So, you’ve visited and you like it so much you’re thinking of moving there permanently or maybe just buying a second home there. Ghana’s renewed drive towards economic expansion means that now is a desirable time to be investing in this West African country’s property market.

The most obvious place for investment is clearly in the countries capital city of Accra; however some reports do suggest that property prices here are rising far too fast in comparison to the realistic state of the Ghanaian housing market, and some landlords are taking advantage of this by charging extortionate rents.

The boom in the capital’s population over the last few years should mean that the buying of property for investment purposes is at an-all time high, but it would seem that it is antiquated legislation which is standing in the way of this actually being the case.  

The main problem would appear to be, for a change, a lack of bureaucracy and constant confusion over who owns what.  If you were to invest in a piece of land in Ghana, with a view to building your dream house there, you could find, even after you’ve developed  the land yourself, that the person who you bought the land off in the first place was not actually the rightful owner. You could face eviction and confiscation of property if the real owner, even years down the line, came forward.  Thus while Ghana is attractive from a property investment point of view, it is certainly not without its problems.

However, despite this, the Ghanaian government is keen to attract foreign investment for everything from cheap, domestic housing projects to larger commercial ventures. They are offering incentives to try and sweeten the deal; such incentives include a half-decade period of income tax exemption, lower corporate tax rates and an exemption from import custom duties.  

The Land Title Registration program is currently being trialled in regions around Accra with a view to being rolled out nationwide and it is hoped that this will help solve the problems of land ownership which are currently hindering the progress of the Ghanaian property market.

The reality is that the international investment market seems very excited about the potential of Ghana, an almost unique example of stable constitutional government in Western Africa, and thus anybody getting involved now, provided the potential downfalls are avoided, could be doing so at the right time.