Buying a finished house or flat in Accra avoids some of the worst risks of buying bare land - nobody’s family elder turns up to sell your plot a second time while you are still building. It brings risks of its own: developers who take deposits and never build, flats sold on land the developer does not own, and homes with no title anyone can register.
The checks below are the same whether you live here or are buying from abroad. Being abroad makes each of them more important, not less.
Finished, or off-plan
| Finished home | Off-plan | |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | The house | Drawings, a show flat, a site |
| Price | Higher | Lower, with staged payments |
| Main risk | A defective title or hidden defects | The developer never finishes |
| You can move in | On completion of the sale | When, and if, it is built |
Off-plan homes are sold heavily on social media and to Ghanaians abroad. The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) has itself warned investors in 2026 to tighten their checks on unverified off-plan sales. Buyers who lose money have usually paid upfront, chosen the lowest price, and trusted a promise without checking the developer’s record.
Check the land under it
Whatever the building, you are buying an interest in land, and that is where the danger is.
- Get the developer’s title documents - the lease or land certificate for the whole site.
- Have your own lawyer search at the Lands Commission that the developer holds the title, for the whole site, free of mortgages and disputes.
- Check the lease term. Most land in Accra is leasehold. A flat on a head lease with few years left is worth much less than its price suggests.
- Ask how your own title will be issued - a sub-lease registered in your name, for a flat in a block. “We will give you an allocation letter” is not a title.
Check the developer
- Visit finished projects they have delivered, and talk to people living there. A developer with no finished homes is asking you to fund their first.
- Check the company at the Office of the Registrar of Companies, and whether it is a GREDA member. Membership is not a regulator’s licence, but a developer that is not one should be able to say why.
- Check the building permit for the project with the district assembly. A development without one can be stopped or, at worst, demolished.
- Search the name with “scam”, “court” and “GREDA”.
Paying
- Pay in stages tied to construction, not to dates: foundation, roof, finishing. Visit, or send someone you trust, before each payment.
- Pay the company’s bank account, never an individual’s, and never cash.
- Ask for an escrow arrangement, where your money is held by a bank or a lawyer and released to the developer as work is certified. Not every developer offers it; the ones that do are protecting you.
- Get a written sale agreement reviewed by your own lawyer, saying what happens if the developer is late, what you get back if the project stops, and the specification of the finished home.
- Price in dollars, pay in cedis? Many developers price in dollars. That is common, but your agreement should say which currency you pay in and at what rate.
Use your own lawyer
The developer’s lawyer works for the developer. Pay for your own: to search the title, review the agreement, and register your interest at the Lands Commission once you have paid. An unregistered purchase is the weak one when two people claim the same home.
Before you take the keys
- Snag it. Walk through with a list: doors, windows, plumbing, wiring, cracks, drainage, the water supply.
- Check the utilities are connected and metered in your name - ECG, Ghana Water - and that there are no arrears.
- Get the service charge in writing for a flat or a gated estate, and what it covers: security, water, waste, the generator.
- Insure it, against fire at least.