An Overview of the Real Estate Sector in Ghana by Karim Ibrahim of Dream Realty

Karim Jamil Ibrahim, Managing Director of Dream Realty, gives an overview of the real estate sector in Ghana and talks about the latest trends.

“2018 was a slow year in Ghana. The new government came in over two years ago with a new vision. They are working on fixing the macroeconomic problems that this country was facing. They are doing a great job and we cannot wait to see the result of these decisions and strategies they are implementing. Unfortunately, we knew with such a shift in economic policy that there would be a slowdown inside the country. Working on the macroeconomic level of a country will automatically, in the short term, result in a deceleration in the economy, and we saw this in the real estate sector in Ghana. It always takes some time for the new policies on the macroeconomic level to reflect internally and to be seen and felt in the microeconomics, of which the real estate sector is also a part. We are all hoping that in early 2019 or the end of 2018, we will start to see a big change. I expect that by mid or end of 2019, we will see another real estate boom in Accra. Four or five years ago, there was a lot of supply in real estate, both in the residential segment and the commercial segment. We saw a lot of development take place in Accra, which was great for the city, but it took time, which is normal, for it to be digested by the market. Today, big companies or big developers are also in a wait and see situation. They are waiting to make sure that these new policies are going to reflect positively into the market so that they will engage in new projects. Meanwhile, the projects that were built during the past four or five years are being sold and rented, but at a slow pace. Therefore, we are very optimistic for the very near future. In the past six months, the last two quarters, we have seen some action in the real estate sector. We have new companies that are coming in looking for offices, but not as much on the retail side yet. Retail did not pick up as it was supposed to. Many shopping malls mushroomed around the city and the result was not great. Ghana needed time for it to become more sensitive regarding commercial and retail, especially. A lot of big companies tried to come and open big retail shops, but they did not succeed. They have to go at a bit of a slower pace. Now, they have stabilized, and they are looking at the real opportunities and the real market in Accra. What is the demand like, exactly? In my business and the project that we did in Accra central, the Octagon, we have mainly offices and showrooms. The showrooms are all corporate: banks, insurance companies, etc. We did not get retail companies such as clothing, accessories, and so on, because people are still cautious regarding this kind of investment in the country. In the past six months, we saw the market starting to move again. The beginning of the year, the first two quarters, was difficult and 2017 was not easy either. But since March or April of 2018, things have started picking up. The real jump and the real influx of demand and international and local companies making more adventurous investments in the country will take place in 2018 and early 2019 we hope”, says Karim Ibrahim.

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