Following the government's directive for landlords not to charge more than six months' rent advance, one of Ghana's leading real estate and technology companies has launched an App to track recalcitrant landlords and their agents for prosecution.
The "First Key" App, developed by Ownkey, a leading verified real estate marketplace, is to work in collaboration with the Rent Control Department to roll all identified landlords and their agents onto it, monitor their activities and ensure that tenants are not shortchanged.
The Chief Executive Officer of OwnKey, Ibrahim Ilyas, told the Daily Graphic last Sunday in Accra that the success of the App would be contingent on information provided by tenants. He reckoned that not all landlords could be identified immediately but said with the help of accommodation agents and would-be tenants, it would succeed.
The Prop-Tech Innovation Company of the Year at the 18th Ghana Property Awards said it would seek audience with Rent Control to make it mandatory for all landlords to hook up onto the App.
"We have also proposed that no landlord should charge more than GHS 2,500 a month no matter how luxurious the accommodation is and its location. All these are to protect the tenants and ensure that they are not exploited," Mr Ilyas said.
Recall
It will be recalled that on March 17, 2026, President John Dramani Mahama urged tenants to report landlords demanding more than the legally permitted six months' rent in advance, and called for closer collaboration between government, labour, and the private sector to address Ghana's housing challenges directly.
The FirstKey App is, therefore, seen as one concrete example of the kind of private-sector contribution the President was asking for—an affordable housing platform built around the same Act 220 standard.
Ghana's Rent Act 1963 (Act 220) has capped advance rent at six months for over 60 years, but weak enforcement, driven in part by both tenants and landlords being reluctant to use the Rent Court, allowed demands of one to two years' advance rent to become common practice in a market shaped by a roughly 1.8 million-unit housing deficit.
Following the President's address, the Rent Control Department confirmed active enforcement from April 1, 2026, with penalties of up to six months' imprisonment or a GH¢3,000 fine for violating landlords.
"President Mahama's call for the private sector to step up on housing is exactly right, and it is a call companies like ours want to keep answering. FirstKey was already built around the six-month standard before we knew his address was coming, and once we learnt about it, it confirmed something we already believed: government and private enterprise pulling in the same direction is what actually moves a market like this, not one side waiting on the other," Mr Ilyas told the Daily Graphic.
How the app works
On how the App works, Mr Ilyas said every listing on the FirstKey App is checked against the asking price and the six-month advance rent maximum before publication, removing the need for a tenant to identify or negotiate down an overpriced listing after encountering one.
A small, fully refundable anti-scam deposit is required to unlock full listing access, closing the second major risk in Ghana's affordable rental segment—ghost listings and viewing-fee scams that rely on free, disposable accounts.
The platform is built specifically for Ghana's sub-GH¢2,500 rental segment, the price tier the President's address identified as most exposed to exploitation given the country's housing deficit. Renters and buyers can check whether any specific asking price or rent is realistic for its area, free, in under 60 seconds, using OwnEstimate.
"We'd welcome the chance to be part of the national housing dialogue the President called for," added Ilyas. "Closing Ghana's housing deficit is going to take exactly the kind of government, labour, and private-sector cooperation he described, and we think a company that has spent three years building verification and affordability infrastructure has something useful to bring to that table."