Real Estate Development in Ghana: An Overview of Golden Coast Developers by Neil Oku

Interview with Neil Oku, CEO of Golden Coast Developers

How are you funding your projects?

I come from a Wall Street background. I have very strong relationships from a financing and investment standpoint. Initially, the first project we’ve done, Forster Park fully automated homes, I self-funded to get the project up to a certain stage where we had clients come in and prospectively acquire units, which helped the development as well. But since then, our projects are growing in scale. We’ve got two other developments coming up. One primarily, in Labone, where we are going to be doing 90 apartments, and another one in Ridge, which will be 12 homes built on a smart automation theme. I have gotten very strong sentiment and proposals to help build out. I haven’t really liaised with banks on ground, just because I think the process is a bit onerous. It doesn’t really help in the real estate lifecycle, when you’re looking to set up construction permits. But nonetheless, we are ready and willing to entertain all opportunities that come about. As it relates to the broader group, in the agricultural business, we have a very solid investment group coming out of the US to assist us in achieving the high-grade cultivation project we are doing.

What is your assessment of the real estate sector in Ghana?

As far as the real estate sector is concerned, I don’t want to cast it as all rosy and glorious, but I think it’s really a segment that makes a lot of sense from an investment and financial opportunity standpoint. We have a real estate deficit in the country, with almost a million units required. So, there’s always opportunity to build properties and ensure that you have the right market segment that is going to acquire said properties. I have seen it with some of the dynamics that happen within Africa. We are a continent of maturing individuals and the medium income is growing. So, home acquisition is definitely a strong point. I think it is left for us as developers to offer what each client segment would need; be it luxury, be it affordable, or medium income housing. I am very bright within that prospect.

What are some of the major challenges that you are facing?

It so happens that we ended up in the luxury space just for what we offered. Our structures are much more elevated when it comes to the design and technology inclusion. And when we brought in home automation, which was something that wasn’t very indigenous to the continent, we ended up within that spectrum of development for our first initial projects. But as a company, we are actually developing each of the segments of real estate. We are doing affordable housing with our Beverly Hills project in Adenta, which will be much more of an indigenous client base project. And we are continuing to go into other fields, not just residential, but we are doing commercial property as well. So, I think we are covering all the bases.

What is your unique selling proposition as a luxury home provider?

We are definitely the new kids on the block when it comes to luxury. There are only so many clients that would be able to plop down the price point that we target for our projects. So, ensuring that you get a resounding theme within your development, ensuring that you have a quality name and a quality product with the houses that you provide and supply to the market, is really the cornerstone. We targeted automation, we targeted technology, and we targeted high scale design. And we moved the boundary to the point where most developers weren’t really interested in going, because it is not very common in our Africa base construction practices. So, we brought in a team, supported by world class architects, our construction team were Portugal based, and we ensured that what we brought onto the market wasn’t anything that you would see. So that was a distinctive and defining opportunity for us. And I think it has gone very well so far.

What kind of clientele are you looking at more? The expat community or Ghanaians?

I don’t want to cast it as all rosy and glorious, but I think real estate is a segment that makes a lot of sense from an investment and financial opportunity standpoint. We have a real estate deficit in the country, with almost a million units required.

We are currently based in the heart of Cantonments, which is what I would call the base for the ultra-high net wealth segment of Ghanaians and the expat community. We are amongst seven embassies and central to almost everything here. So I would say that was the target. We wanted to provide what would be available in the US or in the UK, something that is much more of a world class domain, but right here in Ghana. That is why we brought in things like home automation, where you can effectively trigger activities in your house, like turning on the AC when you’re coming from the airport. All those types of luxuries that are new or modern in nature, even in these foreign countries. And we achieved it in a way where people didn’t think it would be readily available based on the infrastructure we have here in Ghana. I think it has really spoken well when it comes to the expat community from a rental perspective alone. We have a waiting list which is triple the units we currently have available. So, it has gone well.

How has COVID-19 impacted your business?

COVID has been a jarring awakening for the whole world. It is not anything that any of us could have planned for or saw coming. Initially, I was really worried or perplexed about the prospects and what it would bring to the market for our company, being that we were just rolling out our project and heading into this year. We were very keen on making sure our biggest bang would occur. It slowed us down from a construction standpoint where we had to take a few months off from lockdowns and what not. But surprisingly, from a marketing standpoint, we have done phenomenally well within the period. We have sold a number of units and I think it really goes to the fact that people have started appreciating the quality of having not just a luxury home, but a functional home; a home that you can actually enjoy being in, being that it’s much more critical to remain within your four walls, have a family experience, have a much more well-rounded homelife, because you are not going out to events or being outspoken. So, I would say COVID hasn’t hindered us from achieving our goals within the project development lifecycle.

What is the correlation between technology and the real estate sector?

The correlation in terms of marketing has to do with virtual tours. I mean, that became everybody’s cornerstone, right? We had to develop virtual 3Ds. We had to ensure that most of the clients who were offshore and wanted to do property viewings could do that, as well as ensure that our team on the ground would be able to facilitate that across the board. So that has become the norm at this point. It is how most real estate companies are moving. Now in terms of correlating the technology from a platform perspective, we ensure that our homes are fibre-optically wired. So, we have failsafe when it comes to internet where if one provider goes down, the second one will kick in. We have all of our mechanisms tied into a broader living arrangement where you can monitor your house. We now have carbon-monoxide sensors, which is one of those things that people didn’t really consider previously. We made sure that we brought it to bear from a technological standpoint, and I think it has proven very resounding within the market segment.

What is your vision for the company in the next two to three years?

Golden Coast Developers will never endeavor in a project that is of the norm. We won’t do anything that is standard or is being done currently. One of our projects which is going to kick off, is a 90-unit development that is going to be the first green development within Ghana. So, when I say green, I mean sustainable energy, sustainable water, purification methods, air quality control, and having an organic feel from a construction and a horticulture standpoint. We will be growing plants on the buildings, and that is not common. That is not something that has been indigenous to our landscape. Most people want just a house. So, I think that’s the opportunity point for us. Similarly, from our affordable segment, the property development we are going to develop is about 100 homes on 20-acres. It isn’t going to be the “cookie cutter approach”, where all of the houses are singular and monotone. We are actually making sure that each unit is slightly reconfigured, so you have more of a neighborhood feel. And you can enjoy the trees that are pre-planted. It is much more communal than the typical, affordable build out here in Ghana. So, I think that’s where we are headed. And we are going to move the needle in any project we move towards.

Can you explain more about the other aspects of your business outside of real estate?

For us, coming down to Ghana was not just a simple exploit. I have been an investment banker for almost 12 years. I really got a good view of the financial markets and structuring of business throughout. One thing that really spoke to me was not just ensuring that someone has a home, which is the real estate, but ensuring food security. So, one business draw line that we have set up is developing an agricultural pipeline. We have acquired land that is going to go into full-scale cultivation of cassava. I have a very solid team of agronomists and world-class scientists that are going to come and assist with that to ensure that our yields are much higher than what is currently being achieved in the market and that will begin next year. We are already doing land clearing and permitting from that cycle. We are also moving into technology being that I have the background within the financial technology space to provide consulting services and also re-engineering and automation for a number of organizations with whom we currently have arrangements. So that will be a very wide net. We have partners coming out of India. We have a team of security experts that reside in the US that are going to be our backbone. Nothing we will do is for the faint of heart. We want to really change the continent. We want to really move past the status quo. You cannot do that from just sitting in one seat.

What are your priorities for the next six months? Where will you concentrate your efforts?

We have really developed a strong platform at this point. For any organization at our scale, to be able to become a conglomerate, you need to prioritize accordingly. For each of our projects, we have ensured that we have the core set of people who will support it. The people who are actually running each of the domain points have a clear task list and are focused on hitting those milestones that we have set. We are not shortchanging any of the realms that we are currently focused on. However, the build up from a real estate perspective and our upcoming projects, the agriculture project is a massive pull from my day to day focus.

Is it complex to acquire the human resource for your projects? Do you train people here or source from abroad? What is your strategy?

It is really a dynamic situation when it comes to human resource. You will find very skilled, very qualified people on ground who are able to do specific tasks. But from my experience, you are not going to get someone who is a subject matter expert in every single criterion or every single subset that you are focused on. So, I never want to be hung up on who or how we get things done, as long as it gets done. That is why we look to employ a world-class team for each of the different projects or initiatives that we have running. The key to finding good people is really to spend the time and invest in training of those people as well. I am a very big proponent in bringing our core team, our management, even down to the project managers that we use, up to speed on the latest technologies and involving them in day-to-day decisions. That way, they know exactly where you want to go and how you want to get there. That has been a big success point for us.

What are the bottlenecks, the things that are still complex to deal with?

Being on the continent, to the outside world, the whole perception that is given out there is that we are behind. We are not in any way as archaic one would depict, but getting to core information as readily and as easily as you would Google something in the US and find it is where there is a resounding difficulty here. The data sets are not readily occupied in the internet or someone that you can go to as a human library who can spew off literature and chapters of detail when it comes to regulation or business practices. Making sure you do your homework, making sure you do the necessary due diligence, making sure you spend the time to go around and ascertain exactly what you need and how you need to achieve that is something that is a core piece in establishing anything that you do in Ghana and overall on the continent. So, it is a struggle, but it is a struggle that is worthwhile and fulfilling in the long run.

Can you tell us more about your personal life? Where did you learn these entrepreneurial skills? What has made you who you are now?

I am the archetype, or what we would call the pure local diaspora. And that counters itself, because I was born in the US and grew up there and most of my tertiary education was there. But at some point, around high school, I had the opportunity to come to school in Ghana. That is really when I developed my conscious, mental approach towards building the continent. And I fell in love with the place overall, just from an experience standpoint. It became a resounding call that no matter what I do, or where I go within my career, I would at some point relocate back to the continent. So, I went back and got my Undergraduate and my Master’s degree in the US. And then, my career took off from that point. I was on Wall Street for 12 years primarily at one of the largest investment banks within a number of different areas. I did structured finance, operations, investment banking strategy. I saw some of the best practices that have taken hold in the US and that I could easily relate to doing business in Ghana. During that time, I was going back and forth once or twice a year, just to identify business opportunities. I kept myself in touch with how things were going here. I moved my whole family down in early 2017 and I came that year as well. That is when we started our initial first set of real estate projects. Throughout that period, we had been land banking and acquiring properties for future development. That is when the farm opportunity picked up and we acquired 1000 hectares for cultivation. So, it has been pretty interesting. I definitely have a dual worldview of all things, because I am very well-traveled. I have done assignments in four different continents. But I have definitely been home most of my life in spirit. I have kept myself very involved on the continent.

What is your opinion on the impact of the Year of Return in Ghana and the continent at large? Will this work in other countries too?

It is very positive. It is an opportunity when anyone who has never really experienced their full heritage, be it someone from Africa or not, can get down to the bare bones of who they are and where they came from. What has happened in the last few years is a resounding call to all Diasporans, all people of color, anyone with melanin in their skin, whether you hail from Africa or you came in as a descendant. It is only a win because opportunity rests for no one. There is so much more to be done here in Africa and there are so many countries within Africa that can use that workforce, that can use that insight, that can use that financial capital. So, for people in America who are running into all of this strife and so many different issues that are happening within that domain, it is a time to really call back and find where you came from and then explore opportunities there as well. They will be greatly surprised that it is not as bad as it has been depicted on TV. Ghana is a very good stepping stone into Africa for some of those creature comforts just because of the development and the infrastructure availability. But Ghana is just one of 54 countries. There are ways and means to really achieve and uplift the people in itself and it is more fulfilling from that approach. For me, the West is not where I had planned on really delving my full attention. Now, I see there is much more of an impact and it feeds my soul to do great things here.

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