The Vice President, John Mahama has assured that all challenges facing real estate developers are receiving the highest attention and have been addressed holistically in the National Housing Policy.
“The Policy has an overall goal of providing adequate, safe decent and affordable housing that is accessible and sustainable with infrastructural facilities, using private sector as the driving force, with government as the facilitator or partner,” Mr. Mahama said.
The Vice President made this known in a speech read on his behalf, at the occasion to officially launch the Regimanuel Gray Limited’s 20th Anniversary Celebration and the outdooring of its 17,000 flagship housing project at the Katamanso in the Tema Districts.
The country’s built industry operators have raised concerns such as access to land, free from all encumbrances, provision of physical infrastructure, access to construction finance and affordable mortgages, requisite support from the statutory planning and enforcement authorities and over reliance on imported building materials.
The country’s housing deficit, according to statistics is currently hitting the one million mark, whereas the annual housing requirement is about 140,000 units, supply figures are about 45,000 units.
The demand for housing which has superseded supply for more than four decades has put a strain on the existing housing stock and infrastructure causing deterioration in housing structures and unsanitary conditions in squatter and slum areas of the urban centres.
The Vice President added that the sector Ministry is working with the Ghana Housing Finance Association to get a Condominium Property Bill passed.
“The Act when in place will provide for the division of buildings into units and common property and provide for individual ownership of those units by issuance of certificates of titles in relation to the units.
“It will also provide for ownership of common property by proprietors of units as tenants in common and for the use and management of the units and common property and for other connected matters.”
He reiterated: “Government abolishing of the general five year tax exemption for real estate developers and that only those companies who partner with government to provide affordable housing will now benefit.”
Mr. Emmanuel Botchwey, Executive Chairman, Regimanuel Gray Limited said: “As is obvious from the range of houses types at our various estates, we strive to cater for the widest range of income groups contrary to the erroneous impression that the company is only interested in the affluent. A large percentage of our customers are public servants who have acquired their houses through mortgage financing.”
He revealed that its latest development is expected to add 500 housing units to the country’s housing stock with an additional 17,000 housing units made up of single family and multifamily houses to be constructed.
“Over the years we have developed an integrated approach to diversify our business and in pursuance of this, we have set up industries which are related to our mainline business of estate development.
The leverage this gives us enables us to control the quality of the materials that are used on our projects and their pricing and this ultimately enhances the value chain.”
He indicated that presently the company has 403 employees on its payroll for its Ghanaian operations and another 100 from the other subsidiaries. There are 143 accredited subcontractors who in their turn employ at least ten artisans each.
“The impact that our activities over the past 20 years have had on the economic lives and housing needs of thousands of families both locally and internationally gives us more gratification. This is our noble service to humanity and country.” Mr. Botchwey said.
Regimanuel Gray Limited was established in 1991 and has become the premier real estate developer in the West Africa Sub Region. Headquartered in Accra, the Regimanuel Gray Group of Companies’ core business is the planning and development of the residential communities.
In addition to real estate development, the Group excels in general construction, civil construction, road construction, building materials manufacturing and management services.
Regimanuel Gray is an international company with Ghanaian, American and international equity partners. Through its subsidiaries, the company is currently active in Liberia and Sierra Leone real estate markets.
The Group has over 500 professionals dedicated to providing the highest caliber of service to clients, providing over 2,500 homes to satisfied customers within many master planned communities and home to 17,500 people.
The company offers a mix of affordable and executive properties to cater for a wide range of prospective homeowners. While historically providing single family dwellings, the company is embarking on the development of multifamily apartment projects to suite the evolving urban markets.
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