The unaffordability of Accra: The housing dilemma, unresolved realities and the rent question

By Eddy Acquah & Kojo Tabiri, Esq.

In 2023, we made a publication on the skyrocketing prices of real estate in Accra and their exclusionary impact on the average Ghanaian, several structural concerns were clearly identified. Those concerns remain largely unresolved.

Property prices continue to rise faster than incomes, rental terms remain punitive, and state intervention has yet to translate into meaningful market correction. The passage of time has not softened these realities. If anything, they have become further entrenched.

The core findings of that earlier analysis still hold. Homeownership remains out of reach for most working households. Rental accommodation continues to function as a cash extraction mechanism rather than a service governed by fairness and predictability.

Affordable housing initiatives have not achieved the scale, pricing discipline, or institutional credibility required to influence market behaviour. The absence of government owned or government backed rental stock continues to leave the private market unchecked. These are not new problems. They are persistent ones.

Against this backdrop, the question of rent structure becomes central. Why is month to month rent, the global norm in advanced jurisdictions, not a viable option in Accra and across Ghana?

There was a period in Ghana’s housing history when monthly rent was both common and socially accepted, particularly in urban centres. In the 1940s through the 1960s, monthly rent was standard practice in many urban areas, including Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, and Cape Coast. Housing stock at the time consisted largely of compound houses, public sector housing, and employer-provided accommodation.

Rent was paid monthly, sometimes weekly, particularly for rooms within compound houses. Institutions such as the State Housing Corporation, Tema Development Corporation, and various government departments provided rental housing to civil servants and industrial workers. These units were let on monthly terms, deducted directly from salaries in some cases. This created a market reference point.

Private landlords followed suit because tenants had alternatives. Monthly rent was viable because competition existed. Rooms were rented individually, landlords lived on site, and payment cycles aligned with weekly or monthly income patterns. The social proximity between landlord and tenant reduced default risk and encouraged flexible arrangements. This model dominated urban housing for decades.

So, what caused the change??

The shift away from monthly rent began in the late 1970s and accelerated through the 1980s and 1990s.

Economic instability, high inflation, and currency depreciation in the late 70s and 80s eroded landlord confidence in periodic payments. The state also withdrew from large scale housing provision, eliminating the competitive pressure that sustained fair rental practices. Rent control weakened in enforcement and relevance, while housing shortages deepened due to rapid urbanisation. Therefore, Landlords began using advance rent as a hedge against inflation, construction financing gaps, and legal enforcement weaknesses.

The first and most decisive reason monthly rent fails in Accra and Kumasi for example is supply scarcity. In advanced jurisdictions, month-to-month rent is supported by depth of supply. Tenants have options, and landlords compete on price, service quality, and tenure flexibility. In Urban areas, demand consistently outstrips supply, particularly in locations close to employment centres. This imbalance shifts negotiating power entirely to landlords. Where scarcity prevails, flexibility disappears. Advance rent becomes a rational, though socially damaging, market response.

A second reason monthly rent cannot function is the absence of effective public housing. Public housing in Ghana is challenged in numerous ways – ranging from policy failure, project delay, and abandonment to access and affordability among others. Public or affordable housing projects such as Kpone (2,500 affordable housing units), Borteyman (744 one-bedroom apartments and 792 two-bedroom apartments), Saglemi affordable housing (5,000 housing units) were mostly abandoned or delayed in their construction process.

In jurisdictions where month-to-month rent works, government owned or government regulated housing sets behavioural norms. It establishes that rent is a periodic payment for use, not a capital substitute. In Ghana, the state has largely exited this role. Without a public benchmark, private landlords face no pressure to modernise rental terms.

A third constraint on monthly rent is macroeconomic instability. Inflation, currency depreciation, and limited access to long-term finance push landlords to secure value upfront. Advance rent becomes a crude risk management tool in an environment where future purchasing power is uncertain. In more stable economies, predictability allows landlords to price risk into monthly rent. In Ghana, that predictability is absent, and tenants absorb the uncertainty which is very unfortunate.

Many observers point to weak enforcement as the core problem. While it is true that rent regulations are inconsistently enforced, enforcement alone cannot succeed where the state fails to provide competition. A recent viral video illustrated this dynamic clearly.

Commuters opted for a state-operated transport service (STC) offering free or reduced fares deployed by the government to address peak-hour traffic congestion between Accra and Kasoa. Private Commercial Vehicle (Trotro) operators responded by cutting fares from GHS 15 to GHS 10, yet demand remained subdued.

In the video, the person stated that the trotros were at one point charging GHS 30 from Accra to Kasoa, even though the approved fare was GHS 9. However, passengers had no choice but to board and pay the unauthorised fare of GHS 30 due to the lack of alternatives.

The lesson is clear: enforcement did not drive change competition did. Housing behaves the same way. Affordable, state-backed rental housing priced monthly whether near the central business district or connected by efficient transport infrastructure would force private landlords to adjust terms through market pressure, not persuasion. Therefore, Enforcement alone cannot succeed where the state is absent as a competitor, simple and short.

The unresolved realities identified in our earlier work point to the same conclusion. Without large-scale government participation in rental housing, stable housing finance, institutional landlords and credible enforcement, month-to-month rent will remain unattainable for most citizens. Advance rent will continue to function as a substitute for policy failure. Taken together, these factors explain why month-to-month rent is not merely a cultural difference but a structural outcome.

The way forward is therefore not moral persuasion of landlords but market restructuring. Government must return as a serious housing provider, delivering rental units at scale, managed professionally, and priced monthly. This would introduce competition, stabilise expectations, and gradually reset norms. Over time, private landlords would be compelled to adjust or lose relevance.

However, explanation does not equate to justification. Other jurisdictions once faced similar constraints and resolved them through deliberate policy choices. Until these structural gaps are addressed, the conditions identified in our previous publication will persist. Accra’s housing market will continue to exclude the average Ghanaian, not because monthly rent is impossible, but because the institutions that make it possible have been allowed to disappear.

What a joy it shall be to see our beloved country Ghana get to a point where its citizens pay rent monthly when all the solutions we have provided in this article are put into action consistently and over time.

To paraphrase the wise words of Elizabeth Warren, we believe that every Ghanaian should have stable, dignified housing; health care; education – that the most very basic needs to sustain modern life should be guaranteed in a moral society. Every Ghanaian deserves a safe and affordable place to live.

Prince is a Private Legal Practitioner with qualifications in Ghana and Canada. He is a Partner at Caldwell Greene Legal Practitioners, La – Accra. He is also an associate member of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) Young & International Group and also a Young Member of the Institute for Transnational Arbitrators, USA.  

Eddy is a licensed Real Estate Professional and CEO of Eddy Acquah Properties; an established and trusted property services company with international partnerships dedicated to assisting individuals and companies both local and in the diaspora with all property needs in prime Accra. He was named Ghana’s Most Outstanding Personality in Consultancy at the 9th edition of the Forty Under 40 Awards in 202l5.

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