This study identified three types of housing arrangements, namely: living in own house (owner- occupier), living in the house owned or rented by relations/family (sharers) or living in a rented house (tenants). How well the interviewees are able to attain and experience these three housing types drives their housing wellbeing.
House ownership/ living in own house
Though respondents recognized that house ownership was paramount, most of them are not house owners. The survey data for instance showed that out of the 330 retirees surveyed, 150 (45.5%) were house owners, which means that more than half of them (180, representing 54.5%) did not own houses. Mechanisms employed by respondents to secure home ownership in retirement include: building or purchasing a house prior to retirement; building a house in retirement; purchasing land prior to retirement with the intention to build in retirement; purchasing of land with expectation that children will build. Among those living in their own houses, there are those who built or bought their houses whilst they were working, those who built upon retirement and those whose children or relations bought or built for them to live in. Among these people, the study found a sense of security and satisfaction.
Asked how he managed to build his house when he was working, Kofi Amevor (low income) said: “I bought the land when I was working and started building small, small, small….”, which describes the gradual process low income earners often go through to own houses. In the case of Tei Armah (high income), the house in which he lives with his wife and an adult working
2 Rent advance is the payment made to house owners as rent, usually covering rent for a number of years, depending on what is negotiated between the tenant and the owner of the rented house. In Accra, rent advance is usually paid to cover two years’ rent.
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daughter was purchased through a housing finance scheme through his former employer: “I
worked in a financial institution, so we had the facility of applying for a loan to put up your own building or buy an estate house. So I applied for the facility and bought this house”. In
both cases, the respondents moved into their houses before retirement and have since retirement made changes to their houses to make living comfortable. Some of the interviewees (non- indigenes) who live in their own houses also have houses in their hometowns outside the study area. This ensures that whenever they visit their hometowns, they have a place to call their own. Besides, it reflects links with their roots and a mark of successful sojourn in the city. Among the Akan ethnic group in Ghana, Van Der Geest (1998) held that building a house symbolizes one’s identity, is a status symbol and concretizes social ties as people grow old. It is significant to note that in Ghanaian culture, it is common for people who die to be buried in their hometowns, although they lived and worked elsewhere. Hence, even in death, social ties with one’s roots are preserved. Sometimes, older people decide to relocate to their hometowns when life in the city becomes difficult for them. Hence, retirees who can afford it, try to build in their hometowns to facilitate a smoother transition from the city.
One category of retirees dreamt of building their own houses, bought land when they were in active employment, but were unable to complete the building of their houses until retirement. In this case, they use resources at retirement to either complete the house or build to a point where it is possible to live in. Sometimes they are able to complete the house with financial support of their working children. There are also those who bought the land while working, started building when they retired, and are still building from their retirement income. A typical case is Daniel Adadevor (high income) who works in a post-retirement job to supplement his income and be enable him to complete his house.
I have got a plot of land in a suburb of Accra and I am trying to develop it. I bought the land in 1999 while I was working. I have started but I had some challenges. People were encroaching on it and I had to be in court for about eight years. Luckily, the verdict came my way. I will say, it has been roofed and only needs some little things. Had it not been for this court case, where I had to resort to the use of a counsel, it wouldn’t have taken this long time (Daniel Adadevor, high income).
To be able to build a house, the first thing to do is to buy a piece of land. Incidentally, land for building in the city tends to be expensive, particularly for people who are not indigenes of the area because their families do not own land in the area to which they can have cheap and easy
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access. Some retirees were only able to buy land before retiring with the intention of building a house in retirement. This usually happens to people whose financial obligations to their families far outweigh their incomes, and hence made little savings towards building a house. Emmanuel Akoto (high income) for instance recognised the importance of building a house to bequeath to his children but felt that it was better to invest in their education. He therefore invested in the education of his children, and could only buy a piece land without building a house before retiring. He noted that:
When I was getting closer to retirement, I bought a land. But I couldn’t get the money to start building so I was waiting for my retirement money to start it so that even if I don’t finish it at the time of retirement, I could rent a place to live and continue the building gradually (Emmanuel Akoto, high income).
Although he is categorized as a high income earner, he had not commenced the building at the time of this study and still harboured the dream of building a house before he dies, with support from his children. As noted by Grant (2007) house ownership is a status symbol, which is passed on to descendants.
House-sharing arrangement in retirement
House sharing is a common phenomenon in Ghana. It describes a situation where people share dwelling units owned by other family members. In this study, we observed retirees who live in a house owned or rented by their children. Such retirees do not have a house of their own. This kind of housing arrangement does not afford the traditional right of ownership and privileges associated with owner-occupier housing arrangements (Acheampong, 2016). Ayeley Kisseih (low income) lives with the family of her married son in a house rented by her son. Even though she was comfortable living with them, she was quick to note that she did not have a house of her own.
It’s very unfortunate, I wanted to get a house before I retire but I didn’t get the right people to guide me to get the land….. So right now, I am staying with my son. So I don’t have a house (Ayeley Kisseih, low income).
The case of Gifty Kumah (low income) is slightly different. She lives with her husband in a house built by their eldest son. The inability to build a house in Accra with her husband during their active working lives has been compensated for by their eldest son building a house. She expressed this view when she noted that:
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By the grace of God, our boy has built this house. When I was not retired, we were in a rented place. But when I retired, he [the son] asked us to come and live here. So we are living up here (Gifty Kumah, low income).
Although she cannot claim ownership of the house in which she dwells, she can be proud that her son has been able to do so. In this situation, there is no payment of rent, utility bills, or maintenance of the house. These costs are borne by the son, although on rare occasions she pays for utility bills.
House renting
Respondents who rent places typically live with their families in compound-houses3, which host many households. Renting entails payment of one, two or three years rent in advance. This is a lump sum payment to the owners of the houses being rented, which is often difficult to raise. Retirees therefore resort to borrowing from the banks to be able to pay such rents, or save part of their pension regularly towards that. As long as they continue to live in rented houses, they continue to pay rent anytime the tenancy agreement expires. The risk in living in a rented house in retirement is the frequent increase in the rent charged after each expiry of tenancy agreement. As noted by Emmanuel Akoto:
Usually I pay rent every two years. After two years, they increase the rent and then you pay for another two years. In December my rent will expire and I have to pay again. As I pay every two years, I save some money so before the time comes, I will get the amount to pay (Emmanuel Akoto, low income)
William Tetteh (low income) who at the time of the study was living in an apartment purchased by his daughter for him and his wife, captures the ordeal retirees go through with rising costs of renting a house in Accra in particular:
Initially we were in a two bedroom flat but we moved into a rented two bedroom flat at another community. But about three years ago, the rent was going higher. We started with 100 Ghana Cedis, to 150, then 200, to 250, to 300 Ghana Cedis. When we were leaving, we were paying 350 Ghana Cedis (William Tetteh, low income).
Most retirees who live in rented houses are low income and are only able to rent a place in a compound house, which is the dominant housing structure in Accra (Grant, 2007, p. 34).
3 A compound house is a multiple shared dwelling unit with several rooms clustered on a single compound and hosting many households, often sharing common bathroom and toilet facilities.
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Besides the payment of high rent, the condition of some of the rented houses is not good for older persons. Emmanuel Akoto (high income) for instance noted his discomfort in living in a compound house in retirement because younger tenants in the compound house who are not blood relations tend to pick quarrels with his household over shared facilities in the dwelling unit because of its crowded nature (Arku et al., 2011, p. 1870). Moreover, there is generally less privacy in living in such dwelling units. These challenges can be overcome by renting a self-contained detached or semi-detached house or flat, which does not share facilities with other households. Such housing facilities require higher rents, which most low income retirees cannot afford.
For Emmanuel Akoto (high income), his main problem in retirement is his inability to build his own house and therefore he has to endure living in a rented compound house, while still harbouring the dream of building a house in retirement: “the only problem I have is about
building a house for my children before I die. If God helps me to do that I will be happy, because I have educated them, now they can work and do things for themselves”. For low
income retirees this is a major challenge, especially where they have to continue renting a place to live with their families. Although it is a truism that most people dream of having a safe and secure place of their own to live in during their old age, for many of them, this remains a dream into their old age (Van Der Geest, 1998, p. 355).