The housing deficit in Ghana is no secret. People are living in overcrowded spaces, on the streets and in makeshift homes. But if you assumed the housing deficit as often quoted is 1.7 million housing units, think again! It is actually rooms and not housing units. Surprised? The 1.7 million rooms are also the deficit in urban areas only. Several other figures of the housing deficit in Ghana are also frequently quoted in the media. The popular ones are; 1.5 million, 1.7 million, 2 million, 3.2 million, 3.6 million and 5.7 million housing units. These reported deficits are inconsistent and vary widely. In this blog post, I show how the housing deficit is estimated, why the figures differ significantly, and the implications for industry practitioners in Ghana.

One reason why reported estimates differ significantly has to do with inconsistent application of the concepts dwelling unit, housing unit, rooms, and house.  The other is the generally limited available data.

Definitions from the 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) Report

Dwelling unit (or living quarter)

refers to a specific area or space occupied by a particular household. It does not necessarily refer to the entire house of which the dwelling unit may be a part.”

House/compound

structurally separate and independent place of abode such that a person or group of persons can isolate themselves from the hazards of climate such as storms and the sun.

Household

a person or a group of persons, who live together in the same house or compound, share the same house-keeping arrangements and recognise one person as the head of household.

Room

A room was defined in the census as a space in the housing unit or other living quarters enclosed by walls reaching from the floor to the ceiling or roof covering, or at least to a height of two metres, of a size large enough to hold a bed for an adult, that is, at least four square metres

Popular methods used in computing the housing deficit in Ghana

Method 1 – number of households per house

This method of estimating housing deficit assumes that every household should live in a separate house. The Bank of Ghana (BoG) 2007 report “The housing market in Ghana” used this method.

Quick statistics from 2000 PHC report

• The total population of 18.9 million
• Total number of houses countrywide 2,181,975
• Total number of dwelling units countrywide 3,877,418
• Number of persons per house 8.7 persons
• Average household size 5.1 persons
• Average number of households per house 1.7 persons

The BoG report contents that ceteris paribus, 3,708,250 housing units are needed to house a population of about 20 million at one household of 5.1 persons per house (a simple division of the total population by the household size). Since there were already 2.2 million houses in the country in 2000 results in the deficit of 1.5 million houses.

Modified version

A modified version of this method is used by the Ghana Statistical Service report dubbed Housing in Ghana, which is based on the 2010 PHC data. The report assumed either 6 persons/household per 2-bedroom unit or 4-persons/household per 2-bedroom unit. At 4 persons household/2-bedroom housing unit, the cumulative housing deficit in 2000 was about 2.5 million, increasing to 2.8 million in 2010. Notice here that housing unit is used instead of the house―the two are different. A house can be composed of several housing units.

The challenge with this method is that its assumptions do not reflect the typical Ghanaian situation where most households occupy rooms in compound houses. It also does not consider the actual space occupied per household since room sizes differ widely.

The quality of the existing stock of housing is not accounted for in the estimates. This means that the makeshift and dilapidated houses are considered adequate for human habitation. In addressing the quality issues of the existing stock, the Ghana Statistical Service (2005) assumed that 3% of the country’s current housing stock needs to be replaced annually. Accounting for annual dilapidation reduces the stock of housing available. The report estimated that a total of 3.5 million dwelling units are required to replace both the dilapidated dwelling units and the new units needed to accommodate the additional households (expected to be 2.3 million) by 2025. However, the same report notes that 1.7 households occupied a dwelling unit, which contradicts the definition of a dwelling unit.

Method 2 – Number of rooms occupied per household

This method accounts for overcrowding and follows the Zoning Guidelines and Planning Standards, which recommend that a maximum of 2 adults should occupy a room. The Ghana Infrastructure Plan (GIP) (2012-2047), 2015 National Housing Policy and the 2011 Ghana Housing Profile used this method. The housing policy, however, depended on the UN-Habitat’s Ghana Housing Profile estimates which were based on the 2000 PHC and Ghana Living Standards Survey 5 data.

Quick statistics from 2010 PHC national report

• Total population of 24.7 million
• Total number of households 5,467,136
• Average household size 4.4 persons
• Total number of houses countrywide 3,392,745
• Total number of dwelling units countrywide 5,467,054
• Number of persons per house 7.3 persons
• Share of housing stock in rural areas 57.7%
• Average number of households per house 1.6 persons

The Housing Policy reported that about 295,000 to 520,000 households out of 1,733,000 households in urban Ghana in 2000 who occupied single rooms were overcrowded and required additional rooms to reduce crowding to 2 persons per room (ppr). According to the Policy to clear the shortfall in “urban Ghana at 2 persons per room, 1.7 million rooms must be built” p.8. Several communicators mistake this to mean the country’s housing deficit and that 1.7 million refers to housing units though it means sleeping rooms. It should be recognised that the estimated 1.7 million rooms was the deficit in 2000. The additional urban population expected by 2010 and 2020 will require 2.3 million rooms and 3.2 million rooms respectively—a total of 7.2 million rooms (assuming the 2000 deficit remained). But if the 2000 housing deficit is considered resolved, then the total shortage reduces to 5.7 million rooms at 2ppr (page 9 of the Policy document).

Housing deficit according to the Ghana National Infrastructure Plan

The GIP estimates use data from 2010 PHC and estimated the total housing deficit in 2010 as 3.6 million rooms at 2ppr—1.7 million and 1.9 million in urban and rural areas respectively. It should be noted that this method does not account for the quality of the existing stock, which means that the actual deficit in 2010 was higher. “Rooms” should be understood as sleeping rooms/bedrooms. Since houses come in different configurations, developers and policymakers can translate the gap in rooms into 1bedroom, 2bedroom etc. configurations.

As noticeable, the reported housing deficits give no indications of demand and purchasing power of households, target groups/population, typologies of housing demanded, affordability thresholds etc. In my next posts, I will address these issues.

Additional resources

1. Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (2015). National Housing Policy. Accra

https://www.mwh.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/national_housing_policy_2015-1.pdf

2. Bank of Ghana (2007). The Housing Market in Ghana. Accra

   https://www.bog.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/bog-housing.pdf

3. UN-Habitat (2011). Ghana Housing Profile. Nairobi

https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/documents/2019-07/ghana_housing_profile.pdf

4. Ghana Statistical Service (2014). Housing in Ghana. Accra

https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/Mono/Housing%20in%20Ghana.pdf

5. Ghana Statistical Service (2005) Population Data Analysis Reports Volume 2 Policy Implications of Population Trends Data. Accra

https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/nada/index.php/catalog/3/download/40

6. Ghana Statistical Service (2013). 2010 Population and Housing Census: National Analytical Report. Accra

https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileUpload/pressrelease/2010_PHC_National_Analytical_Report.pdf

What are your thoughts about the country’s housing deficit? Did you mistake the shortage for something else? Please share your thoughts below.