The real estate business is at a standstill now with sales of properties at a record low, servicing of mortgages deteriorating, and most developers rolling back their sleeves and packing out of sites.

The situation has led to a spike in the housing glut although official data put the national housing deficit at more than two million units.

At the receiving end is the real estate developing companies, the mortgage lenders and their individual and institutional clients, who are either struggling to service their mortgages or get market for existing properties.

Representatives of the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) and mortgage financiers told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in separate interviews that demand for houses and mortgages had collapsed, following the outbreak of the raging novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

They said the pandemic had led to estate developers operating at a maximum capacity of 30 per cent, with more than 50 per cent of potential mortgage deals being cancelled or put on hold while the servicing of existing ones had been distorted.

They explained that the development had affected both domestic and non-resident mortgage clients and had resulted in a credible threat to the creditworthiness of the real estate companies and the individuals whose mortgages were now facing delinquency.

Source: Daily Graphic