Deputy Minister nominee for Works and Housing, Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, has suggested that a dialogue on Ghana’s rent control and management system could help address the ongoing challenges in the housing sector.

Speaking during her vetting in Parliament on Friday, February 28, she stressed the need for discussions involving key stakeholders to find lasting solutions to rent-related conflicts across the country.

“Together with my Minister, the best way to handle this is to have a review, a dialogue about the whole rent control and rent management system. Because of the various stakeholders involved, the Rent Control Department is one key institution, it is decentralised and found in many districts across the country. But they still always have issues with rent, and it can really bring quite a number of conflicts,” she said.

She acknowledged that while the law limits rent advance payments to six months, enforcement remains a major challenge. Many landlords, she explained, have been collecting two to three years’ rent in advance, and sudden enforcement of the law without discussions could create resistance.

“If I own a building and I have been charging two years or three years advance, and all of a sudden, I am being told that I must comply with the law and come down to six months, people feel they have made an investment in housing and they want returns,” she said.

She also expressed concerns about student accommodation, stating that apart from the accommodation that school provides, private hostels or houses around the schools have invested heavily in their properties and expect returns, but they also cannot charge exorbitant rates unchecked.

She suggested that universities could take part in discussions to agree on acceptable rent rates for students.

“The approach of dialogue is the way to go,” she emphasised, adding that discussions with stakeholders would be the first step toward resolving the challenges in Ghana’s housing sector.