The Ghana Real Estate Professionals Association started a series of virtual meetings to remain relevant and keep the industry active in times of crisis.

The industry has been saddled with multiple problems, ranging from currency weakness, unregulated industry, affordability, unprofessional services, inventory/demand and supply of properties, uncollected/ improper assessment of property taxes, inconsistency with property values and price discrepancies to uncollaborative partners.

In an effort to contribute to resolving some of the problems, the Ghana Real Estate Professionals Association has since its set up in 2011 been advocating and pulling resources together to overcome these problems.

The recent launch of a Multiple Listing Service with its public facing Loopghana and syndicating to realtor.com, a global property marketing portal has been one of the greatest achievements made among other initiatives by the association.

During the Covid-19 lockdown in Ghana, the organization planned to remain relevant through a series of zoom meetings, collaborating with Real Estate Developers, Mortgage Companies, Escrow and Insurance companies to develop strategies in an effort to remove the bottlenecks facing the industry.

In one of the meetings, the Director of the newly established Escrow Company, the first in the country explained to members how Escrow services can resolve the majority of the problems in the industry.

CEO of Millennium properties and founder of Peterson Escrow and Land Title Services Ltd Peter Tsikata, in his presentation, assured members that his company is working closely with the lands commission and are intimately involved in the collation and verification of all the documents involved in the registration process!

Other virtual meetings discussed real estate development in Ghana and finding alternative solutions to sell more homes Post COVID 19. Developers affiliated with GREPA shared their experiences, frustrations, and their willingness to find workable solutions to make housing affordable and available.

Moving forward, the Association is looking to partner with institutions and progressive minds to find solutions to the key problems presented during these meetings that are hindering the progress and prosperity of the Ghanaian real estate industry. 

“We believe that as the pandemic has brought all economies to an abrupt halt, coupled with levels of uncertainty, the path forward should become clearer and certain if we choose a plan and collaborate with each other,” says Mrs Osei-Sampah, Founder of the association and facilitator of the series of meetings.

She said the world became increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The reset presents itself as an opportunity for us to relook at ourselves and start afresh on the right foot with future-focused strategies and programs.