Buying Land in Ghana, 101

Land purchasing in Ghana can be simple, it just has to be done correctly, no shortcuts. Prudence and due diligence are the only path to insuring your piece of land, while maintaining your peace of mind.  Here we walk you through the 7 simple steps:

1) Find land of your choice. First and foremost, you must choose property in an area of optimum benefit to your personal tastes and requirements.  Ghana is a vastly sparse state, with drastically varying landscapes, we have metropolitan, suburban, country sides, beach fronts and mountainous areas.  No choice is more important.  For this reason we suggest you properly scout the areas and weigh the differences.  Prices will inevitably get cheaper, the further you go from the city.  If you need help deciding where is best for you, we will assist by giving comparative views, based on your specific requests.

2) Negotiate price with land owner.  After choosing a land most suitable for your needs then we will begin negotiation with the land owner, but this must be preceded by a Knocking Fee, a gesture of serious intent, which will give us the ear of the head of family. Most important in these negotiations is the terms by which the purchase or lease will be made, whether  the land will be sold as freehold land (an irrevocable sale) or a long term lease, which returns the land to its original owners in 50 or 99 years.  Technically a non-Ghanaian does not have the right to own land outright in Ghana, however a Ghanaian business is a Ghanaian entity and it may own land outright.  We will counsel you in the best approach for your unique situation.

3) Survey. The seller of the land may have his own site plan, but for your security we employ our own surveyor to check the land and provide a site plan that we can take to Land's Commission at the next step when we do Title Search.  Demarcation (clearing of the land) may be necessary is the land is overgrown with bush and trees.

4) Title search.   This will determine if the person selling the land is the rightful owner and/or if there are any existing disputes on the land.

5) Prepare indenture.  The contract of sale must now be prepared.  Land owners generally prepare their indenture and bring it to the table, but we provide our clients with indentures prepared by our team to reflect the specific needs and requests of our client.  Once it is prepared and reviewed by our lawyer then we make a date to have the closing.

6) Closing. In accordance with the agreement we reached at the initial negotiation, we perform the necessary rites and present the necessary monies to the land owner.  At that time we sign three copies of the indenture, along with our witnesses and that of the landlord’s.  Pictures are taken and videos are also made to serve as supporting evidence of our transaction.

7) Register the land.  Immediately after purchasing the land we begin with the registration process.  This establishes our ownership with the government’s registry, the Lands Commission.  This also protects us in the event there is a future dispute.

A breakdown of costs are as follows:

Our attorney handles title search, indenture and registration.  The closing is also done in his chambers. 

And there is no law that states you have to use an attorney.  You will save about $800 in total cost if you give the above listed tasks to lay men, but you will not sleep the same.  The attorney is your insurance policy against foul play or litigation. I strongly suggest it.