The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) has made a sudden retreat from lobbying against the $1.5 billion housing deal between the government of Ghana and STX Korea for the construction of about 30,000 housing units for the country’s security agencies. GREDA had petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, requesting her to do all in her power "to ensure Parliament does not pass the STX deal", noting that as professionals, they "have analyzed the deal in detail and wish to state that there is a lot wrong with the agreement". However, the association yesterday withdrew the petition during a meeting with a joint Committee on Finance and Water Resources, Works and Housing, giving Parliament the go-ahead to approve the deal. Although GREDA has not publicly given reasons for the sudden turn, a source within the Finance Committee told Daily Guide that the leadership of the association indicated that it was misinformed about the content of the agreement, raising eye brows on the matter. Questions have been raised as to how a professional association like GREDA, with renowned engineers and financial gurus, would issue a petition without apprising themselves of the content of the deal before strongly taking a position. It had stated: "Many pertinent details are missing: there are loopholes which give cause for worry. We can also say that the financial aspects of the deal make it unacceptably expensive. "We have offered to sit with government to give them our alternative which will deliver the same requirements at half cost and use 80 percent of Ghanaian expertise, labour and materials in this project," GREDA indicated in the petition signed by its President, Dr. Alexander Tweneboah. Daily Guide has gathered that members or the association had met with powerful government officials after the petition, during which they were powerfully lobbied to throw in the towel, having been promised a share of the 'affordable' housing projects in due course. Leadership of the association, Daily Guide learnt, has now indicated it has nothing against the deal and that it will also send a proposal for government's consideration on the affordable housing project. The STX agreement, which had been described by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and some private think-tanks as 'stinky and dodgy', had initially been referred to the Committee on Finance for consideration and report to the House but the Speaker had to include the Water Resources, Works and Housing Committee due to the issues raised by GREDA in its petition. The $1.5 billion housing deal is part of a $10 billion agreement between the Government of Ghana and STX Korea, a Korean firm, for the building of about 200,000 housing units for Ghanaians. The NPP has already condemned the agreement, saying its independent research into the transaction indicated that "this particular deal is bad through and through." Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the party's national chairman, recently indicated at a news conference that it was evident the deal would not promote the local industry and the economy since under the terms of the agreement, STX Korea was to borrow an initial amount of $1.5 million to finance an initial 30,000 houses out of the 200,000 housing units, with government also offering sovereign guarantee to cover the company in the acquisition of the loan. According to him, "what this means is that should STX default in the payment of that loan, Ghanaians would have to pay back the debt", whilst the company and its expatriate contractors enjoyed duty exemptions on the equipment they imported, VAT and income tax exemptions. Furthermore, government would be providing free land for the project and an 'off-taker' agreement that compelled the government of Ghana to buy the houses from STX Korea. "The New Patriotic Party is of the view that if Government provides guarantee to our local estate developers to secure funding, provides free land and gives similar goodies and support to our local real estate developers, they can deliver 200,000 houses within the five years at lower unit cost than $50, 000," Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey stated. Source: Daily Guide/Ghana