Abstract
This research utilizes empirical data to explore the sources of demand and their effects on urban fringe housing around Kumasi, Ghana. The research found that housing demand on the urban fringe has accelerated due to changing values ascribed to traditional rural and modern urban locations and to preferences for single-family homes, strengthened by the Ghanaian expatriate housing demand back home. This demand was expressed in a context of uncertainty created by a complex institutional system, which reinforced the attractions of the fringe locations. These results provide a perspective on urban fringe housing demand that differs from those developed in Western cities and the approaches recently used in accounting for change on the fringes of some South-east Asian cities. The paper concludes that more needs to be done to understand the institutional factors and the way that they influence a drawn-out construction process to account more fully for the mosaic of housing structures scattered haphazardly on the fringes of Kumasi.
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Notes
Despite the emergence of large-scale developers in Accra (such as Regimanuel-Gray, African Concrete Products, Hydraform and Parakou Estates), it is common to build incrementally using own financial surpluses.
The term ‘family’ as generally used in housing classifications is inapplicable to the Ghanaian situation, where the term ‘family’ generally refers to the maternal family rather than the nuclear family. Due to cultural obligations, a single-household house may accommodate other traditional family members who may or may not depend on the household head for meals.
The term homeowner is avoided in this research, as property inheritance is a common practice in Ghana. The research uses the term ‘homebuilder’, which refers to those who actually financed home construction and therefore played an active role in land acquisition, residential location and housing styles. Family members were in some cases used as proxies for absentee homebuilders.
In-movers are mostly urban residents with no blood connections to the long-term village residents. On the other hand, long-term residents trace their ancestry to the villages that are now experiencing socio-economic and physical change.
The original inhabitants of Kumasi were the Asantes. They form part of the larger group of Akans in Southern Ghana.
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Owusu-Ansah, J.K., O’Connor, K.B. Housing demand in the urban fringe around Kumasi, Ghana. J Hous and the Built Environ 25, 1–17 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-009-9173-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-009-9173-x