Ghana in Focus: Exploring Business and Investment Opportunities in Ghana Part III - Real Estate

Ghana's booming real estate market holds tremendous potential for savvy investors willing to navigate its unique landscape.

From the mountains of Aburi to the affluent neighbourhoods of East Legon Hills , opportunities abound for those looking to build wealth through property portfolio.

The traditional approach of constructing with cement blocks and iron rods remains popular, though building costs have doubled since 2022. Forward-thinking investors are turning to innovative alternatives like raffawoods, shipping containers, recycled plastic, and brick construction—all offering eco-friendly benefits and significant cost savings. 

Whether building from scratch or purchasing existing properties, Ghana's premium real estate commands impressive prices, with two-bedroom apartments in upscale areas starting around $200,000 and three-bedroom homes from $250,000.

Beyond Accra's boundaries, emerging hotspots like Ayi Mensah, Oyarifa, and particularly Aburi in the mountains are attracting substantial development. Aburi's cooler climate has made it especially popular among diaspora returnees seeking respite from Accra's heat. Property owners can maximize returns through various strategies—long-term rentals to corporations or expatriates, seasonal Airbnb listings during peak tourism months (December-March), or even developing specialized housing like student accommodation, which represents a particularly untapped market given Ghana's predominantly young population and inadequate university housing options

.Perhaps the simplest entry point remains land investment, with plots in desirable areas like Aburi starting around $35,000-$40,000 and frequently doubling or tripling in value within just a few years. The key to successful land ownership? Immediately fence or wall your property to prevent encroachment by unauthorized "land guards."

 Looking for expert guidance on navigating Ghana's real estate market? Join Seso developers' upcoming webinar on March 27th to learn how to purchase legitimate land and avoid common pitfalls in this dynamic market.

Please register here for Webinar:  How To Buy Land In Ghana Webinar · Zoom · Luma

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Ghana in Focus
• 1:58 Building Your Own Property in Ghana
• 6:17 Buying Existing Properties in Ghana
• 12:50 Premium Areas and Real Estate Hotspots
• 14:37 Land Investment Opportunities
• 18:32 Student Accommodation as Business

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to this week's edition of Ghana in Focus with myself Kwame, ghanaian broadcaster, writer, journalist, podcaster and entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 0:16

And in this week's edition of Ghana in Focus, we're looking at business opportunities in Ghana, part three. This week, looking at real estate Business Opportunities in Ghana, part 3. This week, looking at real estate. That's the theme for this week's podcast Exploring Business Opportunities in Ghana, Part 3. Looking at real estate.

Speaker 1: 0:33

So, before we get into the show, if you like what you hear, appreciate to your friends, family and social media networks. Again, if you, you know we want you to support Ghana African Focus. So we want to get at least 100 subscribers on YouTube. So please subscribe to Ghana African Focus on YouTube. Hit the notification bell, meaning that every time I upload a new podcast, youtube will notify you Again. We're also on Spotify, so just look out for Ghana African Focusrican folks on spotify, hit the follow button and spotify will notify you every time we upload a new podcast. Again, we want to try and get a thousand followers on spotify. So far we've got 581, so thank you to all those who are following me on spotify. So it's free, doesn't charge anything. So just look out for ghana african folks on spotify and click on the follow button and you'll be notified every time I upload a new podcast. And if you do listen to me on spotify, you know we like to know what you think of the show. So there's a comment section. So send us your comments, tell us what you think of the of the program. Tell us, you know, your comments. So, again, it doesn't cost anything to send, you know, send us your comments. So if you do listen to me on spotify, I'd like to know what you're thinking of the show, so please send us your comments.

Speaker 1: 1:55

All right, so let's get into this week's edition of gardening focus, like I said, continuing our series exploring business opportunities in Ghana. This week we're looking about real estate. So the real estate industry is a massive, massive industry in Ghana and there is again plenty of avenues within the real estate sector to exploit and to make money as well, and so the real estate portfolio is divided into two sections. So you've got your land, which I'll come on to later on. Then you've got your building, so you can so, in terms of building, you can build your own property in Ghana. So you can buy a land and then build your property in Ghana. And you know, like I mentioned, building in Ghana is becoming very expensive, and so you need to, you know, take consideration of that. Building materials have doubled in price since 2022. So making building in Ghana very, very expensive since 2022. So making building in ghana very, very expensive. But buying or building your own property is an option, uh, as well, because that gives you the the free range to build a property of your choice. You can do the architecture drawings yourself, or you could hire the services of an architect and a designer, and they can, you know, design a property that suits your taste. Okay, so once you've got the land and then once you've got the architecture drawings, then you can begin to build that gym house of yours, and you can build it any style that you want.

Speaker 1: 3:38

So I've got a video that I did about three or four years, about three years ago, looking about different types of building in Ghana. So if you don't want to to do the conventional building, ie blocks and cement, which is the traditional way of building in Ghana, there's, you know, other methods that have sprung up over the last five years. That is more cheaper than using the traditional brick. You know cement and you know blocks and iron rods. So you've got rufflewood. Rufflewood is a very, very eco-friendly way of building a house in Ghana that is not as expensive as the traditional way. You've also got containers shipping containers so you can build your property using shipping containers, and shipping containers has become a very innovative way of building in Ghana, as well as eco-friendly to the environment as well. Also, you can build your property with recycled plastic. So there's a brother uh, I think his name is nelson wharton, but I'll try and get that for you, nelson wharton who has a recycled plastic company where he builds houses, believe it or not, from recycled plastics. Yeah, so I'll try and get a link for you and you can look at that. But, like, like I said in one of my videos that I did about two and a half three years ago, I did a video of the different house types in Ghana and Nelson Barton was amongst those in terms of the plastic, or the recycled plastics that innovation that he has come up with to use to build houses. Again, another method of building houses is using bricks in, like we do in the uk. So if you want to build out of your bricks, again, that is another, you know, eco-friendly and more affordable way of building your own property in ghana, as opposed to the traditional cement iron blocks sorry, iron rods and you know cement blocks, um, you know root. So that is that part.

Speaker 1: 5:49

If you want to build your own property in Ghana and live in it, those are the options that are open to you in terms of building a property in Ghana. But you first must secure the land and we'll come on to the land in a minute and so. So that's, you know, building your own property. So you can build your own property to rent yourself. You know you live in there yourself or you can build a property there. You know that you could uh use to, uh, um, rent to, uh. You know expatriates. You know people that have come to Ghana to work for multinational companies, or even you can use, you know you can use your property, uh, to rent out to. You know a lot of these. You know companies that are not operating in Ghana because they do. You know a lot of companies, whether they're, you know, multinationals or whether they're like banks or take communication companies do like to rent, you know, people's properties for their businesses. So that's um, building your property.

Speaker 1: 6:54

So if you don't want to build your own property, you can buy a property that's been built already. So in ghana over the last, I say, 10 years or so, right, there's been a lot of, you know, new building, a lot of building going on in Ghana within Accra and also outside of Accra in the last 10 years. But property within Accra, particularly the nice areas of Accra, is very, very expensive. So you know and again I made a podcast on that three years ago buying property in acura. So you want to buy property in acura, particularly if you're from the west.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Obviously you want to buy a property that you know you are, that sort of tells your needs as somebody coming from the diaspora. As to you know, uh, looking about a nice fitted kitchen, a nice bedroom with a nice toilet and bathroom, a bigger bathroom, a dining area, a lounge, etc. So you want to buy property that is akin to what you are accustomed to in the UK, us, canada or wherever you're coming from from the diaspora. So you know, in Ghana you pay for what you get. See, there's properties out there in Ghana that are for $30,000, but those properties may not have the best in terms of security, in the best of you know, finishing in the best of you know, finishing in the best of decor and maybe not and will probably also be in a, you know, in the area that is really really on the outskirts of a crowd, or you know in a not in an area that is not really an affluent area. However, if you want to buy a property you know in an affluent area, then you're looking at least to pay at a. However, if you want to buy a property you know in the afternoon area, then you're looking at least to pay a minimum $200,000,. Yeah, and that could be for a two-bedroom apartment, could be for a townhouse, et cetera. If you want to buy a three-bedroom house within an afternoon area, then you're looking about at least a quarter of a million dollars upwards.

Speaker 1: 9:09

And these properties that I mentioned you know these properties that are 200,000 plus, these are very, very you know these are properties, particularly if you're from the West, that will suit your style. So these have got fitted kitchen, you know they've got hob knobs. They've got electric cookers, you know they've got, you know, fridges in there. Some of them have got built-in fridges in there already in there. Some of them have got built-in fridges in there already. You know they've got a large lounge area for your tv, your hi-fi system, your computer, a little workstation in the living room, if you want to do that. They've also got a large dining area where you can, you know, dine with your family and friends if you've got like a, you know, a table that can seat six or eight. You know some of the dining rooms in these houses are very, very big.

Speaker 1: 9:55

So you know, if one practice of that nature, various projects are mainly in the afternoon area. So east legon, uh cantonments, laboni airport, residential area, east airport, spintex Road, parts of Temma. Temma Community 25 is a developing area. Community 26 is also a developing area. You've also got Lashibi Community 17-18, within the Temma Enclave. You've also got a lot of new developments bringing up outside Accra.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So, going on to Ayam Mensah, there's a lot of developments there. Well, outside Accra, so going on to Ayamensa, there's a lot of developments there, well, well, beautifully crafted houses. You've also got areas like Oyayafa, again very, very on-market community with a lot of fantastic properties there. You've also got East Ligon Hills, which has developed rapidly in the last 10 years. You've also got a breed in the mountains. So now you know, a lot of the properties are land, but, like I said, I'm coming to land in a minute, but a lot of the you know properties now have been built in in the Ghana, particularly in the capital, or basically out of the capital, because it's very, very hard to get land within the Accra metropolitan area boundaries. So many of the real estate developers are developing property outside of Accra.

Speaker 1: 11:22

So, like I said, ayia Mensah Oyayufa, you know even Ebri itself. Ebri is now becoming a hot cake whereby people want to move and build a property in Ebri because Ebri is in the mountains and it's much muchbrie is in the mountains and it's much, much cooler, you know, in the mountains. If you don't like the heat and that Kira can get very, very hot, particularly during the daytime, then you know Ebrie spelled A-B-U-R-I. Ebrie is somewhere that was strongly recommended because it's very, very cool. It's in the mountains. Strongly recommend because it's very, very cool, it's in the mountains and, uh, you know it is somewhere that you can feel comfortable, uh, within that facility. So Ebre is a very, very, uh, becoming a very, very popular destination, particularly amongst um Africans from the diaspora who want to live, you know, in a mountainous area free from the hustle and bustle of the capital of Accra.

Speaker 1: 12:17

So if you buy properties in those areas again, like with building your own property. You can actually, if you don't want to live in that property yourself, what you can do, you can rent it out and there's many, many people in Ghana who are looking for properties. The right of return has brought many Africans from the diaspora to ghana. Many of them are looking for properties to buy, to rent, etc. So you've got. So if you buy a property in one of those nice areas or a brief, for instance, you can get somebody there to rent it for you, or somebody there who will rent your budget for you. Again, you know, once you've bought your property, you can use it as as as an airbnb, so you can hire it out during seasonal activities in ghana, so particularly, you know, between december and march, very, very, uh, popular time for tourists in ghana, particularly that of december. So you can use your property as an airbnb again, you know you can rent out to these more touchable companies like banks. You know telecommunications companies etc. Who are willing to pay top premium for renting your property.

Speaker 1: 13:23

So, in terms of buying properties, there are many, many avenues for you to make money if you can buy. You know, once you're, once you secured, once you bought your property in Ghana. There's renting, airbnb, etc. So you know, build. So, apart from building your property, buying your own property is another thing as well. So that's about, basically, you know the the thing about housing. So you, you can, either, you know, build your own property to live in yourself, or to let, or to do whatever you want to do with it, or you can, you know, buy a property that's already been built by a lot of the housing development companies that have sprung up in Ghana over the last 10 or so years. And again, once you've bought the property, that is your property, you've got the paperwork and what have you? To claim? That that is your own bona fide property and, again, you can do whatever you want with it. You can use it as Airbnb, you can rent it out. What have you? Yeah, so that's property you know in terms of buying, in terms of you know in terms of buying, in terms of you know, building your property.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Now we come on to land. So land is again a very, very good investment in Ghana, because once you, if you buy land again today right, give it about two, three years that land will be the double or triple in price, particularly pertaining on the area where you bought them. For example, I mentioned Ibri a minute ago in terms of buying property there. Now you can get land in Ibri for like $30,000, $40,000. Unfortunately, ghana has become such that a lot of land now, particularly in these sort of areas like Oyaifa, east Ligon Hills, ayia Mensa and Ibri, unfortunately these lands are priced in dollars because they're premium and they're in sought-after areas. So, for example, if you want to buy land in Ibri you can expect to pay upwards of $25,000 to $30,000 easily for a plot in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 15:36

So a plot in Ghana is something like about half an acre or quarter of an acre. You know, depending on you know the plots or the allocation of the plots. That landowner or the person that owns, yeah, that landowner is allocating the plots to send those plots by. So you know, once you bought your land say, for example, you bought a land in a sort of area for, let's say, thirty thousand dollars yeah, if you a couple years that will double, couple, triple. Yeah, because the demand is there in this sort of area. So you can just buy the land, wall it. So I recommend, if you buy the land, fence it or wall it so that you don't get encroaches on land guards, because that's again another very notorious thing that's going on in ghana. People have bought a lot of land in ghana, but because they've fenced and walled, it's why it's not been encouraged by third parties. So you want to be careful of that when you are buying land in ghana.

Speaker 1: 16:36

So, like I said, land is a very, very precious commodity in Ghana that can use a lot of return on your investment. If you buy your land outright, again, you know, once you've bought your land, you can build on it or do whatever you want to do on it. Again, once you've bought your land, you can, you know, even you know, like I said, leave it alone or you can give it to a company for them to build on and you can get a monthly, you can earn a monthly income as a landowner from that real estate developer for using your land, a portion of land to build a property on. Again, you can use the land to develop a farm, you know. Again, you know, particularly with this economy whereby food is getting expensive in Ghana, a lot of importation food is getting expensive and if you're able to buy land and, you know, cultivate it as a farm, again, you can make a lot of money in that because farming, for me, is going to be the big industry in Ghana. You know that's where the next millions are going to come from Not thinking about IT, not thinking about AI, but farming. But I'll come back next week when I talk more about the agricultural business in Ghana. But, like I say, you can buy land and use it as a farm to develop on again. You can get land in Ghana and even build student accommodation again.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Ghana is now, you know, becoming a magnet for a lot of students. So, you know, within Ghana and outside of Ghana. So student accommodation is becoming a very much needed commodity in Ghana. Because if you look at, for example, the University of Legon, you know a lot. The accommodation is very substandard and a lot of it is also like four to one, four guys to one local room. So, and also, a lot of this student accommodation needs a lot to be designed in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 18:29

So, if you're able to, you know, get a plot of land and then build, you know, decent student accommodation again, you'll make a lot of money as well because, like I said, that is something that is in demand student accommodation, particularly good, decent student accommodation. And what I mean by good student accommodation, what I mean by that. They got toilet, got a bathroom in each, in each apartment. You could probably got like a, um, a play area where people can play, you know, snooker or pool, or you know a couple computer games, you know like a restroom, that kind of thing if you're and also like a nice kitchen as well, whereby students can make their own food. So if you have student accommodation of that ilk, right you, you're going to make a lot of money in ghana, because there's a rapid um student population in Ghana and I don't see the student population, particularly at the university level, I don't see that decreasing in the next 5, 10, even 15 years, because you know, ghana is a very, very young population. Uh, the majority of Ghana is under 30. So that tells that if you were to build student accommodation yeah, you look into the future 5, 10, 20 years yeah, you look at the population trajectory, particularly the student university population trajectory. Right then, building student accommodation is a no-brainer and you can expect to make a lot, a lot of money. If you have a land and that you decide to build a student accommodation on that land, all right.

Speaker 1: 19:59

So I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Ghana in Focus, looking about the real estate industry in Ghana. Hope it's given you food for thought in terms of, you know, looking at real estate as a potential, not just business opportunity, but a potential investment opportunity as well, where you know you can get good returns on your investment. So, in next week's show, which will be the last of the series for now, we'll be looking about farming, agriculture, like I said, that is massive business, so look out for that. There's a lot of gems I'm going to, you know, share next week in terms of agriculture, and how you can become literally a millionaire week in terms of agriculture, and how you can become literally a millionaire overnight in terms of agriculture. And so, from myself, kwame, and from all the crew here on Gardening Focus oh, before I go, before I go sorry about that before I go, I'm going to leave in the footnotes there's, um, you know, one of the uh developers that I get a lot of email from, called Cesso.

Speaker 1: 21:00

They're going to be doing a webinar this coming Thursday, the 27th of March, and they'll be doing a presentation webinar on how you can buy land in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 21:10

So, if you recall, about two and a half, three years ago, I did a podcast about how to buy land in Ghana legit land in Ghana okay.

Speaker 1: 21:17

So things have changed since then when I did that three years ago, I did a podcast about how to buy land in Ghana legit land in Ghana okay. So things have changed since then, when I did that podcast three years ago. So if you are wanting to buy land in Ghana or you may be interested in the process of how to buy land, then I would urge recommend that you attend this webinar seminar presentation on Thursday, the 27th of February, and I'll leave you all the details in the full notes so you can register to attend my webinar on Thursday and you'll get a lot of gems as to how to buy land in Ghana and how to navigate some of the pitfalls you know when it comes to buy land in Ghana. Alright, so, from myself, kwame, and from all the crew here on Ghana In Focus, thank you very much for listening and we'll see you next week for some more business and investment opportunities in Ghana.