Thursday, 13th February, 2025
Hon Eric Edem Agbana
Ketu North
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden formal Statement since joining this House about a month ago.
Mr Speaker, I rise today to draw the attention of this august House to the dire state of Ghana's rent regime, a system that has become a major source of frustration and hardship for millions of Ghanaians, particularly the youth, lowincome earners, and vulnerable groups. The cost of rent in Ghana is alarmingly high, access to affordable housing is limited, and the regulatory framework governing rent payments is largely ineffective. These challenges demand urgent and bold interventions if we are to provide decent living conditions for our people.
Mr Speaker, it is not surprising that when I conducted a survey on a social media platform called X, formerly Twitter, the rent regime was identified by most respondents as their number one challenge in Ghana. It is, therefore, imperative that we act with urgency, discuss this challenge, and proffer sustainable solutions.
Mr Speaker, let me begin by highlighting the challenges associated with Ghana's rent regime. The first one is the exorbitant rent costs. In major cities, particularly Accra, Kumasi, Ho, Tema, and Takoradi, rent prices are skyrocketing beyond the reach of the ordinary Ghanaian. Some landlords unilaterally increase rent without justification, and tenants who cannot afford the new rates are evicted in an undignified manner. This places an unbearable financial burden on tenants.
Mr Speaker, Ghana faces a housing deficit of over 2 million units, with demand far exceeding supply. The lack of affordable housing forces many citizens into overcrowded and substandard living conditions.
Mr Speaker, there is also the weak enforcement of rent laws. While the law stipulates that landlords should not demand more than six months' rent in advance, enforcement is virtually nonexistent. It is common for landlords to demand two to three years rent in advance, in clear violation of the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220). Many tenants are forced to comply with these arbitrary demands due to the power imbalances between landlords and tenants. It is crucial that we revisit the Rent Bill which was laid before Parliament in March, 2023. This should serve as a wake-up call to urgently address the rent crisis facing the people of Ghana. This is important because President Mahama also promised same in the run up to the 2024 general elections.
Mr Speaker, on unregulated and exploitative rental market, the absence of a clear rent control system has allowed landlords to charge arbitrary rates, revise rents without justification, and unfairly evict tenants.
Mr Speaker, some of the identified causes of the crises in the rent regime that we currently face are ineffective rent control systems, limited access to mortgage and housing finance, uncoordinated government housing policies, and high costs of building materials.
Mr Speaker, here are some recommendations and policy proposals for urgent action. There should be an immediate review and enforcement of the Rent Act, 1963 (ACT 220), as outlined under section 4.2.6 of the NDC’s Resetting Ghana 2024 Manifesto. The Government must review the Rent Act, 1963 (ACT 220) to introduce standardisation in residential housing and to enforce quality control in the built environment.
Mr Speaker, the Rent Control Department should be restructured into a Ghana Rent Authority that must be well resourced and given the necessary support to ensure that the interests of both tenants and landlords are balanced.
Mr Speaker, a National Rent Assistance Scheme should be established. Again, this is one of the solutions outlined in the NDC’s 2024 Manifesto, and it is important to hold the Government accountable for that. The state must support low-income earners by providing a rent advance loan scheme to enable them to afford decent housing without struggling to pay lump sums up front.
Mr Speaker, imagine the plight of a young graduate from Penyi Tamekorpe, posted to the head office of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) in Accra for her national service. How can she raise, on the average, GH₵36,000 to pay a two-year rent advance for a single room that costs GH₵1,500 per month when her compulsory national service allowance is only GH₵715 per month?
Mr Speaker, there should also be a massive investment in affordable housing. The Government must collaborate with private developers to build affordable housing units across the country, particularly in urban centres where rent is most expensive. This will significantly reduce the housing deficit. Mr Speaker, it is also important that a new rent pricing framework is introduced to prevent landlords from arbitrarily increasing rent.
Mr Speaker, there is a need for tax incentives for affordable housing. Developers who invest in affordable rental units should be granted tax incentives to encourage more housing projects. Mr Speaker, in conclusion, the current rent situation in Ghana is unsustainable. It is an issue of national urgency that demands immediate and bold interventions. The citizens of this country deserve to live in dignity. And as leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that housing, a basic necessity, is accessible and affordable for all. I therefore humbly call on this honourable House to act now and protect the ordinary Ghanaian from the burden of excessive rent costs.
Mr Speaker, once again, I thank you for the opportunity to make this Statement.
Hon Francis Asenso-Boakye
Bantama
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this important Statement. I want to commend my esteemed Colleague for raising this issue of rent and its associated problems.
Mr Speaker, rent is an important area that, as a country, we must all focus on and make sure that we provide shelter, especially for low-income Ghanaians. Unfortunately, the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220) which was passed about 60 years ago, has outlived its usefulness. In fact, as a result of urbanisation, population growth, and the huge housing deficit which my Colleague mentioned that is 2 million—In fact, it has moved down to 1.8 million but it is still huge. As a result, it has made the Rent Act, 1963 and its implementation difficult.
In fact, as a former Minister for Works and Housing, I have come to this House to answer a lot of questions on the Rent Act, 1963. Many of the issues that my Colleague raised have been answered in the proposal that I brought to Parliament. He mentioned that in March 2023, a review of the Rent Act, 1963 was brought to this august House. It has delayed unnecessarily and when it comes to revision of Acts and Legislation, it is the responsibility of Parliament, as was espoused by the Rt Hon Speaker, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
I understand that it is currently at the Ministry. We call on the Ministry to, as a matter of urgency, bring back the Rent Act so that Parliament, which is the body responsible for legislation—This is so that Parliament can do its job in shaping and bringing into place a new Rent Act that will address many of the issues that the Member raised.
In fact, he mentioned the need to change the Rent Act Department into an authority. The institutional aspect of the Bill is highly recognised in the Bill, and I expect that when it comes back, we will look at it thoroughly. The Member also made a proposal for the introduction of the Rental Assistance Advance Scheme. It will interest Hon Members to know that this is something that was started under the administration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
It was launched and has been piloted in six regions. As we speak, I do not have the right figure available, but close to 3,000 people have benefited so far from the Rental Assistance Scheme.
During the vetting of the new Minister for Works, Housing and Water Resources, I had the opportunity to ask him what he is going to do to upscale it. He said that he is going to speak to private institutions to raise capital to support it. That is a good idea.
Once again, Mr Speaker, I want to commend my Colleague for bringing this issue up and add that it is a very important issue that Parliament must take particular interest in and get the Ministry of Works, Housing and Water Resources to bring back the Rent Bill so that Parliament can do justice to it.
With these few words, Mr Speaker, I want to once again thank the maker of the Statement for this insightful contribution.
Hon Abdul Aziz Fatahiya
Savelugu
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this timely Statement presented by our Brother, Hon Edem Agbana, on the challenges of rent in this country today.
Indeed, looking at paragraph 9 of the Statement, our Brother reiterated that unregulated and exploitative rental markets, the absence of clear rent control systems has allowed for arbitrariness in the regime. Now, the regime belongs to the strong, powerful and wealthy, to the detriment of the most vulnerable.
It is on this account that I sincerely support the call by one of the contributors that we need to take urgent steps to review our Rent Act. The current rent regime and then the rent relationship between landlords and tenants is so inequitable that even as Members of Parliament, one would agree with me that one of the biggest challenges in our offices today is rent support. Mr Speaker, if one comes to my office in Madina, for example, even this morning before I left the office, there were people in the office asking for rent support. Many people have been unlawfully evicted from their homes. So, the issue of rent is a very serious one.
Mr Speaker, I believe that we must slowly but surely move away from this regime where every time, a person needs an advance before they can have access to rent. We can have regimes where, as in other best practices, people could pay monthly or it is flexible for people to determine whether they can pay every two months or three months. But this is a regime where a person needs a rent advance of one year or two years. Some of the rents are now in dollars and if a person does not have dollars, he or she cannot even get to rent in parts of the Greater Accra Region. So, it is a very serious one.
Mr Speaker, I want to remind the House of one of the major goals of our Constitution, which is enshrined in Article 37. Article 37 of our Constitution is titled “Social Objectives” and it says that, Mr Speaker, with your permission: “The State shall endeavour to secure and protect a social order founded on the ideals and principles of freedom, equality, justice, probity and accountability as enshrined in Chapter 5 of this Constitution; and in particular, the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that every citizen has equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law.”
Mr Speaker, as we speak, if a person is in Ghana and is poor, they do not have equal opportunities when it comes to rent issues. If a person is in Ghana and just lost their job, they do not have any opportunity when it comes to rent.
So, Mr Speaker, I sincerely pray that you would order that this Statement be referred to an appropriate Committee so that Parliament will do a follow-up on this matter. This is to ensure that the Minister brings back the Rent Act into this House for us to amend same to secure equal opportunities for all, particularly the most vulnerable and the poor.
Hon Fred Kyei Asamoah
Offinso North
Mr Speaker, thank you and let us appreciate the maker of the Statement, Hon Eric Edem Agbana, Hon Member of Parliament for Ketu North.
Mr Speaker, if it had not been the intervention of the NPP Government, bringing in free secondary education, one of the major issues that Hon Members of Parliament were faced with were two; support for tuition and support for rent. I am happy to say that that of tuition had been taken away and one of the major problems we are facing now is rent support.
Mr Speaker, I do not intend to generate a debate. But I want to—Please allow—I just want to express the fact that one of the major issues that we have to deal with is rent support from our constituents. It is not because they want to put that pressure on Hon Members of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, if we are to look at what the maker of the Statement spoke about and the recommendation, that is GH₵1,500 averagely per a month to be paid by National Service Personnel that are likely to be paid GH₵700 does not align. Mr Speaker, in our quest and effort to solve this issue, I believe working on the Rent Act alone might not suffice. But in addition, we need to have measures that can help improve upon our credit system.
Mr Speaker, if property owners are supposed to give out their rooms for rent, they also want to be assured that they are going to get paid at the end of the month. So, in addition to supporting our system, it would be good that what the previous Government started to work on, which is the establishment of a good credit score system, so that property owners would be assured to give their rooms for rent. In order not to ask for people to pay two or three years in advance, so that they can be assured of their payment.
Mr Speaker, in addition to this, I believe that we may have to review how much we also do pay our National Service Personnel, who are also supporting our workload. If one looks at countries that are working on dual system, the National Service is a time that one has to learn to be part of the workforce. And it should not be punishment to them. One year is quite a long time, and if government can take steps to review how much we pay them—Because if they are to pay GH₵1,500 a month, that means they would be in arrears every month to be able to survive, not to talk about their transportation and feeding.
So, whilst we are taking steps to look at rent issues, my advice is that government should, as a matter of urgency, review how much we are paying National Service Personnel to support them as well. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Fred Kwesi Agbenyo
Guan
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this particular Statement and I want to thank the maker of the Statement.
Mr Speaker, this issue has come up, I think, just about the right time. We all know the cost of rent in this country. And the housing deficit that we have in this country is such that when one travels to most of our communities, essential service providers like teachers and nurses are reluctant to accept posting to these communities, because when they get in there, to get a place to rent, so they could wake up in the morning and go to work, in itself is a problem.
Apart from the cost in the cities, as the maker of the Statement has enumerated, in the villages, the houses are simply not available. So, somebody, for instance, is posted to a place like Likpe Bala in my constituency to go and teach, or to go and serve as a health practitioner, the fellow has to stay in Hohoe, pick a motor in the morning before he gets to work.
Mr Speaker, oftentimes, when we see them in the morning, they look like people coming from, maybe, a galamsey pit, as a result of the nature of their route. Therefore, we are building affordable houses. The focus and concentration is always in the towns and the cities, and no attention is paid to the rural areas. What it would create eventually is that everybody would want to move to the cities and towns where they believe they can get proper accommodation and housing for their families. While we make efforts to provide affordable housing, it would be important that we pay some attention to the villages.
Mr Speaker, the next issue I want to raise has to do with the cost of the socalled affordable houses that we have built in Accra. Mr Speaker, go and find out today how much they are renting these same affordable houses. We have an institution like SSNIT that would use workers' money to build an apartment like the Adenta SSNIT Housing, then people who are well-placed in society would go and buy these houses from SSNIT, and then they would now go and rent it to the poor people who cannot raise money to buy it. I think that it is not a healthy practice that we use state resources to build houses that are supposed to go for individuals who do not have money, yet we sell it to the people who have money, and then now go and rent it to the ordinary people.
Mr Speaker, it is a practice that we need to check. One of the reasons why, Mr Speaker, I believe that houses are becoming very expensive in this country is the cost of building materials. Mr Speaker, today a ton of iron rod is not a joke. I have always been citing an example that my grandfather who gave birth to my father, I did not see him but he built a house in my village, without any iron rod, without any cement, they just used clay. That house is still there till date. Is there a way we can develop technology that we can build houses that are cheap and affordable, and really affordable, that ordinary people can go in there and rent? It is something that we need to do—To invest in some technology, how we can modify this same clay that we have here, either into bricks, and use it to build our houses, and stop solely depending on these iron rods, cement, and the rest.
Mr Speaker, one other thing that is giving us a problem are these agents who contract these houses, and serve as middlemen. They collect some percentage of their money from the tenant. They collect a percentage from the one who is also renting the house. Meanwhile, these people do not pay any tax to the State. Can we come out with either a law that would say that if one has a house and one wants to rent the house, should be sent to the District Assembly? We have young people out there who would now determine or the assembly would determine how much the house must go for. So that the landlord who is taking their money from the tenant also pays some taxes to the State. Instead of these middlemen who only make money from both the tenant and the landlord, and do not contribute anything to the State.
Mr Speaker, I think that one of the reasons we are not able to enforce the law, the Rent Act, 1963 – Act 220 is the fact that the majority of the people who own these houses, who are renting out, themselves are beneficiaries. So, once they implement the law strictly, they would not benefit. How many poor people are building houses in this country? It is the same rich people who are building the houses and the same people who are supposed to enforce the law, are the landlords. And so deliberately, everybody is glossing over it, that let the status quo remain. The young man comes out of the university, gets an appointment—Let us take SSNIT, and he is posted to Accra. Before he can start work, he has to go and take a loan to rent a house. Mr Speaker, by the time he finishes paying for the two years’ rent, the rent is due again. He has to go and look for another money. So, from the word go, the person is in debt till he goes to pension. I do not think this is healthy.
And I am not surprised, these days, every young person who gets any form of employment, the first thing they think about is how to get money to buy their own land and how to get money to start putting up their own house. We know that money injected into building is not money that we can easily get back. Meanwhile, they could have used that money to other sectors of investment that can give them some money.
Mr Speaker, I sincerely want to thank the maker of the Statement and call on this House to take some measures to make sure that rent becomes affordable, that we are able to provide houses especially in the rural community for the students of our country. I thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Shirley Kyei
Atwima Nwabiagya South
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement well researched and ably made by my Colleague, Hon Edem Agbana.
Mr Speaker, I believe the high rent rates we see in this country is as a result of the high deficit in our housing units. As the maker of the Statement said, with over 2 million deficits in housing units, it is not surprising that we find a lot of young women and men who have moved to the bigger cities for greener pastures on the streets. Mr Speaker, these young men and women, mostly I am concerned about the women who are very innocent and vulnerable. Can you imagine those young women on the streets with men who are very active, men who sometimes come from the woods with smoke all over them, men who are seen at the blue kiosks, men who are on tramadol? I am worried about events of the night, Mr Speaker. Our young ladies are vulnerable.
Mr Speaker, permit me to share an experience I had over the weekend. I had to visit some constituents of mine who have graciously enjoyed free SHS and are currently in Accra to pursue their first degree.
Mr Speaker, when I visited them in Madina, as many as six of them were in one room. Not only was this disheartening, but my fear was the fact that if these young students are left in this condition for a prolonged period of time, they would be exposed to all sorts of unhealthy conditions and it would also have an adverse impact on their studies.
Mr Speaker, no student should be exposed to this dilapidated, unsanitary, unhealthy conditions. I had to step in and mitigate the situation by making sure that they are rehoused and put in pairs.
Mr Speaker, aside this, when people are lucky enough not to find themselves on the streets, you find that they are in informal settlements. These informal settlements lack basic amenities like sanitation, water and electricity. The rent situation is very dire and needs to be looked at. I therefore propose that we really look at our rent control mechanism.
Mr Speaker, the truth of the matter is affordable housing is simply not affordable. It is simply not affordable and most often than not, when these people have exhausted their two-year rent, they find themselves having to go back to an increase in the next rent advance. These rent increments are not even proportional to any improvement in the housing conditions. It is really terrible and has to be addressed.
Mr Speaker, I would therefore conclude by proposing that we look at a district-based rent mechanism, whereby we would have all tenants and landlords present a rent agreement that would be scrutinised, approved and then deposited. This would ensure compliance and make the average Ghanaian who find themselves in the low-income brackets have access to good housing units. I will also propose that we move away—Well, I would not say move away from affordable housing, but we look at social housing schemes which will bridge this gap.
Mr Speaker, I would like to end by commending the maker of the Statement and say that every Ghanaian deserves decent affordable housing and we should ensure that as a House we look at this. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Gizella Akushika Tetteh-Agbotui
Awutu Senya West
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. If there is any assurance, we can give this House and to Ghanaians, this is the time for us to give it.
I thank the maker of the Statement and all those who have contributed. As the saying goes in Fante, nyansa nyi nyimpa koro ne tirim. To wit: it is not one person who has all the ideas. I always enjoy it when we are able to discuss some pertinent issues that affect every single person in this House.
Mr Speaker, the rental market has become a bit more sophisticated and a bit more varied. Sometimes when we discuss, we tend to limit it to housing but let us remember that there are also commercial rentals, which are shops and stores and others. It has generally been an issue and a problem and that even goes to affect the local businesses that go on in this country. Now, the market is becoming more sophisticated. As you know, even Airbnb is also part of the rental market. They would have maybe been in the category of hotels for people to sleep in hotels, but they choose to sleep in people’s rented places.
Mr Speaker, so, I just want to give the assurance to this House and to Ghanaians in general that the Government of President John Dramani Mahama, as he is resetting this country, he is resetting some of the programmes and policies that he has put in place and this rental issue will be dealt with comprehensively. There must be a balance also. Mr Speaker, some people consider these houses as an investment and they also feel that they must also get returns. So, there must be a fine balance between the supply and the demand for it.
Mr Speaker, my plea is that, together, for the supply side, for those who have the luxury of renting, we should also bear in mind that much as they are trying to recoup their investments, they are also providing a service and a social service at that. Especially, when one has issues with different groups like my Colleague just talked about students renting. The hostels are also sometimes a bit exploitative and yet there is not much that people are able to do.
So, I just need to give that assurance that we would see to these things. Myself and my minister—Even just yesterday we were discussing it. We intend to have a district housing scheme so that teachers and others who are posted to the rural areas would be able to at least have decent accommodation. Not only teachers but other government workers, nurses, et cetera, and even the general public.
Mr Speaker, we have to move on as a country, we must progress, and it is my prayer that we all support the reset agenda to make that happen. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
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