Ghanaian business magnate and Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir Sam Jonah, has raised alarm about the rapid rise of luxury real estate developments in Accra.
Speaking during an interview on Starr Chat with Bola Ray posted via YouTube on October 26, 2025, Sir Jonah suggested that many are being financed with funds from dubious or untraceable sources.
He questioned how such high-cost projects across affluent neighbourhoods such as Airport Residential, Cantonments and Labone are being funded in a country where securing large-scale development capital remains extremely challenging.
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“If you walk around my area, Airport Residential, Cantonments or Labone, [look at] all the high-rise buildings going up. Everywhere in the world, developers go to the bank to take loans for those developments,” he observed.
“Some of these apartments are all empty. Do you think that if money were collected from banks, banks would not have moved in? What I’m saying is that they are being funded through sources which are not honest. Go around and ask, ‘Why are apartments empty’? If you had borrowed money, if you had gone to the bank to borrow money to build, you would ensure that those apartments are fully occupied,” he explained.
Sir Jonah noted that if legitimate financing were involved, developers would be under pressure to rent or sell units quickly. Instead, he said, there is no evidence of foreclosures, auctions or banks demanding repayment.
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According to him, this absence of financial accountability strongly suggests that the booming luxury real estate sector is not being fueled by traditional lending.
He further emphasised that the financial health of Ghana’s banks also makes their involvement even more unlikely.
“Ghanaian banks are not that well, and the balance sheets are not strong enough to give you patient [huge capital]. The interest rates are just astronomical. You can hardly make it as a developer,” he mentioned.
Sir Jonah also argued that no credible developer could survive constructing multimillion-dollar apartments and leaving them vacant for years.
Meanwhile, commercial lending rates in Ghana are estimated to range between 25 and 35 percent.
MA
