Assessment of the Real Estate Sector in Accra by Ann Brewin of Clifton Homes

Ann Brewin, CEO of Clifton Homes, shares her assessment of the real estate sector in Accra.

“There are two main trends that we have seen over the last few years which we expect to continue. The first is the increasing residential density in the capital, which is the overarching change in this city over the last decade. When we set up Clifton Homes in 2010, people told us no one would buy apartments with open plan kitchens and that it just was not part of the mindset here and it was not going to work. But we could see the dynamics in Accra playing out just like any other capital city in the world. We were hearing the same stories. People who were in their mid-thirties, who had gone to top universities, who had gone abroad, they had done their stint working in investment banks in New York or the UK, and they had come back to Ghana and were expecting to buy 8-bedroom houses like their parents and they were not able to afford anything in the city center. Those kinds of stories, those economic dynamics driving the way the capital was changing are things that we have seen in other capital cities around the world and it is playing out here, too. The way that that increasing density molds the landscape in Accra will be partly down to planning regulations and partly down to the responsibility of developers and how we respond to that challenge, whether we put emphasis on creating green spaces, whether we consider parking and road infrastructure correctly, etc. Increasing density is not a negative thing. It is the future for this city. But the way it evolves will be determined by how much focus people put on the long-term benefit of the capital”, says Ann Brewin.

FAIR USE POLICY
This material (including media content) may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the page (including the source, i.e. Marcopolis.net) is permitted and encouraged.