Ghana Property Expo July 30

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday June 24, 2010
THE SECOND Ghana Property Expo comes off in Accra from July 30 - 31, 2010, under the theme “Spreading Home Ownership.”

Under the auspices of Smart Investors Group, the event would provide opportunities for prospective property owners to meet and assess players in the real estate industry and help them to access property related services, as well as expert advice.

Kojo Biney, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Smart Investors Group, who launched the exposition on Tuesday in Accra, told CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE that the real estate industry was facing ‘severe’ challenges as a result of the global economic downturn, which hit developing countries such as Ghana.

“The number of housing units sold continues to dwindle. People are not buying as they should and this is affecting the capital flow of real estate companies.”

He continued that “before the economic crunch, banks were giving loans to enable people to own their own houses, but now they are focusing their attention on giving loans for the purchase of cars. Something is going wrong and we all need to sit down and find solutions to it,” he added.

Mr Biney said, “The public needs continuous education so that they can see the need to own houses. We need to prompt people into action. We have got to prompt people to invest in properties.”

He disclosed that the time has come for players in the real estate industry to reach out to the public, adding “We need to let the public understand the need to buy property from real estate developers.”

“Property is an investment for the future. There is going to be a lot of competition in the industry very soon so we should be able to make our products attractive to the public.

“Property should be seen as a money making tool. We want to groom people to patronize the products of real estate developers and help to make the industry very vibrant,’ he said.

Apart from the exhibition, participants would get the chance to attend seminars on how to venture into home financing and to make profit from properties.

Also see: www.dailyguideghana.com