The Securities and Exchange Commission says without the right laws promulgated they cannot go ahead to provide guidelines for the establishment of real estate investment trust funds
Some investors in the real estate industry have accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of stifling the growth of the real estate sector as a result of its delays arguing that, there is adequate capital that can be pooled to close the housing and infrastructure deficit through trusts, yet the Securities and Exchange Commission is not approving requests, because their guidelines are still not ready. Something we are told cedes power to a few individuals and foreign investors.
But speaking to rawgist.com, the Chief Executive officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission Adu Annan Antwi said though SEC is committed to getting the investment funds for the real estate sector, until the right laws are passed SEC cannot provide the guide lines.
“To rather say SEC is dealing is most unfortunate; the issue is that we don’t have the enabling environment for Real Estate. When I assumed office I said to myself that we will do all we can to put in the necessary regulations to promote the Real Estate investment fund and we having been talking to real estate developers about that concept and I have started putting regulations down so that as soon as our laws are passed, we can issue the guidelines so how can somebody say SEC we are dealing it.”
He said one cannot invest all his money that you collect in real estate and that is what we seek to correct and we can only correct it when our law is passed. SEC is doing it can to get the law to be passed.
Ghana’s Real Estate Agency Bill for the unregulated real estate/property industry is currently at cabinet level receiving some attention after the Attorney Generals Department have finished worked on it.
The real estate and property industry in Ghana has seen some steady growth in recent times but sector has not just attracted enough attention from local and international firms. Unfortunately, apart from a couple of laws dealing with issues like building permits and taxation, there are no clearly-laid down laws fully regulating the industry. Against this backdrop, most players in the industry, especially at the sales and rental levels are unregistered and operate within their own rules.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) Adu Anani Antwi assured the Real Estate and Property industry players that as soon as the bill is passed into law SEC will release the guidelines for the investment fund to take off.
“We should have passed our law long time but we are all hoping to get cabinet to send the law to parliament so the law can be passed by the close of the year”
