Minister for Works and Housing, Francis Asenso Boakye says government has commenced the process for the establishment of a National Housing Authority.

The Authority according to him, will be responsible for the regulatory body for the acquisition and standardization of housing units across the country.

Addressing journalists after a tour to inspect some housing projects in the country, the Works and Housing Minister said the Authority will ensure that the right tools, design and maintenance policy is in place for the building and housing industry.

“This housing authority will make sure that we get the right designs for housing, and we make sure that there is a good maintenance policy for housing. This housing development will make sure that through the housing development we will have a national housing fund which will give us the money to be able to absorb land and infrastructure costs. We are going to start from scratch,” the minister said.

“We have now started engagement, so this involves legislation to the cabinet, Parliament and stakeholder consultations. I have been in the office for the last two weeks and we are now about to start, we are praying that, God willing, towards the ending of the year we would have gotten to a stage that we would say we have made substantial progress,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association earlier urged the government to establish the Authority off which was to be run by experts in the building and housing industry.

Additionally, Ghana’s housing deficit stands at some 2 million units and has been projected to hit peak numbers in the coming years should interventions not be put in place.

Executive Secretary for GREDA, Samuel Amegayibor earlier pointed the country needs to provide in excess of 100,000 housing units annually to meet the current demand.