Takoradi, June 29, GNA – Mr. Peter Bismark, Director of the Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI) has described the huge housing deficit and poverty in the country as worrying.
The situation, according to him, has caused many Ghanaians to struggle to find accommodation and other apartments to live in.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Ghana’s housing deficit stood at 1.8 million.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Bismark observed that there were working Ghanaians who used their meagre salaries to buy basic needs and for that matter could not afford to build a house.
He said most Ghanaians were not able to build their own apartments because of the numerous land litigation issues which had not been resolved over the years coupled with the high cost of land, difficulty in land registrations and the high cost of building materials.
“With this, most of them turn to rent apartments to live in, while waiting for interventions to secure their lands. In the cause of searching and hunting for the best and most affordable accommodation, there also exist uncountable challenges”, he said.
The web of challenges in the real estate sector, he said, had also brought in scammers and middlemen who charged exorbitant fees, called “Agent Fees”, which also contribute to the cost of renting.
Meanwhile, he said that such challenges had persisted for decades without the institutions making efforts to avert the situation.
“The most painful thing is when you have the money for accommodation but securing the best accommodation of your choice without high prices, due to agent fees. Another is the presence of scammers showing pictures of apartments as if they are the homeowners to entice individuals on the online platforms who are searching for accommodations”, he lamented.
Mr Bismark said the Tonaton.com which was created to make it easier for individuals to search for advertised apartments, had eventually led to more scammers joining the portal and offering services that discredited the platform.
In the wake of blockchain, many Ghanaians have been skeptical of its use and the potential to create transparent and accountable platforms that allowed users to use decentralized solutions to enhance trust.
He mentioned that one of such robust technologies that used a proof-of-stake algorithm to build systems of trust was the Cardano Blockchain Technology.
He hinted that the Cardano Rent dApp for accommodation and apartments was being championed by a group of computer developers and private sector research consultants to curb the challenges associated with looking out for accommodation and apartments for rent.
He said the dApp on the blockchain, would be a verification using the process of ATALA Prism for homeowners and accommodation seekers in a decentralized manner.
Mr Bismark said this would eliminate scammers and the exorbitant accommodation agent fees to make housing more affordable for all classes of people in the country.
Source: Ghana News Agency
