The Changing Face of Compound Houses in Ghana and Its Effect on Rental Value: A Case Study of Selected Neighborhoods in Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract

In compound houses in Ghana, tenants share basic facilities such as washrooms, kitchen and electricity meter. Most tenants have problems with queuing to use facilities and equal payment for utilities. Finding solution to these problems has resulted in emerging housing improvement trends on the rental market in Ghana. Results from 88 respondents indicated that this trend has resulted in increasing urban rental values. Landlords are improving the units in their compound houses because tenants find them more convenient and are ready to pay thrice more to live in one. Rent increment is sometimes based on the personal circumstances of landlords.

Effects of a social norm-based handwashing intervention including handwashing stations, and a handwashing station-only intervention on handwashing with soap in urban Côte d'Ivoire: a cluster randomised controlled trial

“…Although our trial was conducted in a small geographical area, multiple occupancy compounds with shared water and sanitation facilities are the most common accommodation type in Abidjan, 29 and this type of housing is very common in other west African countries. For example, in Ghana the proportion of populations living in communal housing compounds with shared water and sanitation facilities is also estimated at over 50%, 47 whereas in Burkina Faso, there is a popular TV series called Cour Commune (communal housing compound) based on life in such compounds. 48 We thus believe that our results are likely to be generalisable to settings not only in Côte d'Ivoire, but also to other countries with similar cultures and living arrangements.…”

The dynamics of households’ adoption behaviour of solar home systems (SHSS) in Ashongman Estate in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

“…Fifty-two per cent (52 %) of the respondents were tenants while the remaining 577 representing 48% of the respondents were property owners occupying their own houses. This reflects the dominance of the rental housing market in the country as private housing provision by individuals has been arduous in the previous decades due to the dynamics of neoliberalism and globalisation (Asante et al, 2015). Two main housing arrangements were identified which are compound houses, housing multiple households which are either related or otherwise and self-contained houses which have single households.…”