32 RENT CONTROL IN KUMASI, GHANA Between March, 1983 and 1986, rents in the cities crept up following inflation and the reducing value of the Cedi which was devalued from 2.75 per US$1 to 25 and then, by stages, to 90 per US$ by December 1985. Despite the possibility of forfeiture to the state for charging higher than controlled rents, only 30% of all households surveyed in 1986 were paying less than C50 in rent before the last rent increase in 1986. About 17% each were paying C100 and C150. Furthermore, large rent advances of 12, 24, or even 60 times the monthly rent were being demanded of new tenants. These data suggest that resources for enforcement have been inadequate to deal with the disparity between rents and other prices at times when the gap is most acute. (In March 1988, the case load of the Rent and Housing Committee was about 100 cases per week.) Thus, despite the evidently large increase from the 1982 level, the new rents were, in fact, little or no higher in real terms. Although both wages and rents have increased, they have failed to keep pace with the massive inflation which has dogged the Ghanaian economy since the mid 1970s. While controlled rent for one room in sandcrete had an index about one sixth of the CPI in 1976 (1963 - 100), by 1985 the tight controls of the AFRC and PNDC had reduced it to one 136th of the CPI (see Figure 2.5). Neither have rents kept pace with the cost of building. The Index of Prime Building Costs is the only measure published by the government by which to judge the cost of building but it is probably considerably lower than the real cost to the public; even so it is well above the index for rent for one room.

By the end of 1985, just before PNDC Law 138, controlled rents had lost touch with the CPI to such an extent that they represented only 0.07% of their 1963 index. Figures 2.5 shows how rents have related to price indexes since 1970.

# Recent developments. 1986 to 1988

Since the 1986 survey through which data for this paper were collected, there have been significant changes in rents paid despite no change in the controlled rental levels. In the 1986 data, there were obvious signs of rent increases ahead of PNDC Law 5, 1986. These affected new tenants more quickly than existing tenants, but many households were unaffected by them. The increases in early 1986 appear to have satisfied landlords at least for six months or so and there appears to be no cogent argument against the credibility of our 1986 data as representing April to June, 1986, when they were collected. Since late 1986, however, there has been a continuation of the upward trend in rer,ts especially for new tenants and in self-contained accommodation. While it is likely that many households still pay the controlled rent, albeit in capital sums in advance (see below), there are also many households who are paying up to three times controlled rent. The shortage of rooms is now felt so intensely that renters are willing to agree to C600 or C800 per month for a room without demur. Existing tenants are also willing to pay extra rent in order to maintain their tenancies in an increasingly constrained supplv. Furthermore, the rent control administrators in the Rent and Housing Committee have no involvement in this if no complaint is made.

In the following sections, the various aspects of landlord-tenant relationships and the treatment of government-built housing will be examined.