Exploring the Financial Implications of Advance Rent Payment and Induced Furnishing of Rental Housing in Ghanaian Cities: The Case of Dansoman, Accra-Ghana

ABSTRACT

Across the globe, private rental housing performs a critical role within modern housing systems. However, the nature of the sector, the households it serves, and the contractual landlord–tenant relationships are markedly different. In this article, we explore Ghana’s informal rental housing market, which provides accommodation to most renters because of limited housing in the formal housing sector. Drawing on exploratory research and survey data from renters in Dansoman, Accra, we contend that landlords’ practice of requiring renters to pay 2 years’ advance rent and to furnish their property imposes significant financial burden on the renters. We further demonstrate the extent to which different categories of renters are made worse off by these financial commitments. As government regulatory powers remain weak, private landlords’ unscrupulous practices have become an accepted social norm. The younger segments of society that are heavily dependent on this sector are, in particular, made considerably worse off, with knock-on consequences for labor mobility and the ability to create well-functioning housing systems.

KEYWORDS:

• rental housing
• advance rent
• furnishings
• Dansoman
• Ghana

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge all research participants for their time and insights. We also appreciate the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Single-room units are typically the kind where the renter has exclusive access to a bedroom and shares kitchen and washroom facilities with other renters in a house. In some compound houses, one is likely to find a variation of the single–room unit, which is known in the local parlance as single-room self-contained. In the latter, the renter would usually have exclusive access to a bedroom, kitchen, and washroom.

2. Double-room units come in two forms: chamber and hall unit, and chamber and hall self-contained. In the former, the tenant has exclusive access to a bedroom and a hall, while sharing kitchen and washroom facilities with other tenants. In the latter, the renter has exclusive access to a bedroom, hall, kitchen, and washroom.

3. See https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection

4. See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/contents/made

5. This figure was computed using Dansoman’s total population of 17,256 and Greater Accra’s average household size of 3.8 (Government of Ghana, 2013).

6. The U.S. dollar–Ghana cedi exchange rate was $1 to GH¢4.42 in March 2018.

7. The quoted rental values partly reflect the quality of construction, fixtures and fittings in the building, and the neighborhood characteristics. For example, a single bedroom with a porch in a good neighborhood, with amenities such as an uninterrupted water supply and toilet facilities, can command up to GH¢300 ($66.8) rent. For more information, visit https://www.olx.com.gh/houses-apartments-for-rent_c363/q-dansoman

8. The 21 contiguous neighborhoods not selected were Zodiac, B Opoku, Control, Exhibition, Harm, Tunga, Grammar, First Stop, Akoko Foto, Otojor, Glefe, Mangoase, Sakaman, Blue Lagoon, SSNIT, Tweneboah, Asoredanho, Sahara, King Solomon, Roundabout Area, and Last Stop.

9. The informal sector corresponds with activities usually not measured by traditional means such as administrative registers, enterprise-based surveys, and household-based surveys, for economic and administrative reasons. Employment in this sector is characterized by small-scale businesses with low levels of organization and with little or no division between labor and capital, and labor relations are mostly based on casual employment, kinship, and personal and social relations (Government of Ghana, 2016a, p. 83).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richmond Juvenile Ehwi

Richmond Juvenile Ehwi is a Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR) in the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, UK. He obtained both his PhD and MPhil from the same department and university. He researches gated communities and new cities, housing markets and housing policy, land administration, stakeholder engagement in smart cities, and digital innovations in construction.

Lewis Abedi Asante

Lewis Abedi Asante is a Lecturer at the Department of Estate Management, Kumasi Technical University in Ghana. He holds a PhD in Geography and an MSc in Urbanisation and Development from Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany and London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom respectively. His research interests include urban governance, market redevelopment, housing, and urban regeneration.

Nicky Morrison

Nicky Morrison is a professor of planning at Western Sydney University and a senior visiting fellow at Cambridge University. She is a leading academic authority on overcoming barriers to securing affordable housing and ways to deliver sustainable communities and inclusive growth through participatory planning practices. She has attracted major competitive external funding from the European Commission, Norwegian, German, UK, and Chinese governments.