An Accra-based landlord has justified the high cost of rent charged by property owners in urban areas across the country.

According to Nana Owusu Brempong, the cost of rent is pegged against the cost of materials on the open market.

“How do you expect me to maintain your room when the cost of rent is not raised in parity with the cost of materials on the market?” He wondered. “When I am to renovate your room and the price of cement was selling at GHS30 and now selling at GHC90 who should bear the difference?”

The landlord's justification came on the back of a viral video of a young lady complaining about the cost of rent in urban areas, particularly in the Dansoman area of Accra.

Nana Owusu Brempong argued for the cost of rent while reacting to the issue on the Ghana Yensom morning show hosted by Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman on Accra 100.5 FM on Tuesday, January 31 2023

He said landlords are not Father Christmas to give out their properties for free.

“The buildings I have put up are my company which has to be run on a profit basis,” he said.

“When the price of almost everything is skyrocketing, how do you expect rent to be stable?” he bemoaned.

“If the government wishes to dabble in the business of rent, it should build affordable housing for people to rent cheaply,” he said.

He noted that doling out money has been a major problem in the country recently and landlords are aware of that.

“Rents are my livelihood and out of which I also pay my bills,” he said.

The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association (GREDA), Samuel Amegayibor, assured that the Rent Act is under review to ensure landlords demand at most one-year rent advance to bring some sanity into the sector to avoid cheating.

The Act 1963 is outmoded hence the need to review it.

According to Mr Amegayibor, landlord and tenant relationships are guided by the issue of demand and supply but because the demand outstrips supply it has led to landlords getting the upper hand and charging exorbitant rents leaving tenants to suffer in terms of affordability.

“It is not right for a landlord to increase their rent because the cost of cement and other materials have gone up,” he asserted.

He noted that rent is determined by market forces and the type of improvements on the building and not the cost of materials.

“The cost of building materials has been a challenge because of the dollar-cedi rate,” he, however, said.