Understanding Accra’s housing market: an exploratory study using user-generated data

ABSTRACT

Access to housing data in Ghana has been a challenge for researchers due to the lack of comprehensive data sources. However, the recent availability of big data sources has presented opportunities to bridge this data access gap. Using Greater Accra as a case, this study uses web scraping techniques to acquire publicly available housing data from two major E-commerce websites in Ghana and explores the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area’s (GAMA) prevailing housing market. Spatial autocorrelation statistics show clustering of high median prices in known high-class neighborhoods. Median prices in high-class neighborhoods were three to five times higher than median prices in the entire metropolis, highlighting high housing costs in high-class neighborhoods. This research highlights the high housing cost in GAMA, making it impossible for the average resident to afford to buy a house. Hence, a more inclusive housing strategy is needed to provide affordable housing options for all.

KEYWORDS:

• Big data
• Accra
• GIS
• housing
• web scraping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2023.2177177

Notes

1. The prevailing houses prices on these digital platforms are subject to negotiations, and may not reflect final price at which houses are sold. They however, reflect the general price pattern in the housing market.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Providence Adu

Providence Adu is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. With a career background in city and regional planning, Providence’s research interests are in housing policy, neighborhood change, and the application of geographic information system tools and machine learning methods in undertaking social science research.

Alhassan Siiba

Alhassan Siiba is a PhD student in Health Promotion at the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada. His research interests include Health Promotion, Active Transport (i.e., walking and cycling), Access to Healthcare, and Spatial Planning. He holds an MSc in Transportation Planning from the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS), University of Leeds, UK.

Alhassan Ibrahim

Alhassan Ibrahim has a planning background, with a strong interest in Green Infrastructure, Nature-based Solutions and governance, having just submitted his PhD on this topic. By virtue of his planning background, he also has interest in city resilience, regeneration and participatory planning.

Prosper Tornyeviadzi

Prosper Tornyeviadzi is a Lecturer at the Department of Planning, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies. He is an urban researcher with interests in land use planning, land management, climate adaptation and involuntary resettlement.

Prosper Issahaku Korah

Prosper Korah is a Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning at the Department of Planning, Faculty of Planning and Land Management, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Ghana. His research interests are in the areas of spatial transformation and governance, new cities, environmental planning, urban planning, climate change adaptation and spatial analyses with Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS).

Gabriel Appiah

Gabriel Appiah is a Ph.D. Student at School of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interest is in GIS, and transportation planning.