A home in the city: Transnational investments in urban housing

Investments in housing, notably on the city's outskirts, form one of the major influences of migrants on the local economy of the city. Yet it was only when mass migration of Ghanaians to foreign destinations really took off, in the early 1980s, that Accra noted an accelerated and significant change in its development.

This development related not so much to a further population growth as to the influence of migrants on economic activities in the city, with investments in urban housing forming a highly visible exponent of this economic influence. This paper therefore examines the role which respondents in Accra, as urban actors, play in transnational investments of migrants in urban housing.