In Canada, if you want to find a new house or apartment, you would open a newspaper and search the listing of adds. You might go online. You might employ a professional agent.
In Dedza, Malawi, I took the somewhat desperate and crazy approach of walking around the town, knocking on people’s doors and asking to live with them. It worked out wonderfully well, but Dedza is a small place (unlike the 3 million or so people in Accra), people are friendly and curious about foreigners and I really had no idea what else to do.
Neither strategy is feasible in Accra (unless you want a big fancy house… in which case there are plenty of ridiculous palaces around. I can’t promise the availability though. )
In Accra, house hunting relies on social networks, flexibility and time. You meet someone, maybe a colleague, maybe a taxi-driver, maybe a lady waiting for a tro-tro, maybe a friend of a friend over dinner, and you mention casually that you’re looking for a place to live; a little place, nothing fancy, but where you could cook a meal and sleep. You mention you’re looking for something close or accessible to work (East Legon), in a decent area (not the fancy pool-in-yard with spacious parking lots and giant guarded gates, not the houses piled on top of each other… something in the middle there). And usually, someone will know some area or someone else who does this for a living. You exchange numbers, and the hunt continues.
My current house hunting social network looks something like this:
It takes time. It takes patience and determination. It requires a strange mix of flexibility and clarity on what you’re looking for.
Wish me luck!
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[...] couple months ago, when I first arrived in Ghana, I wrote about the challenges of finding a house. I figured that while I was gone, things might sort themselves out and maybe it would be easier [...]
[...] couple months ago, when I first arrived in Ghana, I wrote about the challenges of finding a house. I figured that while I was gone, things might sort themselves out and maybe it would be easier [...]