UN expert urges government to back Rent Control Department to stop arbitrary rent hikes

A United Nations housing expert has asked government to give the Rent Control Department the logistics and resources it needs to do its work, saying tenants are under pressure from arbitrary rent increases.

Koldo Casla, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, also called for stronger institutional mechanisms to monitor rents and curb the increases. He made the call in a statement issued at the end of a 12-day official visit to Ghana at the weekend.

Mr Casla said formal housing has become too expensive for many Ghanaians, pushing them into informal settlements.

“During the visit, I observed the housing construction and physical transformations taking place primarily in Accra. I could see flashy billboards around the capital promoting real estate investments at stratospheric prices far from the reach of the average Ghanaian,” he said.

He added that “About 31 per cent of the urban population lives in informal settlements.”

During the visit, he said, he saw housing construction and physical changes taking place mainly in Accra. He also saw billboards across the capital advertising real estate at prices far beyond the reach of the average Ghanaian.

He urged the authorities to accept that the high cost of formal housing has left many people with few options and asked them to listen more closely to people living in poverty when designing public housing policy.

Mr Casla noted that the construction sector employs hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians and contributes an estimated 7 to 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.