Housing Reality: There Are Over One Million Vacant Housing Units in Ghana

The Ghana Statistical Service has reported that there are over one million vacant housing units nationwide, representing 12.7% of all housing units ranging from 5.6% in North East to 16.3% in Western North regions.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service, a housing unit is said to be vacant if no one is living in it at the time of the interview, unless its occupants are only temporarily absent.

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The Western North region recorded the highest number of vacant housing units though it has successfully decreased the housing deficit in the region. Followed closely is the Volta region with about 14.8 percent vacant housing units.

This comes after the government statistician reported a decline in the inflation of the housing deficit the country has been challenged with over the years.

It is reported that the upward trend in the housing deficit since 1960, has been reversed by a margin of 33% since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, two-hundred and twenty-two (222) out of the two-hundred and sixty-one (261) districts recorded a housing deficit in the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

However, only three regions (Northern, Upper East, and North East) out of the sixteen regions recorded an increase in housing deficit.

It is worth noting that, while seven out of ten unconventional structures used for residential purposes are in Greater Accra, more than 16.5% of housing units are vacant in the nation's capital city.

“The top ten districts with the highest percent of non-conventional structures used as residential are all in the Greater Accra with five of them having over a quarter of residential structures being unconventional,”the government statistician said.

The Greater Accra region holds the highest number of kiosk structures in the country, with 51% of the total number, making the region also leads in the number of conventional structures in the country, with a total of about 1,282,733 structures.