Accra, Sept. 19, GNA - Over concentration of developers on middle and upper end of the housing market, with very few paying attention to affordable and economic housing for the masses and average Ghanaian worker has led to the current high housing deficit in the country. Currently, there was an estimated housing deficit of over 500,000 units in Ghana with a total cost of about 17.25 billion dollars with an annual requirement of 4.32 billion dollars.

Ms. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister of State for Water Resources, Works and Housing, made this observation at the Annual General meeting and Conference of the Africa Union for Housing Finance (AUHF) in Accra. Speaking on the topic: "The Future of the Sustainable Housing Finance Towards Affordable Housing and Infrastructure," Ms. Dapaah said the main aim of a housing finance system was basically to provide housing finance for developers and buyers of housing, both rental and owner-occupied.

The one-week conference was being organised by Ghana Housing Finance Association (GHFA) with sponsorship from HFC Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC), among other local and international agencies.

About 150 delegates and resource persons from about 15 countries in Africa and five outside the continent are attending the Conference on the theme: "The Future of Sustainable Housing Finance System Towards Affordable Housing and Infrastructure."

Ms Dapaah said a sustainable housing finance system should fundamentally have a means by which lending institutions would replenish their funds to meet the demand from borrowers.

That, she said, could be achieved through various elements, including a stable macroeconomic environment, adequate liquidity for financing institutions and a vibrant housing market, among several factors.

She said a sustainable housing finance system must be backed by an efficient legal system that allows for easy and economical foreclosure by lending institutions and allowed financial institutions to perfect claim over non-performing loans.

Ms. Dapaah said the ministry was quite excited that a lot of enthusiasm was generated within the housing sector in the last few years, with particular emphasis on Affordable Housing.

She said with the support of the private investors, both local and international, government would in the next few years provide 100,000 housing units and commended the organizers for their initiative. She said she hoped that at the end of the conference members would have discovered more innovative ways of making housing finance affordable to the low-income group.

Mr. Asare Akuffo, Managing Director, HFC Bank, said housing was a major factor in the strength and stability of nations and represented an important form of household real savings, given the undeveloped nature of the financial markets.

He said GHFA with a membership of 12 banking and non-banking financial institutions have shown interest in providing home loans for people to build their own houses.

He said based on these positive developments the international community has responded with tremendous support to the development of most sectors of the economy, including housing finance. The IFC, he said, had committed technical assistance and 25 million dollars long-term funding to the banking industry in Ghana to enhance mortgage lending.