Homeownership aspirations: drawing on the experiences of renters and landlords in a deregulated private rental sector

Abstract

While research in the developed world has shown that aspirations for homeownership are influenced in part by negative experiences in the private rented sector, little is known about the situation in developing countries. To address this gap, this article presents a situational analysis of renters and how their current tenure situations shape their homeownership ambitions. Using qualitative inquiry involving in-depth interviews with 20 renters and 10 landlords in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, findings show that homeownership is importantly influenced by the renters’ experiences as co-occupants with landlords and landladies. Embedded in an epoch of high homeownership aspirations, the ambitions of renters to build houses for themselves are partly motivated by the perceived extortionist behaviour of landlords as perpetrated through ‘rent in advance’ systems, discretionary ability to increase rent suddenly and unfair allocation of utility bills to renters. Homeownership ambitions of renters are also influenced by the insecurity in rental tenure and limited freedom in rented dwellings.