IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/regstd/v45y2011i3p403-416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Real Estate Agents in Ghana: A Suitable Case for Regulation?

Author

Listed:
  • Franklin Obeng-Odoom

Abstract

Obeng-Odoom F. Real estate agents in Ghana: a suitable case for regulation?, Regional Studies. This paper uses a qualitative approach to examine whether regulation would improve the effectiveness of the Ghanaian estate agency market. Interviews with landlords, estate agents, clients, and officials of the Rent Control Department suggest that (1) most so-called 'problems with unlicensed agents' are actually landlord-related problems; (2) there is a camaraderie relationship between unlicensed agents and their clients which effectively provides a licence against fraud; and (3) regulation would exacerbate unemployment and increase agency fees. For these reasons, regulation in general may not be in the public interest. Alternative ways of improving effectiveness in the Ghanaian estate agency market are recommended. [image omitted] Obeng-Odoom F. Les agents immobiliers au Ghana: est ce qu'il y a de bonnes raisons pour les reguler?, Regional Studies. Cet article emploie une facon qualitative afin d'examiner si, oui ou non, la regulation ameliorerait l'efficacite du marche immobilier au Ghana. Des interviews menes aupres des proprietaires, des agents immobiliers, des clients et des employes du Rent Control Department (des controleurs de loyer) laissent supposer que, primo, la plupart des dits 'problemes avec des agents non-agrees' sont en fait des problemes qui se rapportent aux proprietaires; secundo, il existe une camaraderie entre les agents non-agrees et leurs clients, ce qui fournit en effet une licence contre la fraude; et tertio, la regulation aggraverait le chomage et augmenterait les honoraires des agents. Pour ces raisons-la, il se peut que la regulation generalisee ne soit pas dans l'interet du grand public. On propose d'autres moyens d'ameliorer l'efficacite du marche immobilier au Ghana. Licence Locataires Proprietaires Agents immobiliers Ghana Obeng-Odoom F. Immobilienmakler in Ghana: ausreichende Argumente fur eine Regulierung?, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir mit Hilfe eines qualitativen Ansatzes, ob sich die Leistungsfahigkeit des Immobilienmarktes von Ghana durch eine Regulierung verbessern wurde. Aus Interviews mit Hausbesitzern, Immobilienmaklern, Kunden und Beamten der Mietkontrollbehorde geht Folgendes hervor: (1) die meisten sogenannten 'Probleme mit nicht lizenzierten Maklern' sind in Wahrheit Probleme mit Vermietern; (2) zwischen nicht lizenzierten Maklern und ihren Kunden besteht ein kameradschaftliches Verhaltnis, das gewissermassen einen Schutz vor Betrug bietet; (3) durch eine Regulierung wurden die Arbeitslosigkeit und Maklergebuhren steigen. Aus diesen Grunden liegt eine generelle Regulierung eventuell nicht im Interesse der Offentlichkeit. Es werden alternative Methoden zur Verbesserung der Leistungsfahigkeit des Immobilienmarktes von Ghana empfohlen. Lizenz Mieter Vermieter Immobilienmakler Ghana Obeng-Odoom F. Agentes inmobiliarios en Ghana: ¿hay suficientes argumentos para regularlo?, Regional Studies. En este articulo se utiliza un enfoque cualitativo para examinar si la regulacion mejoraria la eficacia del mercado de las agencias inmobiliarias en Ghana. Las entrevistas realizadas a propietarios, agentes inmobiliarios, clientes y funcionarios del Departamento de Control de Alquileres indican que (1) la mayoria de los denominados problemas con agentes no autorizados se deben en realidad a problemas que tienen que ver directamente con los propietarios; (2) existe una relacion de camaraderia entre los agentes no autorizados y sus clientes que ofrece una licencia eficaz contra el fraude; y (3) la regulacion agravaria el desempleo y haria aumentar las tasas de las inmobiliarias. Por estos motivos, la regulacion en general podria no ser de interes publico. Se recomiendan otros metodos para mejorar la eficacia del mercado de las agencias inmobiliarias en Ghana. Autorizacion Inquilinos Propietarios Agentes inmobiliarios Ghana

Suggested Citation

  • Franklin Obeng-Odoom, 2011. "Real Estate Agents in Ghana: A Suitable Case for Regulation?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 403-416.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:45:y:2011:i:3:p:403-416
    DOI: 10.1080/00343400903241550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00343400903241550
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00343400903241550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Buckley, Robert M. & Mathema, Ashna S., 2007. "Is Accra a superstar city ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4453, The World Bank.
    2. Kasanga, R. Kasim & Cochrane, Jeffrey A. & King, Rudith & Roth, Michael J., 1996. "Land Markets And Legal Contradictions In The Peri-Urban Area Of Accra Ghana: Informant Interviews And Secondary Data Investigations," Research Papers 12747, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Land Tenure Center.
    3. Overman, Henry G. & Venables, Anthony J., 2005. "Cities in the developing world," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19887, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Richmond J. Ehwi & Lewis A. Asante, 2016. "Ex-Post Analysis of Land Title Registration in Ghana Since 2008 Merger," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, April.
    2. David Asante Edwin & Evam Kofi Glover & Edinam K. Glover, 2020. "When Tradition Meets Modernity in Land Registration: Evidence from Dagbon, Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-28, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elias Danyi Kuusaana & Nicolas Gerber, 2015. "Institutional Synergies in Customary Land Markets—Selected Case Studies of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs) in Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-27, September.
    2. Jedwab, Remi & Vollrath, Dietrich, 2015. "Urbanization without growth in historical perspective," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-21.
    3. Annez , Patricia Clarke & Linn, Johannes F., 2010. "An agenda for research on urbanization in developing countries : a summary of findings from a scoping exercise," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5476, The World Bank.
    4. Barikisa Owusu Ansah & Uchendu Eugene Chigbu, 2020. "The Nexus between Peri-Urban Transformation and Customary Land Rights Disputes: Effects on Peri-Urban Development in Trede, Ghana," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-28, June.
    5. Frick, Susanne A. & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2018. "Change in urban concentration and economic growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 156-170.
    6. Gareth A. Jones & Stuart Corbridge, 2010. "The continuing debate about urban bias," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Daniel Straulino & Juan C. Saldarriaga & Jairo A. G'omez & Juan C. Duque & Neave O'Clery, 2021. "Uncovering commercial activity in informal cities," Papers 2104.04545, arXiv.org.
    8. Thi Bich Tran & Hai Anh La, 2018. "Agglomeration Effects: Productivity of the Informal Sector in Vietnam," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 292-311, February.
    9. Ana Moreno-Monroy, 2012. "Critical Commentary. Informality in Space: Understanding Agglomeration Economies during Economic Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(10), pages 2019-2030, August.
    10. Sellars, Emily & Alix-Garcia, Jennifer, 2018. "Locational fundamentals, trade, and the changing urban landscape of Mexico," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274238, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Emmanuel Acheampong & Benjamin Betey Campion, 2014. "The Effects of Biofuel Feedstock Production on Farmers’ Livelihoods in Ghana: The Case of Jatropha curcas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(7), pages 1-21, July.
    12. World Bank, 2017. "From Regulators to Enablers," World Bank Publications - Reports 28459, The World Bank Group.
    13. Alix-Garcia, Jennifer & Sellars, Emily A., 2020. "Locational fundamentals, trade, and the changing urban landscape of Mexico," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    14. Hasan, Lubna, 2007. "On Measuring the Complexity of Urban Living," MPRA Paper 7413, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Richard Florida & Tim Gulden & Charlotta Mellander, 2008. "The rise of the mega-region," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 459-476.
    16. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose & Jamie Griffiths, 2021. "Developing intermediate cities," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 441-456, June.
    17. George Christoffel Schoneveld & Laura German, 2014. "Translating Legal Rights into Tenure Security: Lessons from the New Commercial Pressures on Land in Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 187-203, February.
    18. Bosker, Maarten & Park, Jane & Roberts, Mark, 2021. "Definition matters. Metropolitan areas and agglomeration economies in a large-developing country," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    19. Elisa Van Waeyenberge, 2015. "Crisis? What crisis? The World Bank and Housing Finance for the Poor," Working Papers 191, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    20. Kidido, Joseph K. & Biitir, Samuel B., 2022. "Customary succession and re-issuance of land documents in Ghana: Implications on peri-urban land developers in Kumasi," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:45:y:2011:i:3:p:403-416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRES20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.