As part of efforts to address the housing deficit in the country, the government says processes are underway for the establishment of a National Housing Authority.

The authority will regulate the acquisition of housing units in the country.

This was revealed by the Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye during an inspection of some state housing projects and government bungalows in Accra.

During a media engagement after the tour, the minister indicated that a housing fund will be established to support the authority.

“This housing authority will make sure that we get the right designs for housing, and we make sure that there is a good maintenance policy for housing. This housing development will make sure that through the housing development we will have a national housing fund which will give us the money to be able to absorb land and infrastructure costs. We are going to start from scratch.”

He added that “We have now started engagement, so this involves legislation to the cabinet, Parliament and stakeholder consultations. I have been in the office for the last two weeks and we are now about to start, we are praying that, God willing, towards the ending of the year we would have gotten to a stage that we would say we have made substantial progress.”

The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association had earlier called on the government to speed up the establishment of the Authority adding that it must be run by technocrats and industry players who are familiar with the sector.

The New Patriotic Party under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo as part of efforts towards addressing the country’s housing deficit proposed some measures in their manifesto for the 2020 elections.

It proposed the establishment of two new bodies, the Ghana Housing Authority and the National Housing and Mortgage Finance Company.

The authority will be responsible for improving the legal and regulatory framework, creating land banks, providing infrastructure, and standardizing houses.

The finance company will manage the Mortgage and Housing Fund set up in the 2020 budget, provide incentives to enable the private sector to build community housing units, and create jobs in the process across the country.