THE REALESTATE BOOM
AND ACCRA’S NEW POOR
The city is changing
very quickly. Old
structures are tumbling
and modern high rise
buildings are taking
their place. A friend
recently remarked,
“today there aren’t
many birds in the sky
except the towering
cranes raising these
concrete giants all
across the city.”
F
or the boy visiting Accra from
the countryside, this is all
such a beauty to behold, what
he does not recognise is that it all
comes at a cost. What is the real
social cost of Accra’s burgeoning
infrastructural space? Accra is
rapidly urbanising at a rate of at
least 4.3 percent meanwhile over 50
percent of Ghanaians already live in
urban areas. With this progressive
bulge in the City’s population arises
many challenges: housing, poor
sanitation, unemployment, and
insecurity among many others.
Ghana has a housing deficit of about
1.7 million units, which is projected to
increase to 2.4 million by next year,
2018, and 3.8 million by 2020. Will
development be swift enough to catch
up with the needs of the increasing
population? The real quandary is
how do we manage the outcomes of
rapid urbanisation to reap the gains?
Although urbanisation is noted to
have contributed to poverty reduction;
two academics: Agyei-Mensah and
Owusu (2010), caution that “if the
provision of housing, basic needs,
job opportunities are inadequate,
slums will rise up, leading to declining
health outcomes, growing poverty
[inequality] and greater insecurity.”
Land Dispossessions and Urban
Poverty Urban poverty is rife and Accra
is becoming increasingly segregated;
the inequality gap is widening, and
there are frequent violent clashes
over land.Traditional families have
beendispossessed of their ancestral
lands within the city. First by the
state, then by real estate companies,
private business corporations and
the bourgeoisie. The same process of
dispossession is being reciprocated
in the peri-urban areas today
Arable land is being converted for real
estate development which is denying
the locals of their primary sources of
livelihood. The commodification of
land in peri-urban spaces is leading
to many families being stripped of
their ancestral land which drives
them further into poverty.The real
estate boom is effectively widening
the poverty gap as valuable land
resources are being redistributed from
the poor to the rich. The statistics
indicate a continuous exodus from
rural spaces to fill the urban spaces.
The new poor are not necessarily
the income poor but the poor by
their quality of life, living conditions,
housing and access to basic amenities.
The old affordable houses are
disappearing, new plush apartment
complexes are emerging in their stead
and going out for an average rent
per month of $400 at the least. But
the average resident of Accra makes
just about $300 per month. How can
these people afford descent housing?
THE STORIES
Nii Okantey, is an indigenous Ga and
has lived in Adzen Kotoku, a suburb of
Accra, since he was a boy, on land that
his parents cultivated the tomatoes
that paid his school fees. He laments
that “all the land has been given out
to the real estate companies; today
we have no rights to land, this was
where our ancestors were buried and
we, the grandchildren cannot even
find land to farm cassava anymore.”
“They have money, they have bought
the police, they have land guards, the
chiefs have been bribed and we are
powerless. Some of the land these
people take is not theirs, but if you
don’t have power can you speak up?”
he further lamented.
By Kwame Botchway (www.ghanaweb.com)
PREMIUM HOMES MAGAZINE | 59