Ghana’s housing deficit hits 2 million units this year and by this, over 16,500 houses will have to be built every month for the next ten years to resolve the shortage.

The average cost of a house in Accra is GH₵315,000 and over 9 million people do not earn up to GH₵2000 per year. It is no wonder a staggering number of over 8 million Ghanaians — about twice the population of Accra — are homeless!

Following the drive towards the reduction of housing deficit with prime focus on affordability, cargotecture appears as a viable solution. If you’re wondering what cargotecture is? It simply refers to architecture that involves the use of recycled shipping containers as building elements, also called container shipping architecture. These recycled containers can be fashioned into distinctive building types; homes, offices, schools and other recreational facilities. A single’s apartment could be made from one shipping container while larger homes would require up to six shipping containers. Over the past few decades, building of these container homes, schools and offices is becoming an emerging trend with several pioneering real estate and construction firms across the globe. Multiplex housing communities and workspaces have been designed using shipping container architecture. A trend Kings Realty finds worth promoting.

In Ghana, building of container homes, offices and schools is still a novel venture and even though the level of acceptability is still low, it has immense prospects to become the widely accepted form of architecture over time. An early boom of the use of steel containers as convenient stores precipitating in the early 2000s points to the propensity of Ghanaians to adopt cargotecture in its entirety. However, the inexistence of cargotecture in the form of homes or offices could be attributed largely to the incognizance of the benefits and flexibility of use.

The cardinal benefit of fully harnessing cargotecture is to alleviate the overbearing costs of construction that has led to the large housing deficit. Towering rent and lease charges are corollaries of the construction costs. Now the solution; structures made from the elements in subject typically cost up to 40 percent less than that made from brick and mortar. You can build a container home on your acquired land for as little as the price of a Hyundai Elantra; GH₵ 40,000. Also, with less than GH₵ 100,000 you can put up an elegant house for a family of four. Amazing, right? And this applies to the construction of school and office buildings in a record time of one month. Yes! in such a conveniently short time. This is highly dependent on your preferred designs.

The interior and exterior walls are installed with appropriate insulation for optimum indoor climate and fire control. Additionally, both the interior and exterior walls are painted with anti-rust coatings. Container buildings grant you a high degree of safety largely because of their strength and durability. Arguably, they are the last to fall in extreme weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Again, container shipping architecture rids our streets off steel containers in such a creative and healthful way.

If up until this stage, you are imagining a bunch of unattractive rusty containers stacked up for habitation, I bet you are on a wrong page. They are better than you could imagine. They are durable modular structures flexibly customised with or without brick, cement and wood to suit your needs. Cargotecture currently is the best solution in tackling the nation’s housing deficit. Build an aesthetic, cost effective and safe space for yourself now using container shipping architecture. Enjoy the right balance between luxury and affordability.

Kings Realty develops properties from conceptualization to completion. Strengthened by the pillars of innovation and excellence, we create elegant residential, educational and commercial buildings. Leveraging the most emergent technologies, Kings Realty’s is committed to enlightening and connecting people from diverse backgrounds.