The demise of the rent-controlled public housing programmes of ghana: The story of the tema development corporation

In 1952, a new town called Tema was created in Ghana. The master plan for Tema made provision for 19 planned communities, each having roughly 1500-2000 homes. About 6355 housing units are government-owned rental housing. The rental housing stock is the subject of this study. This paper reports an empirical study that shows that rent controls coupled with public management have caused investment values in the rental housing stock to disappear. For example, this study finds that the nominal rate of return on total investment for these rentals based on replacement value has a mean value of only 3 per cent. With inflation rates around 15 per cent during the study period, this implies a negative real rate of return. The findings provide empirical support and justification for recent attempts to privatise all rental public housing in Ghana. The study concludes with public policy recommendations.