The State Housing Company Limited (SHCL) has explained that genuinely affordable housing for low-income earners will require direct government intervention to absorb between 30% and 40% of the total cost of building homes.

The Managing Director of SHCL, John Bawah, explained that the cost of providing essential infrastructure, including roads, drainage systems and utility services, significantly increases the overall cost of housing projects, making it difficult for developers to offer homes at prices accessible to low-income households.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, October 12, he said government support through infrastructure provision and subsidies would be necessary to reduce the financial burden on developers and bring housing costs within the reach of ordinary Ghanaians.

“The reason why social housing is designed and affordable for the lower end of the pyramid is that there is direct government intervention to bring down the cost. Whether it is to do with providing the infrastructure, which is building the roads and the drainage and bringing on the utility services there, and developers only work on the vertical, or providing some subsidies to developers to enable us to absorb the cost that it takes to build a house.

“This GH¢3 billion revolving fund that the President announced at the National Housing Finance Conference last week will provide seed capital to ensure that some of the interventions required from government to turn commercial projects into social housing projects can be realised.

“When we are doing a project, infrastructure cost can go as high as 35 percent and 40 percent of the project and if that is absorbed by the government, then we can start to address the true low income social housing challenge we have today.”

SHCL’s comments come amid public debate over the affordability of its Surge Homes development at Amrahia, where prices for a two-bedroom house start at GH¢950,000.

The price announcement generated public criticism, with questions raised about whether the development could be considered affordable, particularly for low- and middle-income households.