Living in Cantonments: rent, security, schools and the embassy quarter

Cantonments is Accra’s embassy quarter: wide streets, high walls, guarded gates, trees, and the most expensive rents in the country. It is quiet in a way very little of Accra is, and that quiet is most of what the rent buys.

At a glance

The district figures describe the whole assembly, which runs from Cantonments and Labone out to La and the coast. La Dade Kotopon Municipal counted 140,264 people in the 2021 census.

What it is like

Embassies and ambassadors’ residences, international organisations, military land around Burma Camp, and large houses behind walls. Security is visible everywhere, which is reassuring to some people and oppressive to others.

It is not a neighbourhood you wander. There is little street food, few shops on foot, and the life of the area happens behind gates. For bars and restaurants you go to Osu or Labone, which are close.

Rent and housing

The top rent band, and at its most expensive. Most of the market is:

• Detached houses in walled compounds, often with staff quarters
• Serviced and gated apartments, many let to employers rather than to individuals
• Boys quarters behind the big houses - the least expensive way to live here, and often a good one

Rent is very often quoted in US dollars, and paid by an employer. Bank of Ghana rules say it should be priced in cedis. If you are paying it yourself, ask for a cedi figure, and if you pay in cedis against a dollar price, agree the exchange rate in writing.

— Rent in Accra, every district ranked — The rent advance

Getting around

Central, which is the practical case for it. Ridge, Osu and the Airport City offices are short trips, and the airport is close.

• By car, the obvious way. Parking is not usually the problem here that it is in Osu.
• Ride-hailing works well and is how most people without a driver get about.
• Trotros run on the main roads, not through the residential streets.

— Getting around Accra

Schools and healthcare

Schools. Cantonments and the neighbourhoods around it hold several of Accra’s best-known international and private schools, including Ghana International School. Places at the most sought-after ones fill early, and fees are often set in dollars.

Hospitals. The 37 Military Hospital on Independence Avenue is one of the city’s major hospitals and takes civilian patients. Private clinics and the hospitals in Ridge are close.

— International schools in Accra — Hospitals in Accra

Power, water and flooding

Better served than most of Accra, not immune.

• Power is on prepaid ECG meters. Most large houses have a generator, and many compounds have an inverter and solar too. Ask what the backup covers: the whole house, or the lights and the fridge.
• Water is more reliable than in the outer city, and most houses still keep a polytank for the days it is not.
• Flooding is less of a feature here than in the low-lying districts, but ask about the particular street.

— Electricity and dumsor — Water in Accra

Who it suits

It suits people whose employer pays the rent, families who put security and schools first, and anyone who wants a quiet house close to the centre.

It does not suit anyone paying from a cedi salary, or anyone who wants to step out of the door into a street with something happening on it. For that, look next door.

Before you sign

1. Get a cedi price, or the exchange rate in writing
2. Ask exactly what the generator and water storage cover
3. Confirm who pays the security and service charges
4. Check whether the lease is with the owner or with a company, and see the authority of whoever signs
5. Get the advance and the period it covers in writing

— Where to live in Accra — Your tenancy agreement — Housing and land scams