The incentives forms part of a grand scheme by the government to help attract more investments into the real estate sector.

Incentives

Mr Antwi said under the incentive package for first-time estate developers, qualified companies would be guaranteed unconditional transfer of their dividends or net profits attributed to the investments.

The transfers would be done through their authorised dealer banks in freely convertible currencies, he added.

He said the first time developers would also be granted tax holidays for five years, beginning from the end of the project.

“Under the incentives, qualified developers will also be granted exemption from the payment of custom import duty and value added tax (VAT) on materials and supplies, both on imported and locally sourced.

“There will also be exemption from the payment of custom import duty on plant, vehicle, equipment and machinery,” the deputy minister added.

He said the government had also decided to exempt the first time developers from the payment of rent and property rates on “temporary structures and buildings erected on site by the real estate developer for sale purposes of housing.”

At a meeting for chief executive officers of member companies of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) in Accra on strategies in place to address the challenge, Mr Boakye Antwi said the ministry was convinced that the incentives and a proper support framework would help to solve the housing deficit while creating more jobs for the teaming youth.

It was on the theme: ‘Building quality Homes – A clarion call on developers’ and aimed to deliberate on how the country can raise the standards of building in the country.

GREDA on quality

The President of GREDA, Mr Kwakye Dopoah-Dei, said the association valued quality because home buying was a lifetime investment.

He, however, noted the increasing concerns by the public about the quality of houses on supply by some estate developers.

“This is unacceptable and must be checked to maintain public confidence in developers,” he said.

He indicated that the association was introducing internal quality control mechanisms to complement the work of the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority to help maintain quality and standards in the real estate business.