Real Estate
Investments
in Ghana
The most critical of these latent pitfalls is the land
tenure system in Ghana. The Ghanaian Constitution
provides that no interest in or any right over stool lands
(stool lands make up the bulk of land interest in Ghana)
shall be created which vest in any person or body
corporate a freehold interest in land. The constitution
states further that no interest or right over any land
shall be created which vests in any person who is not
a citizen of Ghana a freehold interest in land in Ghana.
Thus effectively, majority of Real Estate properties are
By AB Lexmall & Associates
constructed on lands that have been leased. A
lease by definition must have a beginning and
ne of the fastest growing sectors in the
an end date. In Ghana, the industry practice
is to grant a lease for 99 years in the case of
Ghanaian economy is the Real Estate
individual leases.
industry. In fact this is not strange
O
to industry analyst especially as the World
Bank’s Global Economic Prospect Report has
projected that Ghana will become the fastest
growing economy in fiscal year 2011 in sub-
Saharan Africa.The report singled out the
construction industry as one of the sectors to
see a significant growth in the next
couple of years.
This report is coming at the heels of 10 years of growth
that has seen a significant increase in income levels
within the economy.This positive outlook has obviously
led to a sustained increase in investments in the Ghanaian
economy. The Real Estate industry in particular seems
to be doing very well especially based on the fact that
the country presently has a staggering housing shortfall
in both the residential and commercial sectors in the
urban areas. It is not surprising therefore that the r