The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Real Estates Development Association (GREDA), Samuel Amegayibor, has bemoaned the lack of progress in the country’s housing sector.

According to him, the many manifesto promises by the various political parties is one of the main causes of stagnancy in the sector.

Making a call for the implementation of a national policy document on housing, Mr Amegayibor said manifestos do not provide the right policy direction for the country’s housing issues.

He said having a working national policy document will ensure that successive governments commit to a set target for housing in Ghana.

“It is not political manifestos that should run housing. Housing should be a national agenda with a document that exists for all of us to come and [reference] and see how best to address the issue. The political manifesto can look at how to finance the project but as to the structure of housing, it should be one [document],” he said.

According to Mr. Amegayibor, the 2015 national housing policy document has been neglected for the past six years after it was launched.

He said the government needs to urgently revisit the document and ensure it is implemented.

“If we had [utilized] that document, there were prescriptions and set goals in it. The National Housing Authority that we spoke about was done in 2015, why are we talking about it after six years when we could have started right after it was launched?” he quizzed.

Housing remains one of the country’s major development challenges, with a deficit of about 2 million.