GREPA advocates enforcement of Rent Act
Real Estate brokerage firms are losing out on their commissions as landlords fail to adhere to the Rent Act which requires rent advance payment of six months and not two years.
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Currently, most landlords in the country are taking two years rent advance from tenants, something the brokers explain inure to their loss of commission.
The Head of Sales at Homes and More Ghana Limited, a real estate brokerage firm, Mr Narteh Tetteh in an interview confirmed this adding that the Ghana Real Estates Professionals Association (GREPA) was advocating for a change in what has become a regular phenomenon.
“In the law they are not supposed to charge two years. It should be six months but they are not doing it and it is affecting real estate agents and brokers. If the landlord takes two years it will be difficult for them to pay you commission,” he said.
Ghana’s Rent Act (Act 220) of 1963 and Rent Control Act of 1986 were passed to protect tenants from arbitrary increases in rent and frequent evictions by their landlords.
Although the law clearly defines how landlords should relate to their tenants in terms of rent payment, the quest to get shelter makes it difficult for tenants to argue when landlords require them to pay for two years.
The brokerage firms, who act as intermediaries between buyers and sellers are therefore not able to get their commission because after paying for the two years, their clients claim they have no money to pay them for their services.
The remedy to this situation was therefore to push for the enforcement of the regulation so they can also reap some benefits for their services.
“The regulation is there but we are not enforcing it and therefore as a professional body, we want to advocate for it so everyone will know about it and then it can be enforced,” he said.
Sustainable real estate forum
At a roundtable forum on sustainable real estate in Ghana’s housing industry, organised by Lamudi Ghana, an online real estate marketplace, panelists called for pragmatic efforts to make the industry more appealing to investors.
The event brought together stakeholders in the real estate industry comprising real estate developers, architects, agents and property brokers.
With particular reference on land administration system, a land acquisition consultant, Mr Kwame Ankapong said the whining processes that are inherent in the acquisition makes real estate an unpleasant venture.
According to him, there was so much secrecy in the process to the extent that it pushes businesses back, but added that the Land Administration Project (LAP) was to bring sanity in the land administration system in the country.
An architect with Orthner Orthner and Associates, Mrs Akosua Obeng said with the high importation of construction materials from China, what Ghanaians were doing was to develop the Chinese economy. GB