Land Market

Acquiring land in Ghana is not a walk in the park. The country’s land market can be difficult to navigate. Land information is not readily available despite efforts to make it accessible. It is not uncommon for ownership of a piece of land to be claimed by several titleholders and, sending buyers into the murky underworld of cumbersome administrative and legal processes or worse, land guards.

This is why it’s a good idea to rely on developers such as Eden Heights who have already gone through the due process and taken care of all issues on the land so you don’t have to go through that trouble. In rare cases, if these issues crop up later, the developer will represent tenants in defending their title to the land.

Types of Land in Ghana

To own land in Ghana, it’s important to understand the four main types of land available. These are:

Government /State Land

These are government-managed lands, often becoming so when ownership is contested by two sides with no clear winner. This also refers to lands that have been forcibly acquired by the Government of Ghana for different purposes in accordance with the law. When this happens, the landowners are duly compensated.

Customary/Stool Land

These make up the bulk of lands in Ghana, an estimated 80%. They belong to the people in traditional communities and are administered by the chiefs of these communities on their behalf.

Vested Land

These are lands managed by the Lands Commission of Ghana on behalf of the stool or skin in a split partnership.

Family Land

These are lands owned by families and managed by the heads of the families. This is the most insecure land in Ghana according to Emmanuel Mate-Kole, a real estate lawyer.  He’s not wrong. A study conducted from October 2001 to March 2005 and published in the Texas A&M Law Review found that over half of the land dispute cases filed in Ghana involved intra-family disputes. This includes “inheritance disputes between different sides of a family, amongst children of the deceased or between the widow and the children, unauthorised disposition of family land by an individual family member, and property disputes between divorcees.”

Land Ownership in Ghana by Citizens and Non-Citizens

There are 2 broad types of land ownership/interest in Ghana, “Freehold Interest” or “allodial title” and “Leasehold Interest”.  The main difference between the two is that freehold lands have no time limitation on ownership while leaseholds do. Leaseholds are temporary land ownership rights that last for a period, 50 years for foreigners and 99 years for Ghanaians. Where commercial property is involved, the lease lasts 50 years for non-citizens and 70 for Ghanaians. So, can foreigners buy land in Ghana? Yes. There are no restrictions on foreigners buying land in Ghana. They only need to keep the different types of land and the land interest in mind.

The procedure to acquire and register land under the various types of land ownership in Ghana can be found in this useful land document.

The Menace of Land Guards

Land guards are notorious for ruining what should otherwise be a peaceful land buying process in Ghana. Land guards are essentially thugs employed to keep people off disputed lands. Their activities range from threats, intimidation, blackmail, demolitions and worse, murder. Ghana’s Daily Graphic reports that “their activities are sponsored by rival claimants to lands who are said to have won judgements from the Supreme Court affirming them as rightful owners of the lands in question.”

These contested lands are typically family lands, reinforcing the earlier point about them being the most insecure land in Ghana. Security forces are working to curb the menace but it still remains. The best way to protect yourself is to entrust the land-buying process to a developer with a great track record. If you must acquire the land by yourself, be sure to follow the best practices listed below:

• Buy from a trusted source (this includes government, traditional authority be it the stool or skin, head of the family or a developer).
• Do due diligence on the land by making enquiries from the seller as well as the residents of the area where the land is located.
• Conduct a search at the Land Use and Spatial Planning authority to ensure the land conforms to the city planning Conduct a search at the Lands Commission to verify that the land belongs to the seller or who the seller is representing.
• Obtain a cadastral plan which shows records of the land in question and its value.
• Hire professionals like an independent surveyor and a real estate lawyer. The former will cross-check your cadastral plans with the provided site plans to ensure you’re dealing with the same property and the latter will look over your papers and ensure you’re legally protected.
• Register your purchase with the lands commission who will provide you with a title certificate.

Average Cost and Size of Land in Ghana

A plot of land in Ghana can range anywhere from several million dollars to as low as a few thousand cedis depending on the area. The more expensive and scarce land areas such as Airport Residential Area, East Legon, Cantonments, and Labone have landed in the $1m dollar ballpark while other areas such as Oyibi, Oyarifa, Kasoa, Aburi, Dodowa and Pokuase cost upwards of GH¢8,000.

The most comprehensive data gleaned from the 2010 census pegs the average cost of land in East Legon between $40,000 and $60,000 per residential plot and serviced plots in Tema between $15,000 and $18,000. In Kumasi, Ghana’s second biggest city, prices range between $20,000 and $40,000 for unserviced lands close to major road networks.

Sadly, there isn’t sufficient current data to truly measure the average cost of land in the entire country. Two parties however have attempted to find out the average cost of land in the Greater Accra region, namely, Citi FM and the online marketplace, Meqasa as recently as 2018.

In 2018, Citi FM reported that the cost of land had gone up by 450% in 13 years. Meqasa’s most recent data supports this, showing a significant increase in the cost of land in 10 neighbourhoods across the region. According to Meqasa, the average cost of a plot of land in Cantonments increased from GH¢3.9 million in 2018 to GH¢4.4 million in 2019. In the lower bracket, the average cost of a plot in Aburi increased from GH¢62,800 to GH¢68,000, a more conservative jump compared to the prime areas.

The average size of land in Ghana is typically 70 x 100 ft for a plot, although some people also use 100 x 100 ft. 70 x 100 ft however is the more widely used standard. There is some contention over how many plots of land make an acre in Ghana with some claiming 4 full plots make an acre, while others state five plots make an acre.

Land Acquisition Challenges in Ghana

Acquiring land in Ghana isn’t without its own challenges. The main challenges of buying land in Ghana are:

High Cost of Land

The most desirable lands for real estate investors within the Greater Accra region are expensive. Based on the data from both Meqasa and Citi FM, it is clear that the best places to buy affordable land are far from the city centre where most people want to be. This directly influences the cost of housing in Ghana and further widens the housing deficit.

Unavailability of Land

Land in AUnless you’re willing to shell out huge

Issue of Land Guards

Land guards continue to be a menace for prospective buyers. If you’re willing to buy land in less popular areas, land guards are another hurdle you have to overcome.

Litigation

Thanks to a backlog of thousands of land title applications, it’s easy to fall into the litigation trap. According to the Bank of Ghana, “this perpetuates multiple sale of land with the effect that the land market cannot operate effectively.”

Cumbersome Acquisition Process

Ghana’s land-buying process is an extreme sport to navigate. It is painfully slow and is plagued by several layers of bureaucracy. There are still many undocumented or improperly documented lands which makes the land search process lacking. There are anecdotal cases where buyers still face litigation even after going through the entire land acquisition process.