SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES IN REAL ESTATE HOUSING IN GHANA: PERCEPTION OF OCCUPANTS

Sustainability has been and continues to be the one recurring topical issue the world over. Governments all over are turning serious attention towards the provision of sustainable urban housing for their urban populace. This they have realised holds the key to leading developmental growth for their economies. Building professionals are now confronted everywhere on green building and construction Ghana as a lower middle income country is grappled with a huge housing demand giving rise to a thriving real estate sector in the capital city. The houses they produce come with exhorbitant cost due to the fact that most of these building features are imported in addition to poor planning and design construction. The paper evaluates the occupiers of this estates house their perception on sustainable housing solutions and their satisfaction levels in the dwellings. Again it sought to investigate the building performance in meeting the occupant's desired comfort. The study adopted the case study as the most appropriate with quantitative methods and random sampling techniques in sample size and questionaire administration. Data collected were analysed by the spps analytical tools and results presented in tables bar and pie charts. Likert scale ranking from 1-5 were used to rank satisfaction with Habitability Index (HI)formula used determine the actual satisfaction levels. Results indicated that majority of occupiers were aware of sustainability issues. Whilst they acknowledge the opportunities offered they were reluctant in making extra expenditure to get these sustainable solutions. Satisfaction levels were high for site planning, and neighbourhood landscape obtaining Habitability Index above 80%. Provision of natural ventilation, natural lighting, use of local materials energy efficient design and rain water harvesting received satisfaction levels of HI below 50%. The study thus recommends amongst others aspects that further education should be carried out by the key stakeholders on housing delivery; government should foster practising sustainable housing by public private partnerships and offering various incentive packages to participants; and government should establish a regulatory body to oversee the operations of real estate developers. This study would provide vital information on the perceived indicators of Real Estate occupants in Ghana.