[ 2014-08-29 ]

$200 million nationwide affordable housing project rolls out by December
Government has approved a 4,120-unit affordable
apartments scheme for public servants across all
ten regions country.

The project is expected to be rolled out before
December, according to Managing Director of
Italconstruct International Limited – the
company contracted to build the houses.

“All the paperwork [with government] has been
done. The only thing that we are waiting for is
the signing of a loan agreement which will happen
pretty soon”, Mr Kwesi Baidoo, MD for
Italconstruct said.

The loan, according to him, will be provided by
Barclays UK, backed by the UK government's Export
Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) at a rate of
2.25% per annum.

Land for the Greater Accra project has been
allocated at Prampram, while paper work for
locations of the project in the other regions
–notably Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Northern
regions – are ongoing.

“The good thing is that Italconstruct [is]
already on the ground. We have constructed a
number of houses, communities et cetera and we
have our factory for producing panels in Tema so
it's not an issue of now trying to organise
capacity. We already have capacity so as soon as
the loan agreement is signed we will be hitting
the road and delivering the houses”, Mr Baidoo
assured.

The Italconstruct MD made these remarks at the
launch of a 100 executive homes units of the
company located in East Legon. The Italcourt, as
it is called, has 50 3-bedroom detached executive
homes in a gated community.

Ghana is faced with with a twin problem of
sprawling informal uban housing and a 1.7 million
housing deficit.

Although government is intervening by rolling out
affordable housing projects in parts of the
country, real estate experts say the way to go is
the establishment of a Real Estate Fund.

This fund, according to its proponents will solve
the problem of accessing capital by estate
agents.

"Real Estate Fund is a laudable idea and I think
government should look seriously at that. Because
access to capital is quite difficult and interest
rates are quite high", Mr Baidoo said.

Mr. Baidoo
He said in other countries that have surmounted
their housing problems government made available
"funds for real estate development with very
conducive interest rates that when passed onto the
customer he or she does not feel the pinch."

Mr Baidoo also revealed that the newly established
Italcourts is aimed at making addressing the
housing deficit in country.

“We used our advanced building technology which
has several advantages compared to the
conventional ones. Some of the advantages include
its affordability, speed of construction and also
high quality”, Mr Baidoo noted.

He added that the houses were built to be
“energy efficient” since the materials for
their construction enable energy conservation.

"The other features that makes this exclusive is
that there is also a bio-digester installed which
means that you wouldn't have to evacuate you
septic tank for over 20 years and after you've
accumulated enough waste, you can even tap the gas
for domestic use", he explained.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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