

That notwithstanding, these figures conceal the real affordability challenges Ghanaians face. 

The Ghana Living Standards Survey Seventh Round (GLSS 7) report did not provide average or median rents for administrative regions. A situation that elevates the diffulty in assessing Ghana’s rental housing market performance.

The data collection for the report took place from 22nd October 2016 to 17th October 2017. So, the data is old: four years old. From government sources, this is the latest report covering the entire country or even a region. 

Brokers report on properties they manage, providing a narrow view of the market.

How difficult is it to obtain real estate data?

The JLL ranked Ghana’s real estate market as having low transparency in 2020 (with a score of 4.15 out of 5 of which 1 is the highest possible score i.e. the smaller the score the more transparent a market it). In comparison, Mauritius scored 3.33.

Notably, these figures conceal several dynamics in the residential rental property market. To be honest, the actual cash amounts households pay depending on which market segment one looks at can either be crazy expensive or cheap.

When I relocated to Accra in 2016, my annual rent was 3,600 Ghana Cedis for a one-bedroom. My current yearly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is over 9,000 Ghana Cedis. Yea, I still rent in Accra.

Housing tenure types in Accra

Most households in Accra and Greater Accra are tenants. About 49% and 41% of households are renters in Accra and Greater Accra Region, respectively. A significant share of households, while being renters, do not pay rents. These are known as rent-free. About 32.4% of families in Accra and 30.2% in the entire region live under this tenurial arrangement. These are households sharing housing with friends, relatives, among others.

Arguably, these households would have rented their residences if they could afford them. Other conventional tenures such as squatting appear an Accra phenomenon because of the unaffordability of standard rental housing.

Others may also pay the rent on behalf of other households. In Accra, for instance, 8.7% of households have their rents paid for by the government, private individuals (13.4%), private employers (10.3%).

Household occupancy status (%) of the dwelling unit by locality and region

Owning

Renting

Rent-free

Perching

Squatting

Total

Ghana

42.1

27.6

29.7

0.3

0.2

100.0

Accra

18.3

48.6

32.4

0.1

0.6

100.0

Urban

31.4

37.2

30.6

0.5

0.3

100.0

Rural

57.9

13.6

28.2

0.2

0.1

100.0

Greater Accra

27.8

40.9

30.2

0.3

0.8

100.0

Average cash expenditure by households on rents in the Greater Accra Region

GLSS 7 survey asked a specific question on the cash amounts households paid as rents

1. How much does the household pay in cash towards the rent?

 (IF FREE, PUT ZERO FOR AMOUNT AND THE TIME UNIT)

AMOUNT….   

Time Unit: Daily…………….1          

                    Weekly…………2          

                     Monthly………..3

                    Quarterly……….4

                    Half Yearly……5         

                     Yearly…………..6

                    N/A………………0

By analysing the responses to this question, we can tell the amount households paid as rents in the Greater Accra Region. First, all durations of rent payments were annualized. That is, daily rents were multiplied by 365, weekly rents by 52 and so on. It should be noted that some households reportedly made non-cash payments. These were not included in this computation.

Source: Author (2021) based on GLSS7 data

The annual median and average rents households paid in the Greater Accra Region as of 2017 were 840 Ghana Cedis and 2,072 Ghana Cedis, respectively.

The interesting thing from the data is that 95% of all rents were 5,200 Cedis or less per year. The remaining 5% paid substantially higher rents. From the 95th to the 99th percentile rents paid leaped from 5,200 to 20,400 Ghana Cedis. This finding suggest that the rent market is highly skewed. 

The highest annual rents computed from the dataset was 100,320 Ghana Cedis.

House rents in Accra, according to 3 Brokers

1. Broll Ghana

The rents for a fully furnished 2-bedroom apartment for 2021 ranged between US$2,700/month to US$3,000/month.

A low of US$2,200/month was also observed.

2. Global Property Guide

For fully furnished apartments in Airport Residential Area, Cantonments, Dzorwulu, Labone, Ridge and Osu, monthly rents were around US$1,751 for a 75 sq. meter apartment and US$2,291 for 175 sq. metre apartment in 2020.

3. North Court

Prime rents for a furnished 2-bed apartment averaged US$2,400 monthly in 2020

From these brokers, if we assume an average monthly rent of US$2,000 per month in Accra, renters of these apartments belong to the top 1-2% of the rental market. 

This segment constitutes a micro-segment of Accra’s residential market, which is already experiencing an oversupply of properties. Most households do not belong to this market segment.

Notably, for the prime residential areas of Accra, vacancy rates are the highest. In Airport Residential Area and Cantoments, vacancy rates were 37% and 30%, respectively.

Source: North Court (2021)

The Greater Accra Region has distinct residential submarkets. These segments could be broadly classified as formal and informal; the formal being properties built by developers. Each of these market segments has several sub-markets. Even in the informal market, there is a prime residential submarket. On the low-end are households in overcrowded and rent-free housing. Included in this segment are squatters, perchers and the homeless. The stark differences in submarkets in the same city don’t make sense. Indeed, real estate activites concentrate on the top 1%-5% of the market.

In Accra, only 5% of households live in flats/apartments. For the rest of the region, this is 5.5%. In comparison, 73.9% of households in Accra occupy rooms in compound houses.

An essential question we must ask is: who will private developers build for lobbying for government support? Those who need affordable housing are not those served by developers. Indeed, it is highly impractical for a developer to deliver dwelling units with recoverable annual rents of 2,072 Ghana Cedis or less.

Unless otherwise specified, all data was sourced from the GLSS7 report and datasets

Ghana Statistical Service. (2019). Ghana Living Standard Survey Round 7 (GLSS 7). Accra

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Data released by the Bank of Ghana showed that as of July 31^st, 2021, Calbank had the lowest average interest rate on loans at 15.97% per annum. Agricultural Development Bank Limited, on the other hand, had the highest average interest rate of 24.89%. 

The Bank of Ghana periodically publishes either the lending rates or the Annual Percentage Rates on loans to increase transparency in the finance market.

Before proceeding, let us see which banks publish the interest rates they charge for the various loans offered on their respective websites. I checked the websites of ten randomly selected banks in the country. I consider my internet searching skills as very good. These are the banks (in no particular order) Stanbic Bank, Calbank, Fidelity Bank, Prudential Bank, Access Bank, Absa, NIB, Ghana Commercial Bank, First Atlantic Bank and Universal Merchant Bank.

The results of the search on the websites of banks? Zilch, Zero! Interest rates were not found on their respective websites.

The information generally available on the respective websites of banks in Ghana provided some information on the various loan products, qualification requirements, application process, repayment terms and maximum loan amount. Fidelity Bank, Absa and Prudential Bank had loan calculators, which also had some indicative interest rates. GCB’s website had an undated post stating that interest rates on personal loans had been reduced to 24% from 26% per annum.

See for interest rates on mortgages

Screenshot of loan products from UMB without interest rates

Why do banks generally not publish interest rates on their loan products on their websites?

If you have spotted interest rates on loans specified on any bank’s website, kindly share in the comment box. I am not referring to base rates or bank rates, though.

Five banks with the lowest average interests rates on loans

1. Calbank PLC                                                     15.97%

2. Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited               16.97%

3. Access Bank PLC                                              17.77%

4. Bank of Africa Ghana                                         17.19%

5. OmniBSIC Bank Ghana Limited                        19.75%

Five banks offering the highest average interest rates on loans

1. Absa Bank Ghana Limited                              23.59%

2. Agricultural Development Bank Limited          24.89%

3. Societe General Ghana PLC                           23.61%

4. GCB Bank Limited                                           22.80%

5. FBN Bank (Ghana) Limited                             22.25%

Here’s the list of all 23 universal banks in the country and the respective lending rates according to the Bank of Ghana

The list is not ordered

No.Name of BankLending Rate (%)1Absa Bank Ghana Limited23.592Access Bank Ghana Plc17.773Agricultural Development Bank Limited24.894Bank of Africa Ghana Limited17.195CalBank PLC15.976Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited21.627Ecobank Ghana Limited18.418FBNBank (Ghana) Limited22.259Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited20.6410First Atlantic Bank Limited21.3511First National Bank (Ghana) Limited20.5512GCB Bank Limited22.8013Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited16.9714National Investment Bank Limited21.7715OmniBSIC Bank Ghana Limited17.9516Prudential Bank Limited21.9317Republic Bank (Ghana) PLC21.0418Societe General Ghana PLC23.6119Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited20.8620Standard Chartered Bank (Ghana) Limited20.8221United Bank for Africa (Ghana) Limited19.0522Universal Merchant Bank Limited20.3923Zenith Bank (Ghana) Limited19.45

Source: Bank of Ghana (2021)

The rates are an average of all interests on all loan products offered by the respective banks. This means that the real interests of various loan products (personal loans, vehicle loans, mortgages etc.) could differ.

What does the lending rate mean?

Same as interest rates on loans.

As usual, this post is general information only

The post Banks in Ghana with the highest and cheapest interest rates on loans appeared first on Godwin Kavaarpuo.

The 1996 National Building Regulations recommend separate bedrooms in Ghana have a minimum size of 11.15m², living rooms 13.47m², dining rooms 7.43m² and kitchens 7.43m².

Why adhere to the room size standards?

There are several reasons why adhering to the recommended sizes of the room is essential. Among these reasons, some depend on whether constructing a house or renting.

1. The recommended floor areas of rooms take into account the usable space required per person. Each individual needs some minimum space size to ensure convenience, privacy and confidentiality. Adhering to the building regulations make this possible.

2. Ensure healthy living conditions: the Ghana Planning Standards recommend a maximum of 1.5 persons per room in low-density areas. That is an adult and a child. In high-density areas, the maximum occupancy rate is 2 persons per room. Increasing room density results in overcrowding and increases the risks of spreading especially airborne diseases.

3. If building your house, compliance with the building regulations is crucial to obtain a building permit. The architect or draughtsman will take care of these in your drawings. Nevertheless, knowing the all rooms met the minimum floor area requirements before submitting the permit application will minimise rejection by the appropriate Planning Authority.

What are the standard room sizes in Ghana?

1. Standard bedroom sizes in Ghana

According to the Ghana Building Code, any main bedroom in any house in Ghana should have a minimum floor area of 11.15m² if it has no inbuilt cabinets. Where the bedroom has cabinets inbuilt, the minimum size shall be 10.10m². The main bedroom is also termed the master bedroom. Additional bedrooms aside from the master bedroom can have slightly lesser areas. The other bedrooms must have a floor area of at least 7.57m² with inbuilt wardrobes or 8.36m² without inbuilt wardrobes.

For a two or more bedroom house, one bedroom must adhere to the minimum standards of 11.15m² or 10.10m² with inbuilt cabinets/closets.

Occasionally, the sleeping area is combined with the living space, such as in a one-bed sitter or one-bedroom studio. In the Ghanaian context, this is typically a single room self-contained. A combined sleeping area should have a minimum floor area of 5.05m^2.

2. Size of kitchen

The recommended dimensions of kitchens depend on whether they are separate rooms or combined with other spaces such as dining or living areas. Regardless, kitchens must have a minimum floor area of 7.43m².

The exception to this regulatory requirement is bachelor dwelling or bachelor pads – accommodation often occupied by bachelors and university students. These can have kitchens of size 3.72m².

3. Living room size

Living rooms is commonly referred to as halls in Ghana. Whether as living rooms or living spaces, the floor area must be at least 13.47m². Every dimension of the room should be at least 3m to meet this minimum room size requirements. Bachelor dwelling units can have slightly reduced living space sizes of up to 11.15m², no less.

4. Dining rooms or spaces within dwelling units

The Ghana Building Regulations and the Ghana Building Code specify the exact minimum sizes for dining rooms. The minimum floor area is 3.25m² and 6.50m² if the dining room is merged with other uses or unmerged, respectively.

In case you’re interested in the imperial units 1 metre = 3.28ft; 1 sq. meter = 10.76 sq. ft.

Summary of suggested room dimensions

Room type

Separate

Combined space

Bedroom11.15m²7.57m²Living room13.47m²11.15m²Dining room6.50m²3.25m²Kitchen7.43m²3.72m²

Source: Ministry of Works and Housing (1996)

Resources cited in this post

1. Ghana Standards Authority (2018).  Ghana Building Code. Accra 

2. Land-use and Spatial Planning Authority (2011). Zoning Guidelines and Planning Standards. Accra http://www.luspa.gov.gh/files/ZONING-GUIDELINES-AND-PLANNING-STANDARDS.pdf

3. Ministry of Works and Housing (1996). National 1996 Building Regulations LI 3096. Accra http://www.luspa.gov.gh/files/NATIONAL%20BUILDING%20REGULATIONS%201996,%20(LI%201630).pdf 

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Mortgage interest rates in Ghana are costly. This common knowledge. But by how much? Like many prospective homebuyers and anyone interested in home loans in Ghana information on mortgage rates is crucial for decision-making. The challenge, however, is that most Ghanaian banks do not publish data on interest and mortgage rates in particular. This situation makes it a pain to find the cost of home finance without directly contacting banks. This blogpost puts together the scattered available information on mortgage interest rates in Ghana.

What is the average mortgage interest rate in Ghana?

As of 2020, the average interest rates on mortgages in Ghana was 23%. For 2019, data from the Bank of Ghana show that the annual percentage rate (APR) on mortgages ranged from 18.7% to 31.7%. APR is a broader and more effective measure of the cost of borrowing than interest rates. More on annual percentage rates below.

Annual Percentage Rates on mortgages

When you borrow money, or more specifically take a mortgage, you’ll pay interest on the money borrowed. This interest is expressed as a percentage of the total amount borrowed (principal). However, there are other fees and payments you make in acquiring the loan. These include taking insurance, processing or application fees, brokerage fees among others. These fees/charges may be one-off payments. The APR consists of all these additional charges in addition to the interest rates.

Since APRs include other charges/fees incurred by the mortgagor (borrower), they are always higher than interest rates for the same loan. Thus, APRs also provide a better measure of the cost of borrowing and for comparing loans across different mortgagees (institutions offering the mortgage).

The interest rate is what is often advertised by banks and are also known as the nominal interest rate.

See this blog for more on annual percentage rates and how they’re more helpful in determining the actual cost of home loans.

The Bank of Ghana publishes APR banks charge on loans to promote transparency in the credit market.

USD vs Ghana Cedi mortgage interest rates

GHL/First National Bank offers USD-denominated, British Pound-denominated and Ghana Cedi-denominated mortgage loans. Mortgages denominated in foreign currency are repayable in that currency or cedi equivalents.

Foreign currency-denominated mortgages also tend to have lower interest rates but worth careful consideration due to foreign currency flux against the Ghana Cedi. Generally, US-denominated mortgages in Ghana have interest rates averaging 11%-12.5%.

Republic Bank also offers US-denominated mortgage loans and reports interest rates of 11%-12% per annum.

Mortgage interest rates from major Ghanaian banks

The dominant banks offering mortgage products in the country are Cal Bank, Fidelity Bank, First National Bank (Ghana Loans is now part of this bank), Republic Bank (erstwhile HFC bank), and Stanbic Bank. Ghana Commercial Bank recently announced that they were part of the National Mortgage Scheme for Public Servants.

1. Cal bank

Cal bank offers home purchase and home purchase mortgages.

Interest on mortgages is not stated on its website. In 2018, however, Cal bank mortgages had an APR of 31.1%, according to the Bank of Ghana. While this data is dated, significant declines in the APR is not expected. The Bank of Ghana has yet to be publicly made available current rates.

2. First National Bank/Ghana Home Loans

Ghana Home Loans/First National Bank offers several mortgage products, including; home construction/completion mortgage, 100% purchase mortgage, land purchase mortgage, equity-release and home improvement mortgage and save-to-own mortgage. The mortgage rates differ for the different mortgage products. For example, USD mortgages average 10-12%. First National Bank  provides the some of the most diverse and customisable home loans in the Ghana. Mortgages can be tailed to individual situations. While GHL mortgage but there are other cost items to be aware of. See here for more details on costs/fees on their mortgages

• home loans application fee – 2.5% of the loan amount

• deposit toward registration of title/home loan – 2% of property value

See this for more on hidden costs on home loans in Ghana

3. Stanbic bank

Stanbic Bank’s mortgage products include; Home Purchase, Equity Release, Home Improvement, Employer Group Mortgage Scheme, and Developer Construction. The annual percentage rate on mortgages in 2019 was 22.8%, a reduction from 24.7% in 2018.

Stanbic also offers the Public Servants’ Housing Loan Scheme priced at 12 per cent per annum. As a public servant in Ghana, these are some of the lowest rates. To qualify, a minimum net monthly income of GHS1,800.00 is required either as an individual or couple.

4. Fidelity bank

Just like the other banks, Fidelity offers a range of mortgage products. Home finance, home equity, home completion, home improvement and serviced plot finance. The diversity of products is similar to those offered by other banks, which makes the cost of borrowing a critical decision making. APR on cedi mortgages was 30.5% in 2019.

5. Republic Bank

Republic Bank (formally Home Finance Company Bank – HFC bank) has a long track of providing mortgages in the country. It holds about 30% of total  mortgage market share.

The standard home loan rate is 24% per annum. Relative to the APR in 2019 of 28.6%, one should expect additional transactional costs aside from the 24% interest rate. Other costs are; processing fee – 1.5% facility fee – 1%.

Republic Bank also offers a Public Servants’ Housing Loan Scheme from the Government of Ghana. As the name indicates, it is only accessible to employees of government agencies. This mortgage product has an interest rate of 11.9% and the loan duration is 20 years max.

See for their mortgage calculator

6. Prudential Bank

Home loans by Prudential bank have interest rates of 24.5%-26.0% per annum. APR was 31.3% in 2019.

Conclusion

For USD mortgages expect interest rates of 11%-12.5%. Ghana Cedi home loan rates typically range from 24%-31% per annum. APR of home loans is slightly higher since they include other transactional costs/fees and charges.

If you found this helpful post, please do not forget to share it.

More posts like this on Housing Afrique

https://www.housingafrique.com/mortgage-buying-house/

https://www.housingafrique.com/best-mortgages-loans-in-ghana/

Resources mentioned in this post

1. Bank of Ghana

https://www.bog.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/APR-of-Banks_October_2019.pdf

2. Centre for Affordable Housing Finance

https://housingfinanceafrica.org/countries/ghana/ 

3. Ghana Home Loan Fees and Charges

https://www.firstnationalbank.com.gh/downloads/Ghana/FNBGH_HomeLoans_Pricing_Guide.pdf 

This information does not constitute financial advice. As always speak to your bank or financial advisor.

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