Surveying & Built Environment Vol. 22 Issue 1 (December 2012)

SBE
38
Good Property Valuation in Emerging Real Estate Markets? Evidence from Ghana
INTRoduCTIoN
The size of the housing sector in
Ghana, one of Africa’s most urbanised
countries, is growing. In 1970, the
housing sector was made up of only
941,639 houses. Now, with increased
population and demand, there are over
2,000,000 houses in Ghana (Ghana
Statistical Service, 1970; 2005).
Similarly, the quality of the houses has
improved over time. In 1874, Accra,
the capital city, was perceived as a
city made up of thatched houses and
crooked streets (Grant and Yankson,
2003, p.66), today that city has gated
communities with villas (Grant, 2009).
The changing nature of the housing
sector warrants a reflection on how
Ghanaian professionals assess property
values. The literature on real estate
markets in sub-Saharan Africa, where
Ghana is located, has largely ignored
property valuation (see, for example,
Ebohon et al., 2002). A small number
of studies have examined valuation
practices (e.g., Amidu and Aluko, 2007;
Aluko, 2007; Babawale and Ajayi,
2011; Otegbulu and Babawale, 2011).
However, most of them focus on factors
that influence the opinion of valuers.
Also, almost all of them are about the
situation in Nigeria. To date, research
on valuation methods in other countries
in sub-Saharan Africa remains thin.
So, analysing valuation in Ghana is
important for expanding the knowledge
base of valuation methods in sub-
Saharan Africa.
Valuation in Ghana is influenced by
the United Kingdom, which colonised
the country from July 1874 to March
1957 (Ministry of Education, 1991,
p.99). During that period there were
some surveyors, who were deemed
‘licensed’ by virtue of consistently
working according to the standards
laid down in legislation such as the
Gold Coast Technical Instructions of
1921 (Ofori-Boadi, 2006). According
to Emmanuel Mohenu, Director of
Surveying and Mapping Division of
the Lands Commission of Ghana (now
called the New Lands Commission),
surveying in Ghana started about 100
years ago when Brigadier-General
Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg,
K.C.M.G., D.S.O., R.E. (1869-1930) 1
was the Governor of the Gold Coast (as
Ghana was then called) (Zaney, 2009).
Although there were surveyors with
various specialisations, the dominant
group was the land surveyors (LISAG,
2011). On 28th February 1969, over
a decade after independence (which
was obtained on 6th of March, 1957),
the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, the
professional body that tries to regulate
professional valuation in Ghana, was
established (Ghana Institution of
Surveyors, 2011).
There are already some studies of
valuation in Ghana that seek to describe
the role of valuers (see, for example,
Mends, 2006 and Ayittey et al., 2006)
and how they are trained (Obeng-
Odoom and Ameyaw, 2010; Obeng-
Odoom and Ameyaw, 2011), so this
paper extends that literature. It examines
valuation methods, identifies their
peculiarities in the context where they
are used and highlights how valuers
adapt the methods to the prevailing
1 Editor’s note: Guggisberg was Governor from 1919 to 1928. More importantly, He was himself an
army surveyor and had been Director of Surveys of the Gold Coast 1905 to 1908. From 1910 to 1914, he
was in the same post in Nigeria. In 1911 he wrote The Handbook of the Southern Nigeria Survey.