The second edition of the Multi TV Habitat Fair dubbed “Habitat Fair 2011, providing pragmatic housing solutions” has been launched. The Fair which is scheduled to come off from Friday August 19 to Sunday August 21, 2011 at the National Theatre in Accra, will be a one-stop shop designed to provide patrons with solutions to their housing problems. Speaking on Multi TV’s current affairs programme PM EXPRESS, the Sales and Marketing Manager of Multi TV, McBen Adu-Asamoah said the Fair will bring together prospective Home owners, professionals and firms in the housing and construction sectors. The professionals, he noted, will range from architects to estate developers as well as experts on home financing, land acquisition, furnishing, decoration, landscaping and protection with special focus on security and insurance for houses. He explained that the fair was designed to meet the numerous challenges on the housing and construction market. The Sales and Marketing Manager noted that even though players in the housing industry are making efforts to deal with the challenges in the housing sector, their efforts are “uncoordinated in the viewpoint of the consumer or prospective house owner so we decided to create a platform to bring all these people together so once you walk in, there’s interconnectivity.” Mr. Adu-Asamoah noted that even though facilities such as mortgages are available to ease the burden of prospective home owners in their quest to build their own houses, they do not go for that option because “in our culture, we don’t see debt resulting from borrowing money to invest as an asset.” The General Manager in charge of Mortgage at HFC Bank, Charles Bonsu who was also on the show said it was high time the public realized the need to invest in housing. He said housing was no longer a “social item” as people have perceived it over the years. According to him, housing is now an “investment vehicle or an asset you can use to create wealth for yourself”. He stressed the need to demystify “the whole thing about mortgages to say that properties you own is an asset, you can use it as an investment vehicle [because] through that property you can create wealth for yourself and that is what all the rich people are doing. So instead of renting for 10 years you can use that monthly rent to pay a loan every month.” The 2011 Multi TV Habitat Fair is in partnership with HFC Bank and sponsored by Noble Realty and Interface Limited. Source: Multi TV