Perceptions of Residential Real Estate Mortgage Financing in Ghana: A Survey of Low-Income Key Workers

Abstract

Housing is an essential facet of everyday life, community, health and well-being. Home ownership remains the tenure of choice for most people. Spiraling house prices and the shortage of housing means that self-help housing is increasingly the only option for low and middle-income families unable to afford a home of their own. A well – functioning housing finance systems contribute a major building block of the enabling approach in the global shelter for all, including low-income households. In this article, a quantitative research design in the form of questionnaires was used to explore the perceptions of residential real estate mortgage financing among public key workers in Ghana. Our findings suggest that there are a large number of mortgage financing institutions in Ghana, all of which have the mandate to provide credit facilities to the lower income groups at lower than market interest rates and long repayment periods. However, many self-builder's households face series of problems in attempting to access finance with which to resolve their housing needs even though they have regular employment and income. Finding reveals that many face barriers such as high deposit charges and difficulty meeting qualifying requirements such as the lack of required documentation. Policies to address these barriers would help promote self-help housing in Ghana.