Last week I was instructed in a court case, Mrs. Jane Adu-Boahene and ors vs F.S. Jacobson and ors involving prime land in central Accra that had been in litigation for almost 20 years. As the case rumbles on, the once-beautiful property has turned into a shanty settlement. Wooden kiosks, illegal power lines, heaps of rubbish — all sitting in the middle of what used to be one of the city’s most prestigious addresses.
No taxes are being paid. The land contributes nothing to the public good. Instead, it has became a security risk lowering the value of nearby properties. Sadly, this is not an isolated case. Across Airport Residential, Cantonments, Ridge, Labone, and East Legon, there are hundreds of such idle plots — walled off, overgrown, and unproductive.
Some of these lands belong to private individuals who bought them decades ago and are waiting for prices to rise. Others are tied up in endless disputes. And some were government lands, acquired cheaply through questionable deals and later resold at ten or fifteen times the original price.
Meanwhile, prices in these areas have become astronomical, reaching well over US$1 million per acre in some cases. Young professionals, teachers, nurses, and civil servants — the backbone of our society — can no longer afford to live near their workplaces. Yet the city continues to bear the cost of providing roads, drains, and streetlights for plots that contribute nothing back.
It is time Ghana rethinks this imbalance through an Idle Property Tax — a fair, transparent, and socially responsible levy on undeveloped urban land.
The concept is not new. Singapore taxes vacant land to prevent hoarding and ensure quick development. Brazil’s São Paulo uses an idle property tax to fund social housing, while Rwanda channels land value taxes into urban sanitation and resettlement projects. These countries have proven that when land serves people, nations grow stronger and more equitable.
Here in Ghana, we could design a simple, phased approach. Give landowners a 1 year grace period to develop land and/or complete existing developments on land. After that, apply a modest annual levy that increases progressively with continued idleness. If there is litigation, all litigants must contribute to the payment of tax!
The revenue potential is enormous. Even a modest tax on idle urban plots could generate hundreds of millions of cedis annually — enough to fund the construction of 10000 affordable homes in five years for essential workers like teachers, nurses, and police officers.
Imagine the transformation if a portion of those funds also supported shelters for homeless and trafficked children sleeping on streets closeby.
A fair Idle Property Tax will not punish success; it will reward responsibility.
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