By Eunice Hilda Ampomah/Grace Princess Tarwo/Hareema Thompson, GNA
Accra, March 1, GNA – Forever Construction and Consultancy Limited (FCCL), a real estate development agency, has launched an affordable housing project to offer affordable houses to the public.
The project is being done in partnership with the Ministry of Works and Housing and the Republic Bank.
The launch held in Accra was part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the company, Mr Joseph Aquah-Andoh, the Head of Operations of FCCL said.
He said with reference to the poor housing situation in the country, FCCL decided to build affordable houses on mortgage or credit basis for the citizenry.
The effort, Mr Aquah-Andoh said, was also to encourage individuals who wished to build their own houses the chance to own some without any difficulty.
He said the company has progressed with regards to profitability, employment creation, expansion, rebranding, visibility, operational logistics and sales.
“We would like to appeal to all to invest in our company’s project to realise its objective and reap interest in return,” he said.
Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, the Minister of Works and Housing, said government is willing to create a performance enabling environment including tax incentives for the private sector to develop as they contribute to government’s vision of building affordable houses for the citizenry.
He said there is a challenge in the construction and real estate sector in terms of the cost of houses and urged industry players to employ the use of other quality but affordable building materials such as bricks into their work so as to make their houses affordable.
Mr Atta Akyea urged banks with mortgage regimes to extend the payment period to between ten to 20 years to enable the citizen to purchase and own at least a two or three-bedroom apartment before or after pension.
Mr Sammy Amegayibor, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association, commended the FCCL for securing genuine lands as land acquisition has been challenging for many real estate developers.
He said the land tenure system, fund raising and land guards were some of the challenges real estate developers encountered and appealed to the Ministry of Works and Housing to devise appropriate mechanisms to support the industry.
Mr Amegayibor called on the government to enter into effective collaboration with the private sector especially on land and infrastructure acquisition to enable them sell their houses at more affordable rates.
Mr Frank Oppong Yeboah, the Manager of Mortgage Business, Republic Bank, said the Bank was ready to associate with FCCL to provide Ghanaians with affordable housing as providing mortgage financing was its core mission.
Even with mortgage, he said, it is sometimes still difficult to secure houses because of the incomes the ordinary Ghanaian.
He said the Republic Bank is ready to give out affordable mortgage loans to its customers working in the public sector to acquire up to three-bedroom apartments from the FCCL at affordable interest rates.
Mr Yeboah urged the management of the FCCL to extend the affordable housing project to other regions especially at areas where the Bank has branches to enable the Bank provide mortgage facilities for the residents there.
“We are creating a mortgage website for customers to visit and check the kind of houses FCCL has as well as prices so that they can fill a form and apply to purchase a house without necessarily needing to visit the website,” he added.
GNA
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