According to the Director of Corporate and Legal Affairs, Nilex Properties Limited, Mr Alex K. Osei-Owusu, said investors in real estate were assured of returns on their investment.

“When you are investing, you match your return, your reward, your profits against the risk in­volved. Now, the higher the risk, the higher the return you must get, and then the lower the risk, the lower return that you get. There’s also what you call the certainty”, he explained.

He made the call at the opening of the maiden two-day Ghana-Di­aspora Home Purchase Expo, held in Accra yesterday.

Organised by HTC Construction Limited, the event seeks to expose Ghanaians and other Blacks in the diaspora, who have plans to reset­tle or own properties in Ghana, to interact with actors in the sector.

It also seeks to showcase the different housing schemes and investment opportunities in the country.

Mr Osei-Owusu said, “If you get onto the capital market, as in treasury bills and bonds, you don’t know how much you are getting until the company at the end of the year makes profit. And even if they made a profit, it is not 100 per cent sure you will get a dividend. It is when the directors of the company decides,” he explained.

He further stated that research had shown that rental income in Ghana was the highest in the whole world, with capital apprecia­tion of houses and real estate units capital appreciation of between 7 to 12 per cent per year.

According to Mr Osei-Owusu, the event was to link Ghanaians living in the diaspora to reputable real estate developers in order to enable them [diasporas] make investment in the real estate indus­try and obtain a higher return on investment.

He noted that organisers of the programme were working in col­laboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) and ten selected real estate developers.

Mr Osei-Owusu stated that, “We had a lot of applications, but we wanted to deal with those reputa­ble developers. We don’t want to switch, whereby we will create this platform. Somebody will come and want to buy a property then it becomes an issue.”